Page 9 of Kings of Cruelty

“I’ve heard they’re going to release you in the morning,” Silvano says calmly. He doesn’t have the decency to look at me while he speaks.

I glare at him anyway.

“I’m going to call for the nurse,” I threaten, except… I know why he’s here, and I have to head him off before he tries to do something stupid.

I wonder what happened to the flash drive full of information that I’d had the night of the party. Had Silvano found it, or had Konstantin? One of their enemies? There was so much data on it, data I really don’t want to have fallen into the wrong hands.

It’s funny to think that about Silvano when he was the one I’d gathered all of that information for in the first place.

Too bad he’d killed my father and destroyed my desire to help him.

“Before you do, I thought we could talk about how things will be going forward.” Silvano turns around and leans against the window. I realize now he’s still wearing a fancy suit, like he’s going to some finance job and not simply making a hospital visit.

“Oh, enlighten me,” I say sarcastically. “How are things going to go?”

Silvano smiles at me. “I wanted to ask you, actually. Obviously, you don’t want to come live with me and Kyran. Frankly, I don’t want you living with us either. I can still set you up with a new identity and a lot of money somewhere on another continent. That has to be better than living with Konstantin Voronkov, right?”

The idea should appeal to me. After all, it’s exactly what I’d planned on doing that night—grabbing Ma and getting as far away as possible as quickly as possible. We wouldn’t have had the benefit of new identities, though, and that had been a poorly thought plan.

What Silvano is offering is freedom, though I’d forever be beholden to my father’s murderer.

I would, and Ma would, and my…

I touch my stomach, where my pregnancy isn’t even starting to show yet.

“And what would you get out of that, huh? You don’t do anything for free,” I challenge him. Maybe I’m stalling, but I know better than to think Silvano Cresci is going to help me out of the kindness of his heart.

Something about the quality of Silvano’s smile changes. “I would get Kyran’s happiness out of it, Sierra. He cares deeply for you. It’s killing him that you’re rejecting him, exactly like your mother has.”

I scoff. “If he gave a shit about us, he wouldn’t be withyou,” I say savagely.

I can’t deny that Konstantin, Nikolai, and Yuri’s loathing of what they consider traitorous behavior has rubbed off on me. I had been angry at Kyran before, but now I don’t even know what to feel about him.

I still can’t believe he’s sleeping with our father’s murderer. When I look at Silvano, all I can feel is an almost overwhelming hatred.

“And ifyougave a fuck, you wouldn’t have left me with Konstantin for as long as you did,” I add.

Anger flashes across Silvano’s features. “Kyran wanted to go in guns blazing. But what would that have done, Sierra? You saw how many people died at Don Marino’s.Youalmost died! We found a way to get you out without more bloodshed—whichwould have succeeded, if you’d come with us instead of running away.”

No bloodshed, except for Konstantin and Yuri and Nikolai ending up as corpses.

I drop back against the bed, closing my eyes as I think. I wouldn’t have wanted people to die trying to rescue me, but it still hurts that they did nothing at all.

“You killed Pa,” I whisper, blinking away tears. “How did you expect me to react?”

“Smarter,” Silvano counters. “I won’t apologize for anything. Your father was a homophobic, hateful man who was going to kill Kyran if he wasn’t stopped. I made the choice. Kyran’s life was far more valuable to me.”

“Was it?” I snap. “Without you in his life, Pa wouldn’t have had a reason to even think about hurting Kyran. Did you maybe think that it wasn’t about him being gay? That it was because it wasyouhe chose to shack up with while the rest of us were hurting?”

Silvano takes several steps in my direction, and the anger radiating from him makes me flinch.

“Kyran should have stayed in the closet? Is that it?” Silvano asks coldly. “He should have spent his entire life appeasing your parents, while he lost more and more of himself with every day?”

“That’s not what I said!” I snap, even though I know I need to stay calm. One of the machines starts to beep a little faster, but I can’t stop now that I’ve started. “I said, it’s because it was you! You and your father were responsible for Neil’s death. Or did you forget that?Ifound them, Silvano. I got to see your family’s handiwork up close and personal. And Kyran still goes and crawls into your bed, like the rest of us don’t even matter.”

I burst into angry, helpless tears, trying to wipe them away but failing.

“And if it hadn’t been for me—” Silvano cuts himself off before he finishes that sentence.

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