Page 84 of Kings of Violence

“What are you looking at?”Yura asks.

I’m surprised he’s even awake. I thought he’d drifted off. It’s certainly comfortable enough in the bed with Sierra between us.

I hold up my phone, displaying a picture of a beautiful blonde who is very, very pregnant. “My brother’s mistress. I’m not sure what he wants me to do with this.”

Charitably, he’s simply excited. She’s smiling in the photo, and I guess Roman must have charmed her plenty.

Of course, not featured in this photo is the fact that Roman has a wife and son already, and he has no intention of leaving them to care for this new life he helped create.

I’d almost hope that the child she’s carrying is somebody else’s, but would it matter?

Well. To Roman, yes.

I think about Sierra, and how the three of us all fucked her raw. If she got pregnant, we might not know who the biological father was short of a DNA test. Not that it would matter. Any child of hers would be claimed as my own.

How’s that for messy, Father?I think bitterly.

Yura rolls closer and drapes his arm over Sierra. “Hot. But not as hot as Sierra.”

I laugh. “But… Sierrochka would be very attractive if she were pregnant, wouldn’t she?”

The long silence makes me wonder if he disagrees, but Yura lets out a strange sound. “Fuck. Yeah, yeah she would.” He kisses the side of Sierra’s cheek. “Then she’d never be able to escape us.”

Sierra stirs, as though aware we’re talking about her. Or maybe it’s just the touch. Her eyes flutter open, and she tenses a little. All of the languid need she’d been feeling earlier seems to be gone, replaced by apprehension. It’s a good thing we’ve been speaking in Russian; if she knew why she was the topic of conversation, she’d panic.

“How are you feeling?” Yura asks her in English, gently stroking her stomach.

She shrugs. “Better, I guess.” But she sounds subdued.

Yura and I exchange a look. There’s something she’s not telling us, and I’m vaguely reminded of her admission that her brother had wanted her to see a therapist. Yuri had known why. I arch a brow, looking at him.

“Was it just the danger?” I ask, running my knuckles down her cheek. “We will keep you home, if the danger is too much.”

“No!” she says quickly, shaking her head. “I don’t want to be stuck here all the time. I want to go to classes and… and go places. It was just…” She looks so vulnerable.

I lean in to give her a gentle kiss to encourage her to continue. “You mentioned your brother wanting you to see a therapist,” I say, keeping my voice soft. It’s strange, how she evokes this in me. “Why?”

Sierra shudders. Instead of answering, though, she looks pleadingly at Yuri.

Yura pulls her closer to himself. His tattooed arm is a stark contrast against all of her pale skin.

“When her brother and his family were murdered… Sierra was the one who discovered them.” Yura’s eyes meet mine. “It was a gruesome scene.”

She nods, swallowing hard as she buries her face in his chest.

I know my brother and father would both be furious if one of “their” women turned to another man for comfort. But when I see Sierra with Yura, all I feel is warmth, and the general mild arousal I always get when I watch two beautiful people together.

I don’t think I would feel quite this strongly if it were anybody other than Sierra, Yura, or Nikolai, though.

I stroke Sierra’s back gently. “How old were you?”

Her lips part slightly, but she doesn’t speak at first. For a moment, I don’t think she’s going to answer at all, but Yura and I both give her time to think and gather her composure. “Twelve,” she whispers. “My niece… My niece was only six. Six.” Her shoulders shake, and Yura’s arm tightens around her.

Fuck. Twelve is far too young to experience something like that. My mother had tried to shield me from the violence as much as she could, although by sixteen my father was already bringing me to meet his real family and teaching me what my place in his organization would be.

I glance at Yura, whose expression is dark and thunderous.

Knowing what I know about Yura’s past, I wonder if he saw terrible things at that age, too.

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