Page 47 of Cruel Promise

AVA

Nikolai’s arms are strong and soft at the same time.

So, it strangely saddens me when he lets me go. “Ava. Ava?” He places his hand gently under my chin and angles my face up. “That bastard hurt you.”

“I …” It’s then I realize my dress is still down around my waist. “Oh.” I quickly pull it back up, but Nikolai isn’t looking at my body with desire as he’s done in the past.

He’s looking at me with anger.

“Why did you leave with him?”

I blink, and then I begin to cry. Hot tears fall down my face, stinging my already bruised and bloody cheek. “I shouldn’t have. He just left me in that club. I thought he was going to help me.”

He scoffs. “I could have told you Dimitri wouldn’t help. He has a tendency to only do what he wants. Very self-serving.” He pauses, placing his fist to my chin before lowering it. “Did he hurt you?”

“Not physically. This— I motion to my face— “was because of those men.” It’s then that I see them.Reallysee them.

They’re on the ground … with bullet holes in their heads.

“They’re dead,” I whisper.

“I told you what would happen to anyone if they hurt you.”

Nikolai really meant it, then. He killed these men. He killed them to save me.

Yet he’s the reason I needed saving to begin with.

I wipe my tears away and wince as my hand touches my hurt cheek. “I just want to feel safe.”

The laugh that escapes Nikolai is cold and cruel. “There is no safe place to escape to any longer. Not in this world. Not inmyworld. You were naive to leave with Dimitri.”

“I know. But I just wanted to go back home.”

“You have a home now. With me.”

“My home, Nikolai,” I cry. “To the apartment I shared with my mother. Her body must still be there. I just need to see her. I need to put her to rest.”

“We can discuss this when we get back home. Right now, you need a doctor to look at your face. My private doctor has an office nearby. Let’s go.” He starts to turn away.

“Just like that? You kill two men, and it’s nothing to you.”

“They were hurting you. They were going to do even worse to you. So, yes, I killed them and yes, it doesn’t mean anything to me because they were scum and deserved worse. Killing them was a mercy.”

“A mercy?” I shake my head. My entire body is numb. “What kind of man are you?”

“I never claimed to be a man. I’m a king in my world. I do what needs to be done. I killed those men to save you. Now, we should we leave before anyone finds us here with the bodies. I’ll have some of my men come and deal with these two.” He tosses a sneer at the dead men on the ground.

Nikolai is right. I don’t want to be caught around a dead body, let alone two. I don’t need to get into trouble for his crimes.

But going home with him feels like a defeat.

“Ava? What’s going on?” It’s Jason. He appears in the alleyway.

I practically forgot about him in all the chaos.

Nikolai tenses as he turns his gaze on Jason. I know if I don’t get Jason out of here, Nikolai will kill him.

Then again, Jason didn’t help me when I told him I was kidnapped and forced into a marriage. He made it all about himself.

---