Page 11 of Tarnished Queen

Christo blows out a long breath. He opens his mouth like he’s going to say something, but then he pinches his lips together. “I want to help you. But I can’t do that if you kill me.”

I’m still weighing the option when my phone rings.

I have Christo’s gun in my left hand and mine in my right, so it takes me a second to maneuver his gun into my pocket so I can reach for my phone. When I pull it out, Belle’s name is on the screen.

I want to be relieved, but I know better. I answer the call and press it to my ear, waiting silently.

Maybe Xena is calling to see if I’m dead. Maybe she wants to know I’m on the line so she can torture Belle for me to hear. I don’t plan to say a word until I know exactly what is going on.

“Who is it?” Christo whispers.

I narrow my eyes at him, and he shrinks back.

“Nikolai.” My name is little more than a breathless sound… but the voice is Belle’s. I know it. I’d know it anywhere.

She’s alive.

A breath huffs out of me. Belle must be able to recognize the sound.

“Thank God. It’s you. I was so—” She sounds exhausted in a way I’ve never heard before. There’s a tension to her words that I can’t decipher.

Is Xena standing over her shoulder, forcing her to call me? This could be a trap. I won’t fall into it.

But I want to soothe her fears. I want her to know I’d burn the fucking world down just to pluck her from the debris and wipe the ash from her face.

“I’m so glad you picked up. I don’t know what you know or what Xena said, but things are so complicated… I was in an accident. I’m okay. The baby is okay… ” she says, rushing through the explanation. “But something is wrong. Xena is here in the hospital, I think.”

“Is it Belle?” Christo hisses. “Who is it?”

I ignore him, focusing on the only thing that matters. Belle is in the hospital. It doesn’t sound like she’s okay if she’s in the hospital.

She’s talking so fast that I miss some of it. But her tone is unmistakable. She’s scared.

“… But something feels wrong, and I need you here,” she rasps, her voice almost a sob. “I really need you here.”

I’m holding onto the phone so tight that I’m surprised it’s still in one piece. I need her to know I’m coming.

I open my mouth to say something, anything, but Christo lunges forward.

“She’s lying to you,” he hisses.

My gun was aimed at his chest before he even took a step, and he looks nervously at it now. But it doesn’t silence him.

“Nikolai, I have to tell you something: Belle is working with Xena,” he confesses somberly. “She has been for weeks.”

I’m quiet. My pulse pounds where I was shot, every throb a fresh bout of agony.

I consider shooting him for lying about Belle, for trying to drive a wedge between us. But then I remember the night Belle and Elise ran away…

At the time, I thought it was a coincidence they were nearly captured by Giorgos’ men. I assumed the Greeks were surveilling my house. But maybe I didn’t save Belle’s life.

Maybe I interrupted her plan to escape.

“I didn’t want to tell you, because…” Christo swallows. “Well, because I thought you might kill me for it. But it’s true. I know it is.”

Fuck.

“Nikolai.” Belle is crying now. I hear the emotion thick in her voice. A bullshit act. “Please. I never… I never meant to hurt you or—”

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