Page 20 of Crowned

The plane turns and gains speed, and the engines roar as we hurtle down the runway. The wheels lift off and we soar into the air, the ground falling away beneath us.

At the front of the plane, Elyah says to the pilot, “If you use that radio to call for help, I will take you apart while you are still alive, along with that woman we locked in the bathroom, and you will both be carried off this plane in pieces.Da?”

The pilot, now pale and sweating, nods vigorously.

“Good.” Elyah turns to me, tucking his gun into the back of his jeans, the coldness in his expression melting into tenderness. “Are you all right,solnyshko? Did anyone hurt you?”

Solnyshko. Like I’m his precious sunshine again, as I was on the floor of the judging room when he held me in his arms. I angle my chin up. “I’m great. As you can see, even the rope burn around my neck has faded.”

He has the decency to look ashamed.

I turn back to Konstantin. “I was in a jeweler’s because I was repurchasing some pawned jewelry. Nothing valuable. Only sentimental value. Dad gave me the euros himself.” I turn to Dad. “This is Mom’s locket.Babulyaand I called the local council and they got it back for me. You’d know that if you hadn’t thrown me out of your life.”

Dad glances at my stomach. “Was it one of these men who—”

Oh, hell no. I speak over him as fast as I can. “I have some diamonds, Dad. Konstantin says I stole them, but I earned them, every last gemstone. They’re rightfully mine.”

A vein throbs in Konstantin’s forehead and his expression turns murderous. “They’re not your diamonds, Lilia. Where are you hiding them?”

I tap my chin, pretending to think. “Oh, um—go fuck yourself.”

Kirill grins down at me from where he’s standing next to Konstantin’s chair. He has his arms folded and his bicep muscles bulge beneath his T-shirt. “Sounds like our favorite girl needs some persuading.”

Konstantin seems to agree. “Take her into the back of the plane. Search her, and don’t bother being gentle.”

4

Kirill

Lilia Aranova glares at me as I move down the plane toward her. How I’ve dreamed about this moment nonstop for five fucking weeks. A beautiful woman totally at my mercy, and one as clever and unpredictable as Lilia? I’m obsessed.

I reach out for her, pull her to her feet and into my arms. With her jaw in my hand, I lick slowly up her cheek, tasting the woman I’ve beat off to every night and morning since she escaped.

My tongue moves against the roof of my mouth as I savor her. “Mmm. I’ve missed you,detka.”Baby girl.

“I bet you say that to all the girls,” she says, jerking her head away from me.

“No. Just you. Will you be mydetka?” I put my lips against her ear and whisper, “Until I flay your flesh from your bones and you bleed out at my feet.”

Her sea-green eyes are filled with hatred. “If you carry on threatening me, I’ll have to kill you when I escape this time instead of just humiliating you.”

A laugh rises up my throat, and I wrap my arms even tighter around this slender, beautiful woman. One of my hands slides up the nape of her neck and my fingers plunge into her silky hair. As I tuck her into my shoulder, my head bows to breathe her in. Her hair smells like flowers and I inhale deeply. “Fuck, I missed you, you treacherous bitch. How many fingers do you want in your pussy when I check to see whether you stashed the diamonds up there? Pageant winner’s choice.”

“She didn’t win the pageant,” Konstantin interjects. “She ruined it.”

“She won my pageant,” I murmur, stroking her silky tresses. Lilia wriggles in my arms like an angry kitten, and I have to pin both of her hands behind her back with one of mine. “We searched for you all night. Konstantin swum laps of the lake. Elyah and I crossed the water back and forth, hunting for you in the darkness. You vanished into nothing. Where did you go?”

I watched Lilia like a hawk the entire pageant, delighting in the way she danced on the end of Konstantin’s line. None of the other women could match her nerve, her beauty, her defiance. I was disappointed when Konstantin broke her. She had been made of steel but suddenly she was glass, shattered at his feet.

Or so we all thought.

I’m the trickster, yet I realized nothing when she took her passport from Kostya and stole the key to her cage from Elyah. Then she disappeared into the night.

My favorite toy, suddenly gone.

Her short, angry breaths fan my neck. Her heart beats wildly against my chest. I have her back, and I’m not letting Lilia Aranova go.

I want to fuck her.

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