Page 101 of Ruthless Bonds

I bit my bottom lip, leaning back on my arms. “Helping Constantine with his recovery, darling. What does it look like I’m doing?”

He crouched down so that we were eye level and lowered his sunglasses down his nose. “It looks like my wife wants to be punished for wearing a bikini in front of my brother.”

“Kreos, come on,” I scoffed.

My cheeks heated because he was right. I’d known if he caught me wearing this outside, he would blow a gasket. But at the same time, there was no way Constantine could have looked at me in that way. He acted more like a big brother than anything.

Kind of like Jameson.

After that night in the tunnel, things had been… hectic. Elena’s body had been taken care of, and there were no cops to worry about because Kreos was the judge, jury, and executioner. Except in this case, I was the one who had taken her life.

I hadn’t had a choice. She would have killed us. I found myself thinking about her sometimes, what she must have gone through as a child and how terrified she must have been. She’d spent all those years carrying around grief and anger inside of her. What Viktor had done to her family was monstrous. I understood loss, the ache of your family being torn away from you.

I understood her rage too, but the moment she’d decided to threaten me, poison an innocent man and put him in a coma, and torture Kreos any way she could, she’d turned into the same kind of monster she’d grown up to hate. Sometimes justice and tragedy were thesame thing.

I’d asked Kreos why he had shown up alone without backup. Apparently, Elena used a jammer to block the security camera feed, but Kreos’ men were able to get it back up and running. Kreos had seen her wheeling me through the tunnels. He had been close to finding out the whereabouts of the Cruel, but had raced home. Gavriil had warned him not to come alone, that it was a trap. But Kreos hadn’t cared. He knew that if he showed up with his army, Elena might have gotten spooked and killed me. So he came alone.

He’d once told me he would never let anything happen to me, that he would rather die first. And that was what he was prepared to do. Give up his life for mine. My heart had shattered into a million pieces at his confession, and I swore my love for him grew tenfold.

The USBs, SD cards, and journals were all a set-up. Kreos would never keep that kind of information around for the FBI or God knew who else to find. He had thought, however, that it would be a good trap for a mole within his ranks. He just never expected me to get caught in the middle of it.

It had also been a test for me. He wanted to see if I would take the supposed evidence and give it to the FBI. I asked him what he would have done if I had indeed betrayed him. He was quick to say that he would have locked me in a beautiful cage until I came to my senses and fell in love with him.

Lucky for him, I already had.

If I had just told him about the coin, all of this could have been avoided. I promised to never keep secrets from him again.

Kreos and Jameson had a sit-down days laterafter I explained everything that had happened. The night that Jameson “died,” Kreos and his father were there meeting with the Cruel. It was the night Viktor exiled him from the Bratva for taking part in human trafficking. They had no idea all those people were down in the basement. The Cruel and the cop murdered them all, then went into hiding.

Jameson was out for vengeance, and Kreos offered to help him. The Cruel hadn’t been seen or heard from though, and it was likely that he’d gone back into hiding. But that wasn’t going to stop them from going after him, or his men.

“I think a punishment is in order,milaya. Go to your office and wait for me.” Kreos stood, pushing his sunglasses up his nose.

Sasha barked at me, as if telling me to get up.

“Did you narc on me, little monster?” I scratched behind her ears and stood.

“Oh, c’mon, K. You’re ruining our fun,” Constantine shouted from the pool as he floated around on his back.

“If I catch you looking at my wife in a bikini again, I’ll drown you,” Kreos shouted over his shoulder as Sasha followed him up the stairs into the house.

Excitement ran through me as I made my way to my office, which was right next to Kreos’. I didn’t really need an office, but Kreos insisted it was necessary. He had this obsessive need to keep me close, even more so after everything that had happened with Elena.

I left my office door cracked open, went over to the desk, and sat on the edge. I picked up my award from the MIP competition and ran my fingers over the lettering.

I’d come in third place overall, and I wasn’t even mad about it. I’d been the youngest photographer to ever be awarded the Most Innovative Artistic Vision award for my photo,Blood Moon Salvation. The photo of me nude under the blood moon had been praised for telling a story of transformation and metamorphosis through a single image. Not only that, but I was recognized for blending multiple photography styles including architecture, night photography, self-portraiture, and gothic romanticism. If I was being honest with myself, none of that had been my intention. I’d only known the photo would be beautiful, but I was amazed that so many people recognized my skills and had given me my own special award.

In my mind, the blood moon was a symbol of my so-called baptism into this new, darker world I was entering with Kreos, and the church ruins represented the crumbling of my old life.

That photo now hung up in my office so that I could stare at it every day. It was also a great reminder of my husband’s addiction to chasing me through the woods, which he did often, and I loved every second of it.

Kreos slipped through the door, letting it slide shut behind him. He had changed into his black workout pants and had no shirt on. My gaze traveled over his chest, where Dove had tattooed my name over his heart. We’d also got each other’s names tattooed on our ring fingers. That way, if I was ever crazy enough to take off my wedding ring, everyone would still know I belonged to Kreos.

I set the award down and leaned back on the desk, spreading my legs. “What’s this about me gettingpunished?”

He reached me in three strides, his eyes darkening as they traveled up and down my body. I knew he loved this pink bikini; he just didn’t love it when others saw me wearing it too. He stepped between my open legs, his arms caging me in on the desk.

“You know you’re not allowed to wear that bikini for anyone but me,” he growled.

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