Page 22 of Malevolent King

I wasn’t lying. I had a full life—well, as full as Antonio allowed me to have. I was about to finish high school and had been accepted into art school. In my free time, I had a couple of security-approved girlfriends I could see. Life wasn’t terrible, and it could always be worse.

“You can try.” Renato finally smiled back at me.

I soaked up that last affectionate look. It’d be a chilly day in Hell when I got the equivalent from anyone else in my family.

He reached out and squeezed my shoulder. “Take care of yourself, Sofia. When I come home, everything will be different, don’t forget that. When things are bad, don’t forget,” Ren said, leaning in to press a brotherly kiss to the top of my hair, “Antonio won’t be boss forever.”

I let out a shuddering breath. He was right. I just needed to hold on until my brother became capo, then I’d have no reason to be afraid in my home.

I nodded, smiling and waving him off until he left me alone in the dimly lit studio.

I turned to my reflection again, looking like a shadow against the white wall.

What would Renato have said if he’d known what had happened last week? He’d have been furious with Silvio for taking me out in public without bodyguards. I had a feeling he’d be even more furious about letting me come into contact with someone from a rival family.

Someone like Nikolai Chernov.

I couldn’t get the man out of my head. Like a dark poison that had seeped into my blood, thoughts of Niko bloomed inside me whenever they had a chance. I was curious about him, drawn to his damaged darkness. I’d die if anyone knew the things I thought about when I was alone at night. Nikolai’s handsome face and powerful arms haunted my dreams, leaving me a sweaty mess of tangled sheets in the morning. I’d never let anyone know how he had crept into my head, and I knew without a doubt that I needed to stay away from him. Anyone who had grown up like I had, always walking a razor’s edge between safety and danger, would sense the trouble a man like Nikolai would bring. The kind of trouble where you were lucky to make it out alive.

That didn’t stop the thoughts, though.

I never had been good at staying away from trouble.

* * *

After schoolon Wednesdays was one of my Antonio-approved days to hang out with a friend under my bodyguard’s watchful eyes. Today, I trailed after Chiara as she skipped down the impressive stone steps leading from my exclusive girls-only school to the New York sidewalk.

“You want to go shopping?” she asked, turning as she walked to grin at me, snapping gum as she went. “Ask Angelo to drive us.” She nodded over my shoulder at my hulking bodyguard, following right behind us.

“No, that’s not fair to him. Let’s hang out at home.” I was tired. I hadn’t been sleeping well, thanks to the intrusive thoughts of Nikolai Chernov, and studying for final exams was taking up every second.

Chiara sighed dramatically. “Whatever you say, boss.”

I stopped, feeling guilty. Chiara was the daughter of a De Sanctis made man, someone high up and close to my father. It was one reason I was allowed to be friends with her. Was she only friends with me because her father told her to be? Insecurity plagued me as I clutched my bag to my chest.

“Come anyway, whatever we’re doing!” she called, still walking backward. Her frown had melted, and the storm passed.

I swallowed down my doubts and shouldered my bag, suddenly realizing how light it felt.

“Damn.” I stopped to dig inside the backpack. I was always leaving my water bottle in the gym hall, and today was no different. “I forgot my bottle again.” I turned to Angelo. “I’ll run and grab it,” I said, just as Chiara stumbled over a crack in the pavement and screeched loudly.

Taking the opportunity of Angelo being distracted, I turned and hurried back up the stairs. I was used to bodyguards following me everywhere except inside Casa Nera, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t exhausting.

I ran up the stairs, my bag bouncing on my back as I reached the top and strode inside. The hallways were quiet now, with the occasional teacher sitting at their desks as I moved down the hall toward the gym.

I pushed through the swinging doors and started across the polished wooden expanse when I felt it.

Eyes on me.

It was that stone-cold certainty in the pit of your belly that you were no longer alone.

Still walking, I looked over my shoulder, expecting to find other students setting up sports equipment, but the gym was empty. There weren’t any teachers tidying up or anyone at all that I could see. Silence echoed through the cavernous room; only the hard strikes of my loafer heels against the floor filled the air.

I halted, my heartbeat ticking upward and my palms dampening. It was a fear reaction. One of prey sensing that a predator had caught their scent. That creeping sensation of being watched by someone you couldn’t see. I wished I had my knife right now, tucked comfortingly in my palm.

“Hello?” I called before I could stop myself.

Great, Sofia, why not audition for the dumb heroine in a horror flick while you’re at it?

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