Page 68 of Kings of Violence

Kotya releases me and eyes me steadily. “Did she misbehave?”

“No.” I stuff my hands into my pockets. I hate that I feel like a stupid teenager now. I shouldn’t be this emotional about something as silly as Sierra having had a boyfriend. “Nikolai and I fucked her over the kitchen island.”

“Sounds hot,” Kotya says. He walks over to the industrial sink and washes his hands. “Did she fight you?”

“I guess.” I shrug. “It wasn’t the fuck that pissed me off.”

“So what did?” Kotya dries his hands, then turns his full attention to me. “You’ve been acting strange, Yura. Nikolai said you were mad we claimed Sierra, but she’s exactly your type. You were excited to take her on the bike ride, but you come back even more upset. And now you fuck her, and are more angry than ever?”

When he lays it out like that, I really do seem irrational.

“It isn’t because of her,” I say.

Kotya raises his brows at me. “Are you jealous? Do you think she’s stealing my attention?”

“No!” I interject immediately. “It’s not like that.”

Of course, my protests sound hollow, when it was exactly like that a few years ago, before we’d arrived in New Bristol. There’d been this lovely piece of ass back in Russia that had her eye on Kotya, and I’d done everything in my power to scare her away.

Maybe if she’d agreed to fuck both of us, it would have been different.

She’d called me a little boy, though, not worthy of her time. Fuck, I don’t want to think about that memory.

Konstantin blew her off after a few months, though, and soon after, we got sent to America.

“Are you jealous, because you want her all to yourself?” Kotya asks in his steady tone.

I inhale sharply and straighten my posture. “That’s not it either. Kotya, you know that I wouldn’t ever want to…”

Kotya reaches out to brush a strand of hair out of my face. “I don’t doubt your loyalty or commitment to me, Yura. But if Sierra is a problem, we will get rid of her.”

“No!” I shout. A second later I realize just how loud I’ve been. “No. I don’t want to get rid of her, Kotya.”

“Then tell me what the problem is.” His voice is dark and authoritative now. “I don’t need somebody who can’t keep it together.”

Fuck. Maybe the real reason I don’t want to tell him or Nikolai is that I’m fucking embarrassed.

“Sierra Winters…” I let out a frustrated sound. “You’re right. She’s my type. I noticed her years ago, when I was dealing with Sean Winters.” I sound so fucking pathetic. “I tried to… court her? I don’t know what to call it. But Sean Winters didn’t like that. So he set me up to land in jail.”

The resentment boils up again. He’d sent me to fucking jail for daring to breathe near his sister, but wasn’t paying any attentionwhile she dated some fucking piece of shit worm who’d cheated on her.

“He’s doing worse than you are now,” Kotya says. “In jail, his sister is with us, his brother is shacked up with their enemy…”

“We should kill his wife and children,” I mutter, but I don’t really mean it. I rest my head against Konstantin’s shoulder, and he strokes the back of my head.

I really hope none of the others decide to choose now to bother Konstantin. The open door would reveal just how weak and pathetic I am, taking comfort like this.

“We’ll continue to fuck Sierra.” Kotya’s hand on the back of my head is soothing. “And you’ll tell me why you’re upset right now. It isn’t because of your jail time.”

I sigh, and I hate that Kotya knows me well enough to see through me.

“Yeah.” I pull away from him, but I keep my gaze averted. “Nikolai said he ran into Sierra’s ex-boyfriend. Some little pissboy who cheated on her. And thinking about somebody else touching her, defiling her, then treating her like that?—”

Kotya makes a spitting sound. “If he comes near her again, we break his fingers.”

He understands. He knows exactly why something like that upset me. Sierra and Nikolai both acted like I wasn’t making any sense, but Kotya gets me.

“Thank you,” I whisper. I straighten my shoulders and pretend I hadn’t been overly emotional. “Yeah. He didn’t deserve to touch her. She’s… special. I can tell. From the first moment I laid eyes on her.” I brush my hair back and, with a small flutter of nervousness, I add, “It’s like when I met you.”

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