Page 77 of Malevolent King

“Well, what the fuck do we have here?”

Silvio swayed on the threshold, clearly drunk as hell. His state of inebriation, however, didn’t stop his eyes from widening as he took in the scene. Sofia tightly pressed against my chest, and my untied arms wrapped around her.

He lurched into the room, and I moved Sofia behind me. Men entered behind him. Great, he wasn’t alone. I flashed a look at Angelo, telling him not to interfere. I needed them to think he was following Sofia around, like always.

Ignoring a million hurts, I got ready to defend Sofia. I wasn’t tied up now, and I wouldn’t be letting this fucker take a piece from either of us. I’d fought worse odds before than five to one, and better yet, the De Sanctis men were drunk.

Silvio laughed, a sound that sent disgust and unease crawling along my spine. Then he pulled a gun from the back waistband of his slacks and pointed it at me, nearly point-blank range. I fucking hated guns. They evened the playing field far too much. Then Silvio swung it around and pointed it at Sofia, turning my blood to ice.

“Keep it on me, motherfucker. I’m the one planning how to kill you right now,” I said, sidestepping to put myself between Sofia and the end of the gun.

Silvio tutted and nodded to his men. They advanced on Sofia. I growled low in my throat and lunged in front of her.

“Nikolai, don’t!”

Her voice stilled my heart. She put a gentle hand on my arm and looked up at me, seeming more like an otherworldly being at that moment than mere flesh and bone. Then she stepped around me and gave herself over to Silvio’s men, unresisting.

She wasn’t fighting? Why wasn’t she fighting? I caught her eye and saw the fear in them. She was scared for me. She was afraid that one wrong move would have Silvio shooting me, like he so desperately wanted.

When she got close to him, Silvio hauled her into his arms and pressed the gun to her temple. Then he had the audacity to smile at me. Time seemed to slow to a crawl.

The house was quiet around us. It seemed the revelers who had gathered on a quiet Sunday afternoon, although their don was laid up in hospital, had dispersed. It was just Silvio and his men, a fact that only sent more tension brewing in my gut.

“Lock him up. I don’t want him interrupting us. And don’t use the cuffs. He’s clearly found a way around them,” Silvio said smugly. His feet were slightly unsteady as he hauled Sofia against him and pressed his face into the side of hers and inhaled deeply. “Don’t even think about it, Chernov,” he reminded me as my fists clenched with fury.

I wanted to rip the man’s head off.

His men pulled my arms back and bound them behind me. My muscles cramped with tension at being back in the same position they’d been in for too long. Despite the pain, I felt like I was floating somewhere far above it, outside my body. Nothing else mattered but Sofia’s eyes fixed on mine.

“Think this through, Silvio. Antonio De Sanctis could make a full recovery. You think he’d accept his daughter being hurt—”

“He doesn’t need to accept it. He’ll blame you.”

“And Kirill will start a war with your family that you won’t survive,” I pointed out.

Silvio swayed and considered that for a moment before his lip curled. “Who says Antonio wouldn’t kill you himself if he knew you’d fucked his little virgin daughter? How was she? Tight? Did she cry?” Silvio turned his attention to Sofia.

I pulled at the zip ties, testing their strength.

“Why? Is that what it takes to get you hard these days? Or maybe you need the sound to direct you to your dick under all that flab,” I tossed at him.

He tensed, still so very egotistical. “Be careful, Nikolai. You’re not leaving this room again, ever, so you might not want to piss me off if you don’t want it to hurt even more than it already will.” He swore at me and jerked his head to his men. “Wait outside. Seeing as this little bitch is already stretched out, another cock in her loose hole won’t make a difference.”

His words threatened to break the remaining composure I had. It was one thing to kill me. I’d had it coming with this man, but Sofia was another matter. If he raped her, there was no way he’d let her live.

I needed to piss Silvio off so he would make a mistake. I knew exactly how.

I laughed loudly, sending the heat in Silvio’s face climbing higher, staining his cheeks.

“Who said I don’t want it to hurt?” I goaded him. I kept an eye on the men disappearing out the door. It shut, staying only slightly ajar behind them. “Are you too embarrassed to get naked in front of your men? How pathetic.”

Silvio jerked toward me, forgetting Sofia for a moment. My eyes met hers, and a plan flashed between us at that very second.

As soon as anger loosened Silvio’s grip, Sofia moved. She wrenched herself from his hold, using her body weight to drop, and sending the gun pointing into the space above her head. She spun, quick as a flash, and kicked Silvio in the knee. He went down with a grunt. She’d gotten the upper hand for a second, and there was nothing I could do about it, tied up like I was.

“Get the gun,” I hissed, straining toward them, seriously considering if I could rip my arms off to get closer.

She reached across her cousin, heading for the gun just as the fucker recovered enough to twist aside, sending Sofia falling across him. She recovered faster and jumped up, almost clearing his touch. She paused mid-flight as Silvio dropped the gun and used his remaining hand to grab a hard handful of her long black hair. He wrenched her backward, and her feet slid on the basement stone, her body hitting the floor hard.

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