Page 95 of Runaway Queen

“Home, to Casa Nera.”

* * *

The first stepon De Sanctis property felt like standing on a volcano about to erupt. Nothing could have prepared me for the sight I encountered when I got out of the car.

De Sanctis men were kneeling on the lawn. More De Sanctis men were standing behind them, guns trained on the back of their heads. Renato stalked the line of captives. Behind him stood three men.

I hadn’t seen Kirill Chernov in over seven years. He was still as huge and deadly as he had been then. His men flanked him. Kirill was lounging against the bumper of a car, watching the oncoming bloodbath like it was a Sunday matinee. He straightened up when he saw me, nodding a silent greeting.

My gaze couldn’t stay on Kirill, though. Not when my heart was aching. I spun around, searching, always searching.

I felt like I’d spent my entire life searching for Nikolai, and whenever he was about to be mine, he was torn away, time and again.

Fresh tears fell from my eyes as I failed to make him out in the mass of men gathered in the courtyard. His distinctive profile was nowhere to be seen. Renato’s eyes met mine. He was still pacing the line of De Sanctis men whose new allegiance hadn’t been pledged.

An argument broke out, someone tried to run, and Renato strode toward them, taking his gun in hand and leveling it at the man, right between his eyes.

“Don’t look,lastochka. Don’t take that evil inside you.” Warm hands landed on my waist and turned me.

Before I could register what was happening, Nikolai had pressed me into his chest and turned me away from the sight of my brother executing those who he couldn’t trust. Their bones would join the rest under the ground of Casa Nera.

“Only my evil is allowed inside you, prom queen.”

“Nikolai?” My breath hitched. All the anxiety I felt crashed around me like waves washing hard against rocks. Only he endured. Only he remained unbroken by the storm.

“Yes?”

“You’re not dead.”

“No, not yet, though I’m sure you have something to say about leaving you behind. Lay it on me.”

I leaned back and slapped him just as the first gunshot sounded, renting the night. I jerked, and he pulled me back against him, turning my head into his chest and tucking it between his shoulder and neck. A little spot that fit only me.

“How’s Leo?” His voice was tired, but content. Only he could be content when we were standing on a battlefield.

“Safe. Safe, thanks to you.” I pulled away as silence fell over the courtyard. It seemed that the De Sanctis made men were done doubting my brother’s determination to be capo.

“I hate you,” I whispered vehemently to Nikolai.

He only nodded. “I know.”

“You left me behind.”

He nodded.

“I thought you were dead!”

The bastard chuckled. “I know. I guess we are well and truly even now, prom queen.”

“You’re sick.”

He smirked. How the man could smile after everything that had happened, I had no idea, but somehow, the sight warmed me.

“Yes, but I think I might be a little less sick than before. It turns out that there’s a cure for my madness.” He put a firm finger to my jaw and tilted my head back so I could see his eyes burning into mine.

His gaze tracked across my face, drinking me in. “It’s you, Sofia. For me, there’s only you who can save me from the darkness inside. You’re still, and always will be, the sun on my face. After the endless winter, there is you… and it’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

His words stunned me. I couldn’t answer him. I had no words that could match his beautiful honesty. So I said the only thing I could think of. The only thing that felt right.

---