Page 87 of Kings of Violence

Yura shrugs. “Guess you’ll have to show us what a woman can bring to the organization.”

“Maybe I fucking will,” Sierra retorts. “But you may not like what ends up happening to me along the way.”

Nothing is going to happen to her. I’m not going to allow it.

And despite what my father says, Iwillstart a legacy. Maybe my children will never be acknowledged by their grandfather, but I’m not going to stay in the shadows forever. I’m going to show my father that I’m just as capable as my brother.

Maybe I’ll end up being his legitimate heir after all.

NINETEEN

Yuri

I watchSierra reading her textbook and occasionally typing something into her laptop. She looks completely at home here in the campus coffee shop, with other students working at neighboring tables.

My fingers itch to be doing something. It was bad enough that I had to wait outside of her classroom while she took the classes. Almost everybody who passed me turned to stare, like they’ve never seen a guy in leather or with tattoos before. I can’t be the only person who dresses like this in all of New Bristol U.

I know I’m not, because across the room, a woman with several piercings—ears, nose, eyebrows—is sipping on a coffee and reading a book.

Maybe the real problem is that I never went to university myself. I didn’t even finish regular school. All this shit would be hard enough for me to parse in Russian, never mind English.

I tap my foot against the floor, glaring at Sierra’s textbook. There have to be better places for us to wait for her next class to start. Better shit for us to be doing.

“Say you’re bored without saying you’re bored,” Sierra drawls,and her foot finds mine and pushes it to the floor. “Seriously, Yuri, you should’ve just let Nikolai bring me.”

“It was my turn,” I say. I push back against her foot. “And he’s working on something else right now.”

“Okay. Just, um…” She winces slightly, pulling her foot back. “My ex is in my next class. So… I wanted to give you a heads up. He probably won’t even look twice at me, though!” she says with false cheer.

The man who had cheated on her. I wasn’t good enough for her, but she dated somebody who would use her and discard her.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Sierra says, lowering her voice when she sees the way my expression changes into something murderous. “I know you think I’m a whore who spreads her legs for anyone, but it wasn’t… It wasn’t like that. All right? And right now, I’m kinda drowning in men who want to fuck me, and I don’t want to add any more to that equation. So I don’t get what the problem is.”

“Nothing is the problem,” I answer curtly. It isn’t even about her ex—although I will definitely break his fingers if I come across him. I get up and point to the counter. “I’m getting a coffee. Do you want another one?”

“Yes, please,” she says warily. I can feel her watching me as I get up from the table and stalk toward the counter, but when I glance in her direction, she looks back down at the laptop like I hadn’t just caught her staring.

As I wait for the coffees, I look around the room and feel that itch again.

I’d never done well at school. Hell, I usually felt stupid because I didn’t understand and the teachers covered the material so fast. It had been a blessing to get out of classes when I did.

Kotya was the only one who believed I was smart. He got me thinking up schemes and coming up with new ways for us to make money or extort people.

The people here would probably consider me stupid too.

I grab the coffees and glance at Sierra.

Maybe she thinks I’m dumb. Maybe that’s why she was willingto flirt for a few seconds but didn’t try to stand up for me against her family.

I walk back to the table and set the coffee down in front of her, scowling.

“Maybe you’re pregnant already,” I say quietly.

Her eyes snap back to mine, going a little wide. “Don’t talk about that,” she hisses. “Especially not here. Fuck.”

“Why not?” I sit down across from her. “You wouldn’t be the first woman to have a baby in college.”

“We are not talking about that here,” Sierra says. Her cheeks flush red, and I’m not sure if it’s from anger or embarrassment.

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