Shattered Kingdom: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Royal Falls Elite Book 2)

by Kristin Buoni

  I returned his smile, but it faded when I remembered something. “Oh, no. We can’t.”

  “Why?”

  “I told my mom I’d drive back to Silvercreek after school today,” I said. “She has the afternoon and night off work, so she wants to hang out. I think she’s kinda worried about me being here. After…”

  I didn’t need to finish the sentence.

  Hunter nodded. “That’s cool. You’ll be back for school tomorrow, right?”

  “Yeah, of course. I’ll probably stay at home with her until nine or ten tonight, and then I’ll drive back here.”

  “Okay.” Hunter leaned down to kiss me again. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

  When he was done in the bathroom, we went to the front of the library to check out my book. Then we left the building and took a right turn on the main path, heading for the Blair Hall parking lot.

  On the edge of the lot, we bumped into some of the other Princes and the girls they were currently seeing. Hunter wanted to stop and talk to them, so I stayed with him and joined in the chatter for a while.

  As Chris Hewittson told us all a story he’d heard about the recent scandal, I glanced down and noticed that my left shoelace had come undone.

  “Can you take this for a second?” I asked Hunter in a hushed voice, holding out my cellphone and the book I’d just taken out of the library. He took them and held onto them as I knelt down to re-tie my laces.

  When I was done, I stood up and squeezed his arm. “I better head off,” I murmured. “Don’t want to be late.”

  “Sure. Tell your mom I said hi,” he said before leaning in for a goodbye kiss.

  I headed over to my car on the other side of the lot and unlocked it. Just as I opened the door and went to get in, I heard Hunter shouting.

  “Laney! You might need these.”

  I looked around to see him waving my book and phone up in the air. I’d completely forgotten to take them back from him a minute ago.

  “Thanks!” I called out as I jogged back toward him. “I totally forgot ab—”

  My sentence was cut short by a deafening boom. Fiery heat filled the air in a split-second, and a strange and sudden shockwave threw me forward, sending me to my hands and knees on the asphalt.

  Ears ringing, I rolled over on the ground to see what had happened.

  My car had exploded in a massive ball of orange flame, billowing outward along with dense clouds of black smoke.

  My brain stuttered for a moment, thoughts jumbling as I tried to process what I was seeing. The jarring impact of the fall had knocked every wisp of air out of my lungs, and somehow, I couldn’t remember how to start breathing again. I just sat there on the ground with wide eyes and trembling limbs, dazed and bewildered.

  “Laney!”

  Along with Hunter’s voice, I could hear the faint pounding of footsteps on the asphalt and the high-pitched shrieks of other students. Even though they were all close by, it sounded like the noise was reaching me through thick glass.

  I kept staring at the flaming wreckage that used to be my car, and I finally managed to take a deep, shuddering breath as icy claws of realization sank into my chest.

  Someone had tried to kill me.

  15

  Hunter

  I looked out of the hospital café window. The weather had turned grim outside. Pale mist hung over the distant trees, turning them into ghostly figures, and the sky was a dark, angry shade of gray, perfectly complementing my shitty mood.

  I turned back to the table and looked over at Ava Collins. She was sitting to my right, brows pinched with worry as she twisted her hands on her lap.

  “She’ll be out soon,” I said, leaning over to lay a hand on her shoulder. “They said she looked fine. It’s just a checkup.”

  “I know,” she murmured. “I just can’t believe this happened.”

  “Me neither,” Trina piped up from the opposite side of the table.

  Adam was next to her, looking pale and weary. He opened his mouth to say something to Ava as well, but then his brows rose, and he straightened his shoulders. “There she is.”

  We turned to see a doctor escorting Laney into the room. I jumped up and ran over to her, putting my arm under one of hers to hold her steady.

  “She’s going to be fine,” the doctor said with a polite smile when we reached the table. “There’s a few scrapes and cuts on her hands and knees from where she hit the pavement, and there might be some ringing in her ears for a while, but it’s nothing permanent. It should all clear up within a few days.”

