Page 5 of Kings of Violence

That makes the hysterical laughter die down in a hurry, and tears spring to my eyes.

Red.

All the bullet holes, all the gore, the way I’d heard so much shrieking only to realize it was coming from me?—

“Wait!” I choke out, red still tinting my vision as I imagine my mother’s corpse in front of me just like my brother Neil’s so long ago. How much more violence can my family take? Had Pa ever realized just what he was subjecting all of us to by trying to maintain the Winters family’s holdings? “I can… I can find it. If he put it in his phone, or on his computer, I can find it.”

I hope.

Kotya’s hand around my neck squeezes threateningly before he lets go entirely. “Find it? How?”

I wheeze, taking in a deep breath before telling him, “I’m about to graduate with a computer science degree. I majored in…” I wince. “Ethical hacking.”

Nikolai starts laughing. “Ethical hacking? Is that a thing?”

“Yes,” I say sullenly, hating him for laughing. A man devaluing my work isn’t particularly new, though. “Hacking isn’t inherently bad. It’s just how it’s used.” I’m sure he doesn’t want to know the difference between white hat hacking and black hat hacking, or how useful it can be for a company to employ someone to find holes in their defenses, so I don’t bother to tell him. “Anyway,” I add, “I can figure it out. I can call off Cresci, too, so you have more time to search.”

If there’s anything to call off. Kyran and his boyfriend Silvanohad given me vague assurances that they’d take care of me and Ma, but I don’t know what that entails.

“Sierra! Don’t!” Ma sobs. “Please, just leave her here. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She’s just a girl.”

I bristle a little at being called just a girl. It’s the same thing James had done, diminishing my accomplishments and making me doubt my skills, although I know my mother is trying to protect me.

Kotya and Nikolai share a glance.

“We take the girl,” Kotya finally says, his eyes raking over me. “Take all the computers in the house. Phones, too.”

The FBI had taken most of those things, too. The only thing they hadn’t touched was…

Nikolai looks into the safe room. “Guess that laptop might be important, then.”

I feel sick, but at least if I cooperate, they’ll spare Ma. I won’t have to see another graphic scene of violence with her corpse at the center of it. I can take care of myself.

Part of me wants to laugh all over again. I can take care of myself? With the Russian mob? Hardly.

But I have to believe it’s possible.

Kotya squeezes my shoulder. “You come quietly. If you fight, you struggle, youlie? Your dear oldmamashawill find a grave sooner rather than later.”

I shudder and shake my head quickly. “No. I won’t do any of that. I’ll tell you what you want to know.” Assuming I can find it, of course, but I’m not going to tell them that I have doubts. I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it if I have to.

“Sierra,” Ma pleads, tears streaking her cheeks. “My baby girl, I can’t lose you too. I can’t lose all my children. I can’t.”

I stare at her, ignoring Kotya for the moment as anger leaps into my throat again and makes my voice savage. “You still have a child, Ma. You have Kyran. He’s gay, not dead.”

“Oh, is he?” Nikolai chortles. “And dear old Ma here doesn’t like it? That’ll be a fun story for you to tell us.” He meets my eyes, his chocolate brown ones dark and hungry. “When we don’t have other uses for you, of course.”

I shudder, not liking the implications of his words. But he releases Ma, shoving her against the wall. She cries out in pain.

I take a step toward Ma, but Kotya tightens his grasp on me.

“Stay out of the way, old woman,” Nikolai tells her. “Let’s go.”

Kotya pulls on my shoulder and forces me to walk in front of him. “Let’s go. I am tired of standing in dark.”

Nikolai nods. “Yeah. Come,zaya.”

I don’t ask him what it means, even though I’m dying to know. It probably meansbitchin Russian. Either way, if I tell him it irritates me, he’ll probably do what James did when I told him I hated his nicknames for me.

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