Page 20 of Kings of Violence

Looking startled, she nods, holding her hands in front of her in surrender. “Sorry. Still learning the nicknames. I’m not trying to piss you off. I just don’t know anything about Russian. So is Yura a nickname too?”

“Yes. It’sYurinormally.” Nikolai’s expression relaxes. “We’ll see if he’d let you call him that. He does like dark haired girls.”

Sierra scowls and looks back at me. “So why is this Yuri, Yura, whatever, in jail?”

“He got taken in when a deal with your brother went south, two years ago,” I say. “Seems like your family always makes trouble for us.”

Her features instantly go wary, and she falls silent for a moment before mumbling, “Well, that explains a lot.”

“Does it, though?” Nikolai asks. He gets up, prowling over to her like a panther, and grabs her chin. “He is going to be…” He pauses, considering. “Well. He’s either going to fuck you like an animal, or he’s going to try to kill you.” He flashes her a grim smile. “Which do you think will be better?”

Sierra meets my gaze.

I glance back steadily. There’s something in her eyes that I can’t decipher. “Don’t ask me. I don’t care which of those you choose.”

“Great,” she mutters. “For what it’s worth, I don’t have a fucking death wish. And I can’t help you if I’m dead.”

“Ah, zaya,” Nikolai says. “I didn’t say we’d let him kill you. You just might need a doctor when he’s finished with you. Of course, that might be true of him fucking you, too. I’ve seen what he does to women he hates much, much less than he hates you.”

“No need to scare her,” I say, grinning. “Yura onlysometimesmaims his targets.”

She shakes her head. “Can I go back to my room now? I need some time to process.”

“What is there to process?” I ask. My phone buzzes again, but I ignore it. Instead, I pat my thigh. “Come sit with me. We can eat more. Tell us about yourself, Sierra.”

Nikolai releases her, and she takes a step back. “My whole life just got upended, and now I need to contemplate the fact that I’mprobably going to be beaten senseless for something I wasn’t even at fault for,” she says, almost deadpan. “There’s a lot to work through.”

Sierra drags her feet as she returns to my lap, but she comes to me all the same.

“I’m a college student. I used to have a life. My family ran a gang until recently, when it was absorbed by another mafia group. What more do you want to know?” she asks.

I stroke her back through the t-shirt. “Why your family’s gang is now with the Crescis, for example. I thought your family hated them.”

“They do. Especially now.” She squirms at my touch, trying to inch away from it, but I pull her closer to me. “I don’t really know. It happened right after…” She bites her lip, and I consider kissing her, being the one to bite that lower lip instead until it swells beneath my teeth. “Right after Pa died and Sean went to prison. My brother Kyran didn’t want to take over.”

I’ve heard some rumors about her brother, who is now consigliere to the Cresci family. If I had defected to the enemy like that, I would already be dead.

I guess Russian men know more loyalty than American ones do.

“What a shame for you, then,” I say, trailing one hand under her shirt. “No more men to protect you from us.”

“So you haven’t talked to Kyran or Cresci,” she says, sounding a little surprised as she squirms in my lap, grabbing my wrist and trying unsuccessfully to pull it back.

I snort in amusement. “Why would I? Your family screwed us over twice already, and I don’t trust Cresci any more than I do the Winters. He seems to have come out quite well in this whole fiasco.”

It was a weapons deal with the Winters, although our original trading partner had been Silvano Cresci. Only somehow the Winters stole Cresci’s shipment. What should have been a smooth deal ended up with everybody arrested, including the former leader of our faction, Matvey Petrov.

Maybe I should be thanking the Winters, since their fuck-up is why I’m now the “intermin” leader.

Her expression is dark as she replies flatly, “Yeah. I guess it’s good one of us did.”

Nikolai smirks at her, his eyes going to the bandage on her chest. “Yep. Because you sure as hell didn’t.”

“I’m aware of that,” she snaps at him, trying to get up out of my lap. I place a hand on her thigh, pulling her right back down.

My hand rests on her thigh, large and imposing. Something stirs inside me, thinking of how fragile she is.

Of course, my phone buzzes again, several times in quick succession. I let out a frustrated sound and let go of her thigh to stab at the phone.

---