  “Oh, thank god,” Ava said, leaping up to wrap her arms around her daughter. “I was so worried.”’

  “We all were,” Trina added.

  “Can I sit down?” Laney said weakly, brushing her hair out of her eyes.

  I pulled out a chair for her and helped her into it.

  “How are you feeling?” Adam asked, leaning forward.

  Laney lifted one shoulder in a sluggish movement. “I’m okay, I guess,” she said. “Actually… I’m absolutely starving.”

  “I’ll get you some sandwiches and a drink,” Trina said, rising to her feet.

  I kept looking at Laney, stomach churning with worry. She was trying to be brave, but I could tell she wasn’t okay like she claimed. Her face was as white as the mist outside, and her legs were shaking under the table.

  I couldn’t blame her for being terrified. After all, some fucking asshole had just tried to murder her.

  The explosion only happened a couple of hours ago, so we didn’t know much about it yet, but the police had told us some preliminary information while we waited for Laney to see the doctor. They could tell that someone had put a homemade bomb under her car; one with a time delay that was triggered when the driver’s side door opened. They could also tell us that it had been put there within the last twenty-four hours, because Laney had driven her car yesterday with zero issues.

  From what I remembered, approximately a minute passed between her opening the door and jogging back across the parking lot, meaning that the time delay on the bomb was around sixty seconds. A delay like that meant the person who set it up wanted to ensure that Laney was definitely in the car during the explosion.

  We were just lucky that she’d forgotten to grab her stuff from me. If I hadn’t called her back over, she would’ve sat down in the driver’s seat and been blown to shreds only seconds later.

  The thought of the narrow miss made bile rise in my throat. I’d come so close to losing her forever, and I couldn’t even imagine what I’d do if it really happened.

  “I want you to come home with me,” Ava said, reaching over to rub Laney’s arm. “It’s not safe for you here.”

  I cleared my throat and cut in. “Actually, Ava, I was going to ask if it would be okay for her to stay with us,” I said. “That way she’ll never be alone. I’ll be with her every second, and I can also hire security staff to keep an eye on everything and make sure no one else tries to hurt her.”

  “It’s also much closer to school,” Adam added. “So you won’t have to drive her back and forth from Silvercreek every day.”

  Ava ran a jerky hand through her hair and sighed. “I don’t know if I even want her going back to RFA after this,” she muttered. “It’s obviously not safe, considering how someone was able to get onto the campus and stick a bomb under her car.”

  “I spoke to the head and the deputy head earlier,” I said. “They’re going to triple security on campus to make sure nothing like this happens again. And if you’re still really uncomfortable with her going there, they can just send the classwork to our house every day, and she can do it there.”

  “I do need to keep up with my schoolwork, Mom,” Laney interjected, voice barely above a whisper. “Otherwise I won’t graduate. And Adam’s right about the distance—Silvercreek is just too far away from the campus. The commute there and back would take an hour and a half out of my day, every day, and that’s time I could be using to study.�
��

  Ava still looked unconvinced. “It’s very generous of you two to offer,” she said, looking at me and my brother. “But are you sure it would be okay?”

  “Of course,” I replied. “It works out well for you too, because you’re at our house three days a week, so you’ll be able to see Laney more often than you usually would while she’s at school.”

  “That’s true,” she said, nodding slowly. She looked back at Laney and patted her hand. “All right. If you want, you can stay with Hunter and Adam.”

  “Thanks, Mom,” Laney said, giving her a weak smile.

  Ava’s phone suddenly went off in her pocket. She leaned back, pulled it out, and glanced at the screen. “Shit,” she muttered, forehead creasing.

  “What’s wrong?” Laney asked.

  “It’s a text from my boss at my other job. I was meant to have the night off, but apparently someone else just called in sick, so they want me to cover him,” she said. She let out a short, frustrated sigh and shook her head. “I’ll tell them I can’t make it.”

