Page 27 of Kings of Cruelty

Her brows furrow, and she goes back to a spreadsheet. It’s been neatly done, with rows and columns I assume consist of all of the information she’s put together. “I have a few more locations we can check out, I think,” she says. “From Don Marino’s files. Those weren’t as hard to crack.”

“Sounds like a plan. We’ll take whatever we can from Marino.” I put an arm around Sierra’s shoulders. “His family will rue having crossed us.”

“Are there many left?” she asks. “After… I mean, I assume cops got involved somehow since I went to the hospital with a gunshot wound.” She reaches up to touch it. “Unless you paid them off?”

I laugh and press a kiss to the top of her head. “I killed Don Marino, Sierrochka. We cleared out many of his followers that night. But if anybody stills claims association to him, I will gladly grind them to dust too.”

The memory of how Sierra had looked, bleeding out on the floor, threatens to make the rage overcome me.

She squirms, but she doesn’t say anything at first. Instead, she scrolls through the spreadsheet, where she has a few addresses highlighted. “I looked on a maps app to see what they look like. One standard warehouse, two regular houses.” She pauses. “An apartment complex? But I doubt they’d have stored anything there. Getting them in and out would’ve been a pain.”

“You’d be surprised.” I listen to Sierra tell me what she’s been able to glean from the information. Part of me is surprised at how enthusiastic she gets, but I should have known.

She’s always been curious. She likes to be in the know.

I lean down to kiss her jaw, and she tenses up.

“I was so scared, Sierrochka,” I murmur. “I’m so lucky that you’re here, with me.”

Sierra looks up at me, and I can read the skepticism in her expression. “You’re only worried about the baby,” she says.

“I didn’t know you were pregnant when you were bleeding out,” I point out.

She inhales slowly, then nods. “Yeah. I guess not.” She taps her fingers on the laptop again, next to the track pad. “I don’t know what I’d have done if Yuri had shot my brother instead of me.”

“You wouldn’t have to worry about Silvano Cresci anymore,” I point out.

“I think we’d have to worry about him even more,” she says with a shake of her head. “He’d be hell-bent on revenge.” Her lips twist into a bitter smile. “He’d have started a war for Kyran. For all his faults, I think he really does love my brother. And that… That makes everything ten times more difficult.”

Love.

I don’t understand how Silvano Cresci can love Kyran Winters, or vice versa. I can’t imagine falling in love with a man at all. Kyran is nothing like his sister, who is beautiful, clever, fierce, stubborn…

But I also don’t understand liking family members. I sigh and stroke my beard. “You were close with your brother? Before all this?”

Sierra nods. “He’s rough around the edges, but he tries. He’s the only one who really seemed to give a fuck about how I was holding up after Neil…” She waves a hand, giving me a fake smile. “You know.”

I remember. I pet her hair gently, trying to figure out how to be what she needs right now. “I was fourteen when my father made me kill somebody for the first time.”

She bites her bottom lip. “What was it like? I mean… Not that I ever want to kill someone,” she’s quick to add, “but I know every man in my family has done it. I don’t know if I can even imagine what it’s like to take someone’s life.”

“It was the worst day of my life,” I admit. “I could barely hold the weapon. And the first time I pulled the trigger, I missed, so my father made me hold the gun directly against the man’s head.”

I chuckle darkly, remembering how heavy the gun had felt in my hand. I hadn’t thought I could do it—but I’d known Ihadto do it, because failure was not allowed.

“My brother Roman was there too. He kept calling me a… a… coward, a pussy, all sorts of insults I can’t translate.”

She scowls. “He sounds like a real prize,” she replies. “He probably pissed his pants the first timehehad to kill someone.”

I laugh, thankful for Sierra’s attempts to comfort me. “I wouldn’t know. But Roman has always been quick to remind me that he’s the real heir to our father’s legacy. That I am on this earth solely to support him. That my father would never allow any of my children to get even a scrap of his wealth.”

“It doesn’t seem like you need it?” she asks more than says. Her hand goes to her stomach, and she grimaces. “I mean, you seem pretty confident you can take care of me. Us.”

She doesn’t know how tenuous my leadership is. She doesn’t know that everybody around me expects me to step down as soon as somebody better comes along. My father never trusted me with this operation to begin with.

“I can,” I promise her. “You will be safe, and live in luxury.”

I won’t let Sierra fall through my grasp. I won’t allow anybody to destroy this small family I’m building.

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