Page 36 of Kings of Cruelty

“Come in!” Konstantin barks.

The door swings open to Sierra scowling at Stepan at the door, who’s scowling right back at her.

She sidesteps him, making her way into the room and shutting the door right in his face. As she turns to face us, taking in our grim looks, her own expression gets wary. “Well, this doesn’t look good,” she remarks.

Konstantin chuckles and shakes his head. “That is… an understatement. But you came for a reason, Sierrochka?”

“I came because I could hear yelling,” she says. “And I wanted to let you know that ifIcould hear it, your Russian-speaking staff could probably hear it, too.”

“You were only looking out for us,” I say with amusement. I pat the spot between me and Yuri, and Yuri scoots away to make space for her.

She settles into the spot between us, but her eyes are on Konstantin even as I put an arm around her shoulder. “I was!” she insists. “But anyway, a few people scurried away as I was coming down the hall.”

Konstantin strokes his beard. “Which of them stayed?”

“What?” Sierra asks, confused.

“Which of the men stayed to eavesdrop?” he demands.

Yuri lets out an annoyed sigh. “Either they stayed to eavesdrop, or they stayed because they know it’s their job to be on watch and they don’t want to face the consequences of deserting. You can’t know which it is.”

“I wish my old man wasn’t up your dad’s ass,” I tell Konstantin. “It’d be nice to find out which is which.”

“I wish I was a femme fatale who could invade their beds and—” Sierra begins.

“No,” I interrupt sharply, not wanting to think about her trying to seduce her way into the beds of the Russian organized crime groups.

She gives me an irritated look. “I said Iwish, not that I was going to try.”

“There will be no sleeping around,” Konstantin says firmly. “By anyone.” He gives me a pointed look, and I bristle.

“I haven’t fucking touched anyone,” I bite out. “I didn’t even go to a club. I went to my dear papa’s. Does that sound like I was trying to sleep around?”

All right, maybe I’d gone to kill the restlessness inside of me in a way I’d known would be effective, but even so. I hadn’t done anything.

Sierra scowls at me. “You thought about it, remember?” she points out tartly.

“I never should’ve said anything about that,” I mutter.

“Hmm, but you did. Guilty conscience?” Yuri says with a grin. “Maybe you need a whipping too.”

“For having normal thoughts?” I demand, not sharing his amusement. “Am I the only one who hasn’t thought about fucking someone else? I haven’t been monogamous since…”

Since high school, when I’d thought it was the way it had to be. I’d never really committed to anyone since?—

Fuck, this isn’t the time to think about high school and bittersweet memories.

“Since?” Sierra prompts, suddenly sounding interested.

Yuri pulls Sierra against him, away from me. “Yeah, Nikolai. When was the last time you were only sharing one single lady with two other men?”

Lady.

I nearly laugh at his choice of words, but I have a feeling I’d get smacked if I did.

“Before Sierra,” I say sullenly. “You know that. You know what it was like before her.” I glare at him. “What about you, huh?”

Yuri’s good humor suddenly drops. “It was definitely before I spent two years in jail.”

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