Page 72 of Evil Queen

The two damaged men got to their feet, stumbled over to the car, and climbed in. The driver, who clearly had no intention of fighting us, backed up until he was at the door. He climbed in, keeping his gun on us until the very last second, then pulled away with a loud screech.

I ran over to Nikita to make sure she was okay, as did Colette to Jaxon, but everyone was unharmed. Cherri was jostled but otherwise okay, but it didn’t stop Avery from rushing over to her.

“Are you okay?” She reached out to try and touch her, but Cherri smacked her hand away. “Cherri.”

“What the fuck are you guys doing out here?” she spat.

I rolled my eyes. Maybe it was my recent breakthrough, but I was in no mood to deal with Cherri’s attitude after we just saved her—again.

“Guys, let’s just go. If she’s not gonna be grateful, this is only going to get ugly,” I said.

That seemed to take Cherri back a bit, but she quickly recovered with an evil glare. “Grateful? For what? I had it covered.”

“Sure,” Jaxon said. “That’s what halfway to the kidnap car looks like.”

“What?” Cherri asked, looking as if she was going to advance on Jaxon, but he didn’t even flinch, and neither did anyone else. For the first time, The Royal Court looked down at Cherri with nothing but disappointment and disgust. That is, everyone apart from Avery.

Alistair walked over, wrapped his hands around his girlfriend, and pulled her away. “Have a nice night, Cherri.”

Avery didn’t put up a fight, just sadly looked back at her best friend as she was led off. I waited for everyone else to walk away first, then I looked back at Cherri. I could see the calculation in her face—the realization that we’d all reached our limit with her. Part of me wanted to ask how that made her feel, but the rest of me just wanted to take my beautiful Nikita and leave.

“I feel bad for you, Cherri,” I said. “The Royal Court…” I looked ahead at them, watching them walk away. “We’re going through this amazing transformation, and we really wanted you to be a part of it, both of you,” I said, including Sicily. “I’m so sorry that us giving a damn about you has created such a huge rift, but that consideration won’t be a problem for you anymore. We’re done.”

With that, I wrapped my arm behind Nikita’s back and led her back toward the front of the building where everyone else was waiting. We called a set of Ubers, chatted a little more while we waited, and then it was time for the couples to all go their separate ways, with Kyle heading home alone.

“Come with Avery and me,” Alistair said to Kyle. “I know the rabbits over here,” he said, nodding his head at Nikita and me, “have naughty plans, but our idea of a sexy night is sleeping until we’ve drooled so much that the bed sheets need to be changed.”

Colette nodded. “Hot,” and everyone laughed.

“We mostly stay at my house since my parents don’t mind, and we have, like, three guest rooms.”

Kyle shook his head. “Thanks, but Brayden was right. The couples here are pretty evident. You guys go, and please, for the love of god, do something more exciting to celebrate your senior prom night than sleep.”

We all got into our individual rideshares to head back to our homes after reminders for everyone to take special care and be vigilant. When Nikita and I were in our car, I rested my head back against the seat, and everything washed over me.

“You okay?” Nikita asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “That was hard. I still feel like I owe Cherri the world, but you’re right. We can’t just continue to stand around while she hurts us.”

“Yeah.”

“I wish I had a way to contact Deon. He needs to know that these guys made a move,” I said. “He still hasn’t called yet.”

“We have to be patient. Our fates are in his hands now. Our job is to keep ourselves safe, and as long as we can do that, the rest is up to him.”

The car dropped us at my house, and we walked in and straight up to my bedroom. I flopped down on my bed and looked over at my laptop, just thinking about the number of unread emails I probably had.

“Oh, don’t you dare,” Nikita said, straddling herself over me. “It’s my senior prom night, and I’m having sex with my boyfriend.”

I looked up at her with shock in my eyes. “Boyfriend?”

---