Page 35 of Crowned

I shove Maxim off. Without stopping to look back, I scramble out of the car, clutching my bag for dear life.

I just want to go home. I keep away from main streets and streetlamps. The darkness and my black dress hides most of the blood, but I can feel it drying on my face.

Somehow I make it home and up to my apartment without anyone spotting me. I don’t reach for the light switch by the front door, afraid of what I’ll see in the mirror that hangs in the living room.

A deep, purring voice speaks out of the darkness. “Lilia.”

I think I stop breathing altogether. I turn around slowly.

I can sense one man sitting on the sofa in front of me, another by the sink, and a third by the doorway into the bedroom. On any other night, fear might have clutched at my throat, but I looked fear in the face tonight and stabbed it in the throat. I’m coated in death.

They think they’re the ones making the grand entrance.

“Someone turn on a light,” I call.

There’s a click, and a warm yellow glow bathes the living room. Three sets of cold, triumphant eyes widen in shock as they stare at my face, my chest, arms, and hair.

“Lilia!” Elyah exclaims in panic and steps toward me. He thinks it’s my blood. I hold up a hand to fend him off and we both realize at the same time that I’m clutching a bloodied stiletto dagger. I turn it slowly in the light, fascinated and horrified by the fact that I’m still holding it.

Kirill steps forward and twists the dagger out of my fist, dropping it into the sink with a clatter. “Been having fun without us,detka?”

My legs start to shake and my teeth chatter. I’ve never felt less like anyone’s baby girl. “Oh, loads. You should have been there.”

Konstantin is watching me from the sofa, his expression baleful and his shoulders clenched. I’ve ruined his dramatic entrance.

“Are they dead? Who was it?” Elyah asks.

“A friend of my father’s, and yes, he’s dead. Very dead.” I can still see Maxim’s wide, dead eyes staring into mine as his bleeding body crushed me into the seat.

Elyah takes my face in his hands. “It will be all right,solnyshko. Kirill and I will get rid of the body. Where is it?”

Another bubble of hysterical laughter threatens to escape my throat. What’s the right thing to say when the potential father of the baby I’m secretly carrying offers to cover up the murder I just committed? Thank you?

“Wait.” Konstantin gets to his feet and crosses the room toward me. “This is the end of the road, and no one is leaving this apartment until I have what I want. Where are my diamonds?”

I’ve rehearsed this moment in the shower, imagining how I’d keep a cold silence and tell Konstantin nothing if I ever came face to face with him again. After the night I’ve had and the things I’ve done, I don’t care what he knows or what he does. He can kill me if he wants. If he doesn’t, Maxim Vavilov’s father will.

I’m not afraid of the wrath of this deadly man.

“Fine. I’ll tell you where they are. Long gone, that’s where.”

Konstantin examines me closely, staring past the blood that’s covering me to the woman underneath. Trying to fathom whether I’m telling the truth. “What have you done with my diamonds?” he growls.

“They’re not your diamonds. They belong to the women you tortured and tormented for a week in a cellar in Italy.”

Konstantin grabs my dress and hauls me closer until we’re nose to nose. “Don’t play with me, Lilia.”

I struggle in his grip, trying to wrench myself free. The dagger is laying in the sink, glinting, inviting me to snatch it up, but it’s too far away. “Get your hands off me, you asshole.”

“Konstantin, stop,” Elyah calls out.

Konstantin ignores him. His gray eyes are sparking with fury. The trick I pulled with the whistle, using his weakness against him, totally humiliated him.

“I have thought of nothing but choking the life out of you these past few months. The only thing that’s going to keep you alive is if you start talking.”

“Konstantin!” Elyah shouts. He grabs hold of hisPakhanand tries to pry his fingers from my dress.

Konstantin rounds on him with a snarl. “I warned you not to get in my way.”

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