Page 48 of Soulless Rivalry

The reason for that? The girl had called her sister Katarina a frigid bitch.

She took one step toward Luca and produced a small knife from her waistband. She didn’t hesitate once and started digging it softly against Luca’s stomach, smiling sweetly at him.

“You’re gonna pick up her stuff, then you’re gonna run off to wherever you came from. Understand me,daragoi?”

Her voice was so soft but I could see she pushed the knife harder against Luca’s shirt, so much so that one small droplet of blood appeared on the pressed white fabric. He looked like he was seconds away from shitting himself. I couldn’t help the smile that grew on my face at the sight.

Without a word, he cast me one last glare, before he did as told and he and his posse turned around, opening the doors leading to the main hall to disappear in the sea of students.

Dinara was looking in that direction too, shaking her head in disgust, before she turned towards me. “You know, it’s my family they call savages but these guys are so much worse.”

Don’t I know it…

Then, to my surprise, she extended her hand towards me, and I took it, suddenly remembering I was still lying on the floor.

When we came face to face, she blatantly stared at me, her head tilting to the side in wonder.

“Thank you,” I decided to say when she still wouldn’t speak. Her eyes had been roaming my body, like she was analyzing every inch of me, but they came back up to meet mine when I spoke.

A small smile stretched her lips and she shrugged. “Any time. I’m always up to putting the fear of God into little pissants like Luca Benetti.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at that.

“Plus, I wanted to see you in the flesh.”

“Me?” I frowned. “Why?”

Dinara smirked, her fingers coming up to play with a strand of my hair. “I wanted to see the girl who put weed in my brother’s lunch in person. Crazy that after two years here, this is the first time we run into each other.”

I swallowed thickly, not expecting her to have known about the weed accident. Still, I didn’t want my discomfort to show; something told me she wouldn’t receive it well. After all, Korolovs only respected two things: strength and loyalty.

I had already proven I wasn’t very loyal when it came to her brother and putting drugs in his stuff when I knew there would be a search, so all that was left was strength.

“Well, I like my nose attached to my face so I tend to avoid you.”

Her eyes widened in surprise, clearly not expecting my retort, before she snorted a laugh. I couldn’t help the small smile taking over my lips; Dinara Korolova’s laughter was pretty infectious.

“Girl, everybody’s always bringing that up like I ate the damn thing. I spat it out as soon as it hit my tongue.”

I couldn’t believe the conversation we were having.

“It had no business hitting your tongue in the first place.”

She rolled her eyes, and fuck but she reminded me so much of Konstantin when she did that.

“Whatever, you Americans always act shocked for the most random things.”

It was my time to laugh because that girl was nothing like what I expected, but I had to admit I was pleasantly surprised so far.

“So tell me, Elyssa, what are your intentions with my brother?”

The smile fell right off my face and I frowned; my throat felt dry all of a sudden.

“You tricked him, yet you’re still alive. I mean, Korolov men do not go after women, they usually send me instead, but he didn’t even do that. He lied to my mother telling her the drugs were his just to avoid putting you on her radar, and I had to endure my brother Mikhail bitching about never cleaning up Konstantin’s mess again all night yesterday.” She took a step towards me but I didn’t budge. “So tell me, little Bianchi, what’s so special about you that he doesn’t want anything happening to you?”

I swallowed but, still, my gaze didn’t waver from hers. I couldn’t show weakness in front of her or anyone in her family.

Just as I was about to deny everything, a deep voice echoed from behind us. My breath caught in my throat when Konstantin appeared right behind his baby sister.

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