Page 3 of Kings of Cruelty

I hear heavy feet storm toward me, and a large hand grabs me by the shoulder. “Don’t you fucking touch her, Voronkov. You branded her like she’s… like she’s property, and you’re acting like you give a fuck about her?” Kyran snarls in my ear.

He sounds like a wounded animal.

I sneer at him. “Yes. I care about her more than you, who left her alone, undefended. She is thriving with me.”

“She’s dying because of you!” Kyran says.

“The medics will be here soon,” Silvano interrupts. “She won’t die.”

Nikolai ignores him. “Actually, she’s dying because she was trying to meet you here.” He looks at Kyran with as muchloathing as I feel. “We wouldn’t have even been here if you hadn’t lured her here.” He turns his head to me. “We weren’t on the guest list, Kotya. She… She…”

Silvano steps forward, placing a hand on Kyran’s shoulder and squeezing. “There’s no need to throw blame around right now. The more important thing is getting Sierra medical care.” He glances at Victor Corvi. “How long until your doctors get here?”

“They’re almost here,” Lucia answers smoothly. “I hope this means we can all learn to cooperate from here on out.”

I don’t understand her meaning at first, my brain too muddled to work through the English, until it clicks. She isn’t offering this help for free.

We owe her, and Victor Corvi, now.

Yura shifts so he’s on his knees, and I see the tears in his eyes. His neck is dark with the bruises I’d made. His hair has come free of its ponytail, and he doesn’t look like the prison-hardened man he’d become.

He’s the same teenaged boy I’d met all those years ago, desperate for a purpose and somebody to guide him.

Destroy him, a dark part of me whispers.

“I’ll do anything,” he says, but he isn’t addressing me. He’s looking at Victor and Lucia. “Whatever you want. Just as long as Sierra survives.”

“No!” I shout, storming over to him. I grab him by the hair and shake him roughly. “You do not get to make promises on our behalf,” I growl at him in Russian. “You’ve made enough stupid mistakes tonight, boy.”

Yura lets out a long sob, but he nods.

“I thought you fucking cared about her,” Kyran says darkly. “Well, you can tell him no, but I’m not going to. I’ll do fucking?—”

“You will shut up,” Silvano interrupts sharply. His expression is less friendly now. He turns to Victor and Lucia. “We can discuss debtsafterSierra has been saved. Not before.”

“Of course,” Lucia says. “Victor’s doctors are the best, but I believe she’s lost a lot of blood. It’ll be a shame if she dies here because you’re all socautious.” She glances at Victor. “Are they here?”

“Heartless bitch,” Nikolai mutters.

Lucia’s slim shoulder lifts in a shrug. She doesn’t argue. She’s flanked on either side by Victor and Angelo, and I finally recognize how odd it is that she’s speaking on Victor’s behalf. It doesn’t matter now, though. I don’t care who the actual power behind the Rosa di Sangue, Victor Corvi’s group, is.

I hear rattling down the hallway, and I realize someone had to have led the paramedics here. The same man who had helped Angelo pull Kyran off of Yura is at the front, and he steps out of the way so they can get to Sierra.

One of the medics starts barking out questions, and Nikolai answers them as they work to get her onto the stretcher they’ve brought.

I move to follow them, but Angelo stops me.

“Only one person rides with her,” he says, glancing between Kyran and me. “Better figure out fast who gets to do that.”

“As long as it’s not Yuri,” Nikolai says, staring as hatefully at him as he had Kyran earlier.

If I’m not there with her, if I can’t watch over her, she’s gone.

I can feel it in my bones. Even if she survives—and shewillsurvive—Silvano Cresci and Kyran Winters would never let me see her again.

I square my jaw at Kyran. “I’m going.”

“No, you fucking aren’t. She’s my sister. You have no fucking right,” Kyran says.

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