Page 67 of Kings of Cruelty

I should’ve done a lot of things.

I fumble with my phone, finding Kyran in my contact list and tapping the screen to call him.

It, of course, goes straight to voicemail because why would it not?

I try Silvano, and while it rings a few times, it goes to voicemail as well.

I don’t have any other contacts in his organization. I don’t have access to my bank account. I don’t have anything but the fancy dress that shows off my fucking brand and these shoes that are increasingly uncomfortable as the minutes wear on.

For a moment, I feel like breaking down into tears, but that has to be the pregnancy talking. I’m not this helpless. I never have been, and I never will be.

So despite all of my reservations, despite everything screaming at me not to do it, I dial James’s number. I’m running out of time. I have to get in touch withsomeone, ditch my phone, and get the fuck off of campus before it’s too late.

My panic and adrenaline are making me nauseated all over again, and I fight the urge to vomit all over myself.

I tap the call button and put the phone to my ear as it starts to ring.

He answers on the third ring. “Sierra?”

Fuck my life. Fuck. My. Life.

“I need help,” I blurt out.

“Sure, anything,” he says.

I fight back a snort. Yeah. Anything. He probably has some woman over even after begging me to take him back over more emails and texts than I can count now. “Meet me in freshmanparking,” I tell him. It’ll be the busiest at this time of night, hopefully, and it’s not where Konstantin and his men would think to go. “I need you to pick me up and get me the fuck away from here.”

“I’ll be there in five,” James answers. He hangs up, and I get out of the car and head toward the drop-off/pick-up area. If James can be here in five minutes, that means he was already on campus. He was definitely fucking somebody. I hope that means he’s completely lost interest in me.

All the emails he’s been harassing me with say otherwise, though.

This is a bad idea.

I try Kyran’s number again, but it still goes straight to voicemail.

So much for always being there for his baby sister.

The bitter thought isn’t fair. He has a life of his own, but it still hurts.

I grit my teeth and try Silvano again, but this time, it goes to voicemail immediately.

“Goddamn it,” I mutter.

There goes that. I’m going to be completely reliant on James now.

I really need to ditch my phone, but I don’t know any other way to reach Kyran—and if I’m going to be honest with myself, I don’t trust James enough to be without a way to contact anyone. If I can get five minutes of peace, I know I can disable the tracker. I have to get away from campus first, then I can focus on that.

I breathe out a huff of relief when I see James’s car and hurry toward it. The door opens when I try it, and I slide in. “Okay,” I tell him, breathless from the exertion of my near-run to parking. “I need a place to lay low until I can talk to Kyr— my brother.”

“Your brother knows where you are?” James asks as he pulls away from the parking lot. He doesn’t even wait for me to finish buckling my seatbelt.

“Yes,” I lie.

I see that I have 12 missed calls as I start to go through my phone, but none of them are from Kyran or Silvano—just Konstantin, Yuri, and Nikolai. Fuck them. Fuck all of them. There’s nothing they can say to make this okay, and I’m not going back.

I watch the city traffic go by as James drives. “Where were you?” I ask quietly. “Before I called. You were only five minutes away.”

James laughs awkwardly. “At a party. Don’t worry, it wasn’t anything important.”

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