Page 70 of Crowned

“But why would you do that?”

His smile is sharp and victorious, his lips just inches from mine. “You were just so proud, so high and mighty.”

Just like the girls at school that he hated so much. “Is that what you think of me now? You need to put me in my place by screwing me while I can’t fight back?”

He takes my chin between his forefinger and thumb and examines me with a puzzled frown on his face. “No. I don’t. It’s strange and I don’t understand it.” The smile spreads over his face once more. “But all the ways I’ve fucked you since have been even better than that first time. Watching you willingly take my cock, crave my cock, pant for me. I can’t get enough of you,detka.”

I wrench my jaw out of his grip. I don’t want to be reminded of that right now. “Was any of what you told me about Katya even true? Or did you just want to soften me up before you dropped your bombshell?”

He lets go of me and spreads his arms, showing me his muscles, his tattoos, his hard eyes. “All of it’s true. It made me the man I am today.”

A man or a monster?

I turn away from him and come face to face with Elyah, who’s glaring at his friend.

Kirill arches a brow and laughs. “Do you want to fight me for screwing the woman you told us all you were going to kill? Go on, take your best shot.”

“You did not have to tell Lilia like that,” Elyah seethes, his fists balling at his sides. “You are not sorry. You did not want to confess. You wanted to hurt her.”

“Wrong,” Kirill says, leaning comfortably against the wall and folding his arms. “I was staking my claim. I’ve had enough of you and Konstantin thinking this is all about you. It’s my baby.”

I can’t stand breathing this man’s air for another second. I point to my front door. “Get out of my apartment. All of you. I’m not spending another night with any of you under my roof.”

“We’re not going anywhere,” Konstantin says, staring at his phone.

“He speaks,” I snarl, with a sarcastic edge to my voice. Konstantin hasn’t said a word to me in days. “Yes, you are. Get. Out.”

He turns his phone around so I can see the screen. “Either we’re staying, or you’re leaving with us. They found Vavilov’s body.”

I snatch his phone from him and read an article that’s been automatically translated from Czech. “Maxim’s been found?”

The article relates how river workers found a body in the river, not far from a car that had been driven into the water. The man is unidentified, and I breathe a sigh of relief and pass the phone back to Konstantin.

“They don’t know it’s Maxim Vavilov. He’s not from here so it’s unlikely anyone will come forward saying they know who he is.”

“True. And Elyah and Kirill will have done an excellent job removing Vavilov’s fingers, teeth, and tattoos.” Konstantin arches his scarred brow at me. “But when his frantic family hears that a body has been discovered in the Vltava River that matches their son’s basic description, how soon will it be before they arrive in Prague and provide a DNA sample?”

My stomach plummets through the floor. Of course they will. They must be thinking of nothing but finding their missing son. They might already be in Prague. The sensible thing would be to leave.

But myhome.

I go to the window but don’t dare open it, worrying that someone might see my face and recognize me. I’m trapped in hiding. Trapped with three men and too many dark thoughts in my head. Kirill’s tale took me on a roller coaster of emotions, and now Maxim’s been found. I’m overwhelmed.

Without looking at any of them, I head for my bedroom. I don’t know what to do, but I need to be alone right now.

“Don’t follow me in here,” I tell them, and close the door behind me.

I lay on my bed in the dark staring up at the ceiling.

I should be thinking about my own fate, but I picture Katya instead. The poor girl was so young to have a child. The pain she must have endured when she was locked in to have the baby on her own. The devastation of carrying her child for nine months, only for it to die before it could take its first breath.

I roll over on my side and hug my belly with one hand. As fraught as my own life is right now, I know that the three men in the next room want this baby to live, despite their dark and scheming hearts. Every time I’ve thought of the Lugovskayas, I’ve pitied them. Now when I remember the way Kirill stabbed them to death, I wish I’d helped him.

I fall asleep with screams echoing in my ears.

And I awaken to the sensation of my mattress sinking beside me.

I’m still half asleep, and too exhausted physically and emotionally to even open my eyes. It’s probably Elyah, hurting because I’m hurting. I don’t want to be comforted right now. I’m too angry to be comforted.

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