Page 64 of Malevolent King

I tensed. I couldn’t. I knew I’d cry if I did.

“I should go,” I started. “I can’t stay down here. I’ll get you in trouble, worse than you already are.”

“You don’t have to marry that man,” Nikolai called sharply, freezing me on the threshold of the door. “I won’t allow it to happen.”

I waited to hear what he was going to say.

He waited for me to turn, and when I didn’t, he sighed.

“You’re not alone,lastochka, remember that.”

The words sank through me like stones, stopping up the painful, empty places inside me. I nodded, fumbling with the tray, and stepped out. I had to stick my head in a bucket of iced water and try to calm down. My mask of indifference was cracking at the seams, and I couldn’t let anyone see.

I wouldn’t survive long in Casa Nera without it.

18

NIKOLAI

Ididn’t see Sofia for two days. They were the longest two days of my life.

With plenty of time to think, my mind wandered relentlessly over the night she’d come to me. It was the single hottest experience of my life. My clever little prom queen had been a virgin after all this time, and she’d chosen me. To me, that was more of a commitment than vows in church. She hadn’t admitted that much, but I’d felt it. I’d also felt her determination and need. All the puzzle pieces that made up the most fascinating woman I’d ever met.

She was scared of her act of rebellion and of the man she’d chosen for it. I wasn’t surprised she’d stayed away for a few days. She was worried about her engagement. She shouldn’t be. It wasn’t going to happen. I’d already decided that when I left here, which would be soon, she was coming with me. She didn’t have a choice.Was she on protection? She certainly hadn’t seemed worried about it. The thought that my seed could be swimming in her, taking root right at this moment was a fucking turn on. Sofia with a rounded belly, tied to me for life? That was the stuff dreams were made of.

I was alone in the basement, without Silvio’s torture sessions to look forward to. I guessed the big guy had worn himself out. Time blended into one long, tedious march. I slept fitfully, dreaming of my mother hanging in the late afternoon and my father’s final expression of shock as he’d slumped down dead.

My cracked and weary mind groaned under the weight of the relentless horror of life.

I thought of Kirill, the brother I should hate but didn’t. He’d had me sent here, but he’d also sent Angelo to make sure I wasn’t too fucked up by it. Even when mypakhanbrother was brutal, he was fair. I wondered if he was happy with Molly, the woman he’d hunted for seven years. The mother of his child. My brother had always been more normal than me. Less broken. More trustworthy. Lovable. I knew myself, and there wasn’t a single person in the world who would think those things of me.

In what feltlike late afternoon, a noise came from the hall that had me sitting up. Maybe Antonio De Sanctis was onto something with a new torture technique because leaving me alone with my thoughts was masterful. The isolation was hurting more than his beatings.

An older woman came into the room, holding a tray of food. She looked to be in her early sixties, had graying dark hair, and an apron around her comfortable middle. She looked at me with suspicion. “Don’t try anything funny, or I can make cleaning up your wound hurt a lot.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I quipped, unable to argue with the authoritative energy from such a small package.

She narrowed her eyes at me. “And don’t get fresh. I’ve heard everything about you, Nikolai Chernov, and your devilish charms,” she said, and eyed me like I might try to seduce her on the spot.

“My devilish charms? My, my, I have to say that makes a nice break from having a reputation as a depraved lunatic.”

“Yeah, well, which reputation is more deserving, that’s the question? I’m Carmella, the housekeeper here. I’m not a nurse, so don’t complain about my doctoring,” she said sternly.

I grinned at her. “I wouldn’t dare.”

Carmella watched me for a moment longer and then nodded briskly. “Sofia, bring the medical kit.”

Excitement shot through me at the appearance of a familiar figure in the doorway. This time, there was nothing fake or forced about my grin as I took in the object of my growing obsession.

“Nice of you to visit. If I’d know you were coming, I’d have baked a cake,” I said.

“No jokes!” Carmella scolded, and slapped my wrist like I was a misbehaving schoolboy.

I turned my eyes to her, my amusement at her presence lessening. I wanted Sofia all to myself.

“Hold still, or we’ll leave you to fester. This is infected,” she accused, pointing to my wrist and fixing me with a look like it was my fault. “We’ll clean it. Sofia, bring the iodine.”

“Iodine? That’s old-school, Carmella,” I muttered, watching as she got ready to liberally douse my bound hands with the stinging disinfectant. I’d suffered through the same treatment countless times, but I had a feeling Carmella might make an even rougher nursemaid than I’d been for myself in the past.

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