Page 60 of Kings of Violence

“Okay. I don’t want to talk to you. Now fuck off.” I try to move around him, but he blocks my path with his arm.

“You were upset,” James says in that tone of voice I used to think was charming. “But look, it was just the one time. She came onto me, and I was kind of drunk. There’s no need for us to throw away something good because of a one-time mistake.”

I highly, highly doubt it had been one time, especially since I’d disappeared for a few long weeks after our breakup. He’s probably been running from bed to bed since the night I’d been taken.

God, I wish it had just been ice cream and movie night, not utter terror and being kidnapped.

“Something good?” I scoff.

The classroom has begun to empty out, though a few peoplelinger like they want to see a show. I glare at them, and they continue walking, but it’s frustrating.

“Yeah. C’mon, baby,” he tries to coax. “I’ll make reservations at La Maison. You love that place. We can talk, and work things out, and maybe you can come over after.”

Un-fucking-believable.

Before I can answer, though, a very, very thick accented voice says, “I do not think so.”

I blink at Nikolai, arching a brow at him. His voice is never accented like that, and he speaks English fluently. “Oh, great,” I bemoan. “Now I’m stuck betweentwoassholes.”

James glances at Nikolai and frowns. “Who the fuck do you think you are? This is a private conversation.”

Nikolai is about the same size as James, for all that James isn’t as muscular. James is attractive, I guess, though I’d fallen out of the trap of thinking him utterly handsome when he’d fucking cheated on me and I’d stopped seeing everything through rose-colored glasses.

Next to each other, Nikolai looks even more menacing. James’s attempt to intimidate Nikolai fails miserably.

“You can consider me her… guardian, I think you’d say?” Nikolai says in that same ridiculous voice.

For some reason, I have to fight the urge to laugh even though I’m a little surprised he hadn’t introduced himself as myboyfriend.

Even the professor is gone now, and it’s only the three of us in the otherwise empty computer lab.

“Guardian?” James scoffs and looks at me. “You hired protection just to walk around campus? Your brothers weren’t enough anymore?”

My gaze flicks to Nikolai for a second, then I look back at James. “One of them is in jail,” I say flatly, and as soon as I say the words, I regret them. He’s always had a way of coaxing words out of me, though; he’d been so easy to talk to at first that we’d spent hours on the phone.

He’s one of the few people who suspects what kind of life myfamily leads even though I’d been quick to dissuade him from that line of thinking more than once.

“Jail?” James has the courtesy to look a little chagrined, but his indignation returns quickly enough. “So you hired some Russian thug to chaperone you?”

I let out a frustrated sound. “I’m not going to stand here and talk to you about this,” I tell him. “You made damn sure to burn bridges, James. So fuck off.”

“Don’t be like that, babe.” James reaches out and grabs my wrist.

Nikolai is quick to respond, and he steps in closer. “She told you to leave her alone,” he snarls.

It’s so funny thathe’sthe one to defend me like that that I start laughing. Both of them look at me, confused, and I shake my head. “No, it’s nothing. It’s… nothing. Oh, god.” I try to pull my wrist back from James, though, and when he doesn’t let go, it’s not funny anymore. “Let go.”

“Or I’ll snapyourwrist,” Nikolai says in a low rumble. “Or perhaps break all of your little fingers.”

James glares back at Nikolai, and for a few seconds I think they’re actually going to get into a fist fight. I don’t even know which of them I want to win.

Well, only one of these guys cheated on me and made me feel like it was my own fault.

The tension breaks when somebody knocks on the wall next to us. “Hey, I’ve got class here. Stop blocking the doorway.”

James releases me, and I take a deep breath.

“Okay. For fuck’s sake, guys, chill out,” I tell them.

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