Page 48 of Cruel Crown

“Did you manage to retrieve the object from Yoro’s house?”

“Yeah, it’s in my bag,” Bas said. I pretended not to care, but I was more curious than anything. Bas made a move to get up, but Damian stopped him, and I was thankful I didn’t need to see Bastian’s dick.

“Just make sure it’s on my desk tonight,” Damian said through gritted teeth before he left, slamming the door on the way out.

When the door closed, Bas put a finger up so I wouldn’t talk just in case he was by the door listening.

“I swear if you don’t cover your junk when you get up, I will chop it off,” I mumbled under my breath as Bas made a move to get up.

“If you wanted to touch my dick, all you had to do was ask. No need for violence,” he gloated as he got up.

I ashed my cigarette on his pillow.

Once Bastian put on his joggers and checked the door to make sure Damian was gone, he turned back to me.

“Two things.” I raised my middle and pointer finger in the air. “What the fuck was that all about. And what fucking object?”

“I have a theory but never had the chance to act on it.”

“You know, I’m going to start to believe you really want to fucking date me,” I said to him.

Bastian touched his crotch. “You wouldn’t know what to do with this.”

“I need help. I don’t speak stupid—” The door opened, and Daphne walked in with an open laptop and glasses on her face. She stopped in the doorway and looked at Bastian, who was still holding on to his dick, and at me.

“Check this out for me and bring it to the lab when you have it figured out.” She handed him the laptop, then walked out of the room without another glance at me.

For now, I would let her go, but I’d be coming to the lab later on.

“Don’t you ever fucking close your door?” I asked as I got up from the bed.

“I have an open-door policy. Anyone can come in at any time, and they know it’s time to fuck.”

Of course he did.

“What object?” I snapped my fingers at him as I walked up and took the laptop from his hold.

Bastian made his way to one of his bags, and while he did that, I looked at the information on the laptop. It was a page on the black web where people exchanged information.

I quickly scanned it and saw they referenced a television show and food with a Disney movie. “What doesn’t she not get? These hints are pretty obvious.”

Bas grabbed the laptop, closed it, and threw it on the bed. “For you and me, yeah, but she grew up without a television; all her information came from Ivan. When she got older, she used the internet to read articles about history, world news, nothing pop culture.”

When he said it like that, I felt a churn in my gut. Despite not having my parents, I grew up with kids my own age, didn’t have sex until I was old enough—no sob case of molestation or anything like that.

“This is what Damian wants,” Bas said as he handed me a silver tiara.

Right away, I knew what it was—another one of Russia’s stolen jewels. If my memory served me correctly, that meant there was only one left. Daphne had the necklace, I had the brooch, and now Damian had the tiara.

“Does Daphne know about this?” I asked Bastian as I looked at him.

“I haven’t even told her that Yorovich is dead.”

That was fine with me. I was going to be the one to tell her that.

“And what was the whole deal with Damian?”

“He’s homophobic.”

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