Page 4 of Beautiful Sinners

“He and your mother just arrived. They—”

There’s a hollowpopjust as blood and brain matter eject sideways out of Eva’s head, and she crumples like a rag doll that’s lost its stuffing.

“Mum!”

Hendrix and I have no time to react before several men come out of nowhere, guns trained on us with lethal accuracy. Two of them I recognize as the armed guards who’d been patrolling the grounds. They’d been here the entire time in plain sight.

But my murderous fury is locked on the gray-eyed Russian who comes forward, a malicious smile spread across his face.

“I did warn you that you had no idea what was coming for you.”

Hendrix stands motionless beside me, but I can feel the intensity vibrating through him. We both know what’s about to happen. Neither one of us will be walking away from this unscathed. Not the best odds when there are five guns aimed at our heads.

With a severity as cold as the demise I will bring him, I promise Aleksander, “I’m going to kill you.”

His eyes glint with amused incredulity as he throws his head back in a throaty laugh. “I’d like to see you try, Amato.”

With deliberate slowness, he strolls over to Eva and pokes her in the thigh with the toe of his Timberlakes. Hendrix doesn’t even care to look. He won’t shed a tear that his mother is dead. Aleksander actually did us a favor. And if miracles do happen, he would have made sure that my father is greeting Eva Knight in hell.

“Syn,” Hen mutters under his breath with urgency, and I go stone-cold rigid as alarm overtakes my anger.Fuck!I have to hope that Con protects her and gets her the hell out of here.

I’m not a praying man or an overly religious one, but I find myself pleading with the higher power upstairs to keep Syn safe, even knowing there will be no divine intervention for men like me. But I would sacrifice myself a thousand times over for her.For Aoife.

Please, baby. Please be okay.

“Where’s your uglier half?” I ask after my gaze pings every detail of my surroundings. There’s no one else out here other than Aleksander and the four men circling us. No movement or noise coming from the house. Where is everyone?

His victorious smile grows, and any hope I had dies execution style when he replies, “With your woman.”

“You fucking bastard!” Hendrix roars just as Syn’s agonizing scream tears through my heart like shrapnel.

Dear God, no.

Three of Aleksander’s men immediately subdue Hendrix and tackle him with brute force to the ground before he can take one lunging step.

“That was a really stupid thing to do, Knight,” Aleksandertsksand flicks the safety off his Glock.

Every muscle in my body twitches with the overpowering need to dosomething. Not just stand here and accept the fate Aleksander has chosen for me.

Syn’s cries reach my ears over the distance of the gardens and desperation sinks its serrated talons into my flesh.

“Call Aleksei off!” I demand. “Aleksander! Call your brother off!”

He cocks his head my way, intrigued. “You want to beg for her life? Do it on your knees.”

His challenge is clear. Abject humiliation in exchange for Syn’s life.

Amatos are kings. We bend to no-fucking-one.

With my hands raised in supplication, my knees hit the soft ground in front of him. “Don’t let him hurt her. Call him off.”

I feel Hendrix’s stare from his prone position. He thrashes about like a wild animal, spitting out venomous curses, but Aleksander’s men have him in a vise grip, their hands like iron shackles, pinning him down.

With a bewildered expression, Aleksander approaches me but makes sure not to get too close. Never underestimate your enemy, even when they are begging you on their knees.

“You would die for her? A woman you just met?”

“Yes.” No hesitation.

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