Page 76 of Malevolent King

“Don’t call me that. I’m just Sofia these days, and if Franco and Silvio have their way—” I shuddered, unwilling to speak the words aloud.

“What about them?” Nikolai demanded. He beckoned me over; his wrists were untied. “Come here and kiss me hello, prom queen.”

He was leaning against the wall, and as I got closer, he reached for me. He kissed me deeply, uncaring that Angelo was watching. It felt thrilling to be touched with such casual possessiveness. I clung to his chest as he pulled back.

“Don’t be scared of Franco and Silvio. You’re stronger than you know.”

How did this man have so much faith in me when I had none in myself? “I’m not. I’m crumbling into pieces. I don’t know what to do.”

I wrapped my arms around myself. I was getting desperate, like there was an elastic band inside me stretching to a breaking point or a clock over our heads ticking down. Something bad was going to happen.

“Yes, you do.” Nikolai’s hands came up and cupped my face. “You know what to do. Leave with me, Sofia. Angelo and I are ready. Tonight, the men are busy getting wrecked upstairs, aren’t they?”

I nodded. The air around the dining room had been reckless and celebratory. “They’re indulging a lot.”

“Good, that suits us fine. We want them to get drunk and fuck off. Your cousin and his father usually visit a whorehouse in town on a Sunday. Angelo told me.”

“They do?”

“They sure do. It looks like Silvio didn’t learn his lesson about how dangerous that was the first time. When they go out and hopefully black out there after getting off, we’re leaving. All three of us, and Carmella, too, if she wants to go.”

I jerked out his touch and stared at him. “You’d take Carmella with us?”

He grinned. Fuck, that wicked look would be the death of me. It was already too valuable to me.

“Hell, yes. She’s braver than the rest of us put together, and if she wants to go, I’ll take her. She deserves a fresh start, just like Angelo.”

“What about me? Don’t I deserve one?”

He laid an arm over my shoulders and pulled me into him, holding me close. His breath feathered across my cheek, and he pressed a kiss to my forehead.“You leaving is non-negotiable. I won’t leave you here with Silvio. You might call me a monster, but I’m the devil you know, and believe it or not, you are the only person in this world who makes me wish I was a better man.”

Nikolai stared at me, unrepentant, even after that confession that rent my heart in two. I couldn’t even begin to process his words. They were too terrifying. Too hopeful and too sad all at once.

He stroked his thumb across the apple of my cheek. “You belong with me, and that’s that, I’m afraid. I’m the man you’ll never get rid of. Tell me you’re coming willingly, but understand that I’ll take you anyway.”

Nikolai’s command was undeniable. How he managed the presence he had at such a young age, I had no idea. I simply flocked to his power. He made me feel safe with just a word.

“If I come with you, then what?” I stared up into his mercurial eyes.

“I don’t know. You’ll just have to trust me. Can you trust me, prom queen?”

I swallowed a knot in my throat. It felt like I was standing on a high cliff, and below was a gray sea. I wouldn’t know what would happen if I jumped, but I couldn’t stay where I was.

He brought a hand to my face, cupping it firmly with that magic touch of his that weakened my knees. Something about this man, right or wrong, fit all the broken parts of me, and made me feel whole, even if just for a second. After a day of terror, just being touched by this man soothed my fears and anxiety.

I took a deep, steadying breath and jumped.

“Okay. I’m coming with you.”

22

NIKOLAI

For some men who lived on the wrong side of the law, there was a temptation to become addicted to the power. Ending a life was like that. A heady feeling, making you powerful in a way that could be addictive. I can safely say I’ve only felt like a god two times in my life. When I saw my father, my mother’s killer, choke on his own blood and slump down dead, and right now, with the woman I’d been obsessed with for five years, telling me she’d come with me. Captive no more, Sofia De Sanctis was mine by her own personal admission. I didn’t just feel like a god at that moment. I was one.

Then the universe, sensing that something unnaturally good had happened to me, swung hard in the other direction.

“Sofia!” Angelo’s harsh whisper had only just registered when the squeal of the door, metal against stone, echoed around the room.

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