Page 69 of Malevolent King

“Sofia?Stai bene?”

“I’m okay. How about you? I was starting to worry you’d died over there. Don’t I merit a check-in call now and again?”

Ren chuckled, and the sound was comfortingly familiar. “I’m sorry,piccolina. Things have been a little… tense here.”

I tucked my phone between my ear and shoulder and grabbed my water bottle. “Tense how?”

“I don’t want to bore you. Let’s just say the family still loves their vendettas and aren’t afraid to drag everyone into it.”

“Are you safe? I mean, there’s no risk to you?”

Ren blew out a resigned breath. “Only as much as there usually is. You know our lives, Sofia… here today, gone tomorrow. Not everyone makes it to Antonio’s age unscathed.”

“That’s why his motto is kill first, apologize later,” I reminded him. Ren chuckled again. “Seriously, don’t joke about that. I need you to come back. I need you to be boss sooner rather than later,” I said.

“Why? Is Antonio mistreating you?” Ren’s voice hardened.

My brother was ten years older than me. Since I had been old enough to merit a beating for getting my dress dirty or making noise during an important meeting, he’d been stepping between my father and me and taking the hit whenever he could. Our father told him his need to protect me was a weakness, but Renato had never let those insidious words work into his heart. Maybe one day, when the world we lived in had jaded him enough, he’d stop caring so much, but for now, he was still my big brother. A man who’d burn the world down to save me. Oddly, I trusted in Renato to protect me with the same certainty that I trusted in Nikolai. Somehow, in our fraught and chaotic relationship, he’d become someone I felt safer with than my family, even if hurting was all he knew how to do.

“Not more than usual. The broken engagement hasn’t made him happy,” I muttered.

Ren snorted. “You didn’t know Kirill Chernov, barely met him. Why would it annoy him that much?”

“Maybe because we both know it wasn’t my happiness he was worried about, but his bottom line. Anyway, he ended up making a deal. Hopefully, once he expands the business further in New York, he’ll be less annoyed with me. He has someone else in mind.”

Renato was quiet for a long moment. “Once I’m boss, I won’t let anyone hurt you, not even your husband.”

So my brother knew about the new engagement. That hurt somehow, even though it shouldn’t. There was nothing Ren could do short of returning home and killing our father. I couldn’t blame him. Patricide wasn’t a natural instinct for most. Nikolai might be an exception in that way. He was an exception in many ways.

“Sofia?” My brother’s concern only hurt more. He was concerned yet powerless. It was the story of our relationship in a nutshell.

“I’m here. I miss you. Be careful over there, okay? I need you home in one piece.”

Renato chuckled, but it sounded bitter. “I’ll get home in one piece. You know me, I’m hard to kill. Anyway, I called because I wanted to warn you I’ll be out of reach for a while. A few weeks. Nothing’s wrong. I’m just busy. Don’t worry about me.”

“Sure I won’t. And you won’t worry about me, right?” I teased, trying to lighten the mood before we hung up.

“Right.” Renato’s quiet voice threatened to undo my efforts to sound upbeat.

I sank down on the floor of the training room and lay back, staring at the ceiling, as my brother hung up. I tried to imagine what it was like where he was.

The De Sanctis family compound in Italy was just outside Naples. The Campagna region was beautiful, full of rolling hills and dramatic coasts. I visited once when I was very young with my mother. We’d gone to the Amalfi coast and spent the day having a picnic on the rocky outcrop, overlooking a turquoise sea shaded by olive trees.

After that, I’d always wanted to live somewhere quiet, by the sea, where I could hear the waves washing up to my door.

Instead, I was here in Casa Nera, and there was no escape from the life I’d been born into. There was no escape for Renato either, or Nikolai. I remembered Niko’s words that night we’d met so many years ago.

“We both have masters. Admitting that is the first step to breaking free.”

Now, for the first time in my caged life, I considered what it would be like to break the bars and leave my so-called home behind forever. The idea didn’t terrify me like it once had. Could I fly free? Was I too scared to even try? What if I jumped and then found out the hard way that my wings really were clipped?

“Sofia,” a voice called from the door.

I jumped. I’d been so lost in my thoughts I hadn’t heard anyone come in. Carmella stood in the doorway, a headscarf over the patch of hair Silvio had torn out. Her faded brown eyes looked hesitant and sorrowful, setting me immediately on guard.

“What’s happened?”

“It’s your father.” She was wringing her hands. Never a good sign.

---