Page 124 of Kings of Cruelty

I inhale slowly, shakily, and look between them.

I realize that if I say something wrong, I could break them. Not one of them, but all three, and my words have never been so important.

“I… You didn’t make it easy,” I confess. “Not at first. None of you.” My gaze goes to each of them in turn, lingering. “But…” I take another deep breath. “Now I can’t imaginenotloving you.”

Nikolai grabs me and kisses me hard on the lips. “That’s because we’re perfect, zaya,” he says with a smirk as he pulls away.

I snort. “Perfectly annoying,” I tell him.

“We’re going to go on so manyadventurestogether,” Yuri promises with a wild smile.

Konstantin nods. “You will help us carve our niche here and establish our reign.” He strokes my belly again. “After all, your child will inherit it all.”

I watch his hand, not sure how I feel about the idea of being the mother of the heir to Konstantin’s empire. But I’ll have a say in how my child—my sonormy daughter—takes part in it, and whether Konstantin wants to admit it or not, I’ll have a say in how these things proceed.

The feeling is heady, almost like a drug.

I’ll never feel powerless again.

“Our child,” I say, then manage a rueful smile. “Ourchildren.”

From the way Konstantin’s eyes light up, I know I said the right thing—and from the way Nikolai and Yuri take turns peppering my mouth with kisses, I know they agree.

I’m in this, for better or for worse.

But I really think it’ll be for the better.

Epilogue

SIERRA

“Areyou really going to serve lunch in that?” my mother asks, glancing at the completely normal serving bowl with pasta salad in it.

I glare at her. “Ma, it’s a serving bowl. What else would I put the pasta salad in?” The kitchen is a disaster, because for some unholy reason I’d told Konstantin we didn’t need a caterer for a small birthday party with nine people.

My mother wrinkles her nose. “It’s not very pretty, is it? It makes you look cheap.”

“Anyone who looks around the place knows we aren’t cheap,” I say as patiently as I can manage. “Besides, it’s only family. It’s not like we’re hosting for half of New Bristol.”

“Family, and those two other men,” Ma says with disdain. “I don’t like that Yuri fellow. He’s so…”

I grit my teeth. “Yuri is a dear friend, Ma,” I say. I almost wish I could tell her what Yuri and Nikolai are to me. She’d ice me out longer than she had Kyran after finding out he was gay and fucking Silvano Cresci.

As it is, she’d nearly shut me out when she’d found out I was pregnant with the child of my kidnapper. It feels eons ago,though, and if I could forgive Konstantin, it feels like she should too.

But she’s never been quick to forgive and forget anything. I’m lucky she even came to this gathering, and it was only for the benefit of her granddaughter.

My mother takes the salad bowl—which she’d also criticized—and helps me carry it to the dining room.

Little Anastasia is excitedly making noises at Silvano, who is playing peek-a-boo with her. For some reason, I didn’t expect Silvano to be as doting an uncle as he is. Kyran is far more awkward, and even now he seems uncomfortable.

Nikolai has his camera out and is taking photos of everybody. Yuri is cutting up the big roast, Kyran keeps looking between Anastasia and Silvano, and Konstantin is talking with his mother Mila.

Mila gets up when she sees me. “Let me help,” she says in Russian. “Kostya thinks I’m too weak to lift a finger.”

“No, I think you shouldn’thaveto lift a finger,” Konstantin replies, also in Russian.

I’m so proud of how far my Russian has come in the past year and a half, and even though Yuri still teases me about my accent, I can make myself understood. “He’s not wrong,” I tell her. “You’re our guest.”

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