  Laney leaned closer to her. “Mom… you should go. You need the extra money because you were short on rent last month, remember?” she said, softly enough so that only Ava and I could hear it.

  Ava twisted her lips. “I know, but I can’t leave you like this right now,” she said.

  “I’m fine. I swear.”

  I pulled out my wallet. “How much is your rent?” I asked Ava.

  Her eyes widened. “Oh, Hunter, that’s so sweet of you to offer, but you’re already being so generous by letting Laney stay with you. I couldn’t possibly take your money too.”

  “It’s nothing.”

  She shook her head. “I wouldn’t feel right about it.”

  “Mom, I really do feel fine,” Laney insisted. “I just need to eat some food and have a rest. You should go into work and get the extra cash.”

  Ava sighed. “Only if you promise me you actually feel okay, and you’re not just saying it to make me feel better.”

  “I promise,” Laney said, flashing her another weak smile. “Besides, I have Hunter, Adam, and Trina to take care of me while you’re not around. I’ll be totally fine.”

  “All right. I’ll go. But I’m going to call you as soon as I’ve finished the shift, okay?” Ava finally said, wrapping her arms around her daughter in another tight hug.

  When she was gone, Laney let out a deep sigh and reached for the egg salad sandwich Trina had just brought over. Adam leaned in, brows furrowing. “How are you really feeling?” he asked.

  She shrugged listlessly. “I’m okay,” she mumbled.

  “No, really,” Trina said. “C’mon, Laney. Talk to us.”

  Laney took a bite of the sandwich and chewed it for a long moment. Tears began to glisten in her eyes, and when she swallowed, her entire body seemed to deflate. “It was meant to be over,” she finally said, putting the food down. “All of this. And now…”

  “Now someone’s trying to hurt you again,” Adam finished for her in a hollow tone.

  She nodded. “I was so happy these last couple of weeks. Everyone’s been so nice to me. No more bullies and no more Network-Medusa shit. I honestly thought I was out of the woods, and I could just be a normal girl again.”

  “I know.” I slung an arm around her and pulled her closer to me, letting my warmth seep into her. “We all thought that.”

  “I just don’t understand why someone would do something like this,” Trina said, slowly shaking her head. “It’s fucking psychotic.”

  “Maybe it was someone from the Network,” Adam said, focusing his gaze on Laney. “They must be mad that you took them down, right?”

  “They’re all in prison,” I said. “It can’t be them.”

  “A family member, maybe?” Trina said, cocking her head to the side.

  “I don’t think so. A lot of the families have left town. And the ones who haven’t have been pretty vocal about how disgusted and ashamed they are to be related or married to one of those pricks.”

  Adam frowned. “What about the Medusa girls?” he asked. “Maybe one of them is still totally brainwashed by the Network and wanted to get back at you.”

  Laney shook her head. “They’ve all left town too.”

  “Plus they aren’t RFA students anymore, so they couldn’t get onto the campus even if they tried,” Trina added.

  My brows shot up. “That’s a good point,” I said, straightening my shoulders. “The administration added extra security a couple of weeks ago to make sure journalists couldn’t get into the school to harass students over the whole Network scandal. So it had to be a student or staff member who put the bomb under the car.”

  “Or a parent, grandparent, or sibling of one of the students,” Adam said. “They’re allowed onto the campus too.”

  “I’m sure the cops have already considered all of that. But they still don’t have any suspects as far as we know,” Trina said, brows knitting. “It just sucks that there’s no security cameras in the Blair Hall parking lot. Otherwise they’d already know who did this shit.”

  Laney sighed again. “I just don’t get it. Who the hell would want to do this to me?” she said. “I keep going over it in my head, and I just can’t think of anyone.”

  I shuffled my feet under the table and gnawed at the inside of my cheek. Trina cast a suspicious look in my direction. “Do you know something, Hunter?”

  “No. But…” I trailed off, rubbing the back of my neck.

  “But what?” Laney said, eyes widening as she stared at me.

