Page 135 of Filthy Royal

Damien ignored her. “You want me to go first? Fine. I came here to find my sister.”

“Anya?” Scarlett’s breath stuttered in her chest.

“No. Zaya. The one I thought was dead.”

Shock slammed through her. He’d told her just once, voice rough and raw, about the tragedy of losing his mother and youngest siblings in a fire.

She’d missed so much.

“Scarlett? Are you listening? Darvish Sartin and his accomplices were behind the fire. They took Zaya, and I’m here to make him tell me where he’s hiding her.”

“She’s not in the building. I’d have seen her.”

“Maybe not, but he knows where she is.”

“He really has your sister?” Horror swept through her at the thought of poor Zaya surviving a fire only to endure a different kind of hells. “Are you sure?”

“You think I’d have returned to this miserable fucking dome for any other reason? Yes, I’m sure.”

She ignored the sting. No wonder he’d been unwilling to disrupt the transport of her friends off-planet. She’d assumed it was pure selfishness, a decision to prioritize his revenge over the plight of the omegas. But he was here because he was trying to save one.

And she’d been hindering his efforts. Protecting her own ugly secrets.

“I didn’t know.” Of course she hadn’t. Her employer was a male with a thousand schemes, and she was only one pawn among so many.

“I can see that now.” Damien blew out a loud breath. “Darvish is my half brother.”

She nodded.

The creases around Damien’s eyes deepened. “You don’t seem surprised.”

“That part, I suspected. His… obsession with you and your family is obvious. Plus, he has the same eyes, skin color, and build.” It had made what he’d done to her all the harder to bear. Seeing familiar features staring back at her with such cold cruelty had been yet another mind fuck.

“My father sired him.” He continued, and the disgust in his voice affirmed what she remembered: Damien hated his father. “True to form, the Alphahole rejected Darvish when he was born. His mother, who’d been about to become someone else’s prime omega, was denounced and disowned by her family, and she and her young were left to fend for themselves. It was ugly. Meanwhile, my selfish, horns-up-his-ass father moved on and created a new family for himself. Apparently, Darvish holds a grudge, and it extends beyond our bastard of a sire to anyone with the Skolov name.”

It was tragic all around. She even felt sorry for the youngling Darvish had once been. But not for the monster he’d become. That was his own choice.

“We only just found out about his existence and his schemes,” Damien added.

Scarlett nodded again. That made sense too.

No wonder Darvish had been so tense lately. No wonder he’d grown less careful about covering his tracks, ordering her to steal larger amounts that might more easily be noticed. He and his ugly schemes were finally being dragged into the light, and he was afraid.

The notion was glorious.

“Now that we know of him,” Damien was still talking, his expression hard, “we’ll stop at nothing to get Zaya back and take him out.”

Another piece of the puzzle fell into place, and she understood Damien’s actions in a way she never had before.

“I’m sorry.” Her fingers twisted in the fabric at her belly, shoulders hunched, as if she could somehow shield herself from the blow of yet another way she’d failed. “Sorry your sister’s missing. Sorry she was stolen. I had no idea. If I had—”

“What the fuck?” His expression enraged, Damien’s hand shot up and then froze, hovering just above her top rib.

His sudden fury frightened her; until she glanced down.

All her twisting had pulled Damien’s too-big shirt off her shoulder, exposing an ugly bruise on her ribs, visible through one of the many tears in her dress.

Embarrassment replaced alarm. She yanked the shirt back into place. “I’m fine.”

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