  “A couple of weeks ago, I wondered if there was something else going on,” I said softly. “Someone else who didn’t want you at RFA.”

  “Why?”

  “Because of the video at the assembly, and those notes in the abandoned building. The Medusa girls have always denied having anything to do with it, which is weird, because they’ve admitted to the rest of the stuff, and the Network guys won’t claim it either.”

  “Why the fuck didn’t you say anything about this before now?” Trina asked. Her eyes looked like they were about to pop out on stalks.

  Guilt fired a white-hot spear through my chest. “I thought I was overreacting,” I said. “I thought it had to be the Medusas or the Network guys, and I was just finding shit to be paranoid about.”

  “But now you’re wondering if you were actually right, and it was someone else,” Adam said, nodding slowly.

  “Yeah.”

  Laney’s forehead wrinkled. “So you think it might’ve been someone else who posted that video in the assembly?” she asked. “Someone else who attacked me and Adam when we were exploring the old building?”

  “Maybe, yeah,” I said. “We all assumed that it was the Network or the Medusa girls, because it made sense to us at the time. But what if we were wrong? What if someone else has been after you this whole time?”

  Laney’s face turned even whiter. “Who?” she said. “I haven’t done anything to anyone.”

  “I know.” I leaned down to kiss the top of her head, feeling like fucking shit for upsetting her. She’d already been through enough today, and now I was piling even more stress on top of her. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m probably wrong.”

  “No, I actually think you’re right,” Trina said, eyes narrowing slightly. She turned her attention to Laney. “I mean, someone just tried to blow up your car with you inside it. Whoever it is, they really want you gone for some reason.”

  Laney grimaced. “No shit.”

  “Maybe they want to silence you,” Trina went on. “They tried to make you leave town by posting that video to humiliate you. But that didn’t work, so they decided to take more drastic measures to shut you up.”

  “What would they want me to stay quiet about, though?” Laney asked.

  “Well, it can’t be the Network, because you already found out about them and blew up their shit, so there’s no point trying to silence you on that issue now. But this person is still
coming after you anyway,” Trina said slowly, brows pinching together. “So it has to be something else that they’re worried about.”

  I rubbed my jaw. “What was it we originally thought when we saw those notes in the abandoned building?” I asked. “It was about my sister, right?”

  Laney nodded. “Yes, because the first note told me to drop the investigation, and at the time, we were looking into Lindsay’s death and the Network-Medusa thing.”

  “And then we ended up thinking they were linked,” I said. “But… what if they’re not?”

  Adam’s brows wrinkled. “You think someone else might’ve hurt Lindsay?” he asked. “Not Dad or anyone else in the Network?”

  “It makes sense,” I said, pulse quickening as a few puzzle pieces fell into place in my mind. “I heard that some of the Network men have already started trying to make deals with the prosecutors to get shorter prison sentences. They’ve admitted to the sex trafficking stuff as part of the process, but they’ve all denied having anything to do with Lindsay’s death last year, or Vera Everett’s death in the mid-nineties.”

  “Plus there’s no way they killed Vera anyway, as we all know now,” Trina said.

  We all turned to look at her. “Huh?”

  She lifted a brow. “You guys didn’t see?”

  “See what?”

  “It was on the news last night,” she said. “Some hiker randomly found some bones in the national park last week. He thought they were just animal bones at first, but then he remembered hearing about the whole possible murder thing on the news recently, so he bagged them up and took them in.”

  I tipped my head slightly to the side. “And?”

  “It turned out they belonged to Vera Everett and her brother, and some marks on the bones showed that they were attacked by a black bear,” Trina said. “Those bears usually don’t attack humans, but if they’re really hungry, it can happen. So the Network definitely didn’t murder Vera. It was just a tragic hiking incident.”

  “Well, if it’s been confirmed that they didn’t kill Vera, then there’s a chance they’re telling the truth about Lindsay,” Laney said. “So they might not have killed her after all.”