Ruthless Creatures (Queens & Monsters, #1)

by J.T. Geissinger

“My beautiful girl. I’ve been helpless against you from the first day we met.”

When I wake up in the morning, I’m alone. Kage is gone. And the cops are pounding on my front door.

Once you’ve had one of them go permanently missing on you, even an unannounced trip to the restroom by the next guy is cause for a panic attack.

“I told you I’ve obsessed over you. Did you think that meant writing your name over and over in a notepad and drawing little hearts around it?”

“You’re mine now. It’s my duty and pleasure to take care of you.”

“A-are you th-threatening to shoot me?” “I don’t know, Chris. Check to see if I’m glancing up and to the right.”

“I missed you. I haven’t been able to breathe since I left.”

“I wish I’d met you years ago,” he murmurs, pressing a soft kiss to my wet skin. “You make me want to be a different man.”

“That’s where people go when they need to feel better: home.”

“But your home is in New York.” “Home can be a person, too. That’s what you are for me.”

All his success was driven by what happened to his family. Violence is his calling card, bloodshed his stock-in-trade, but the real beating heart of this man is revenge.

And if I sense the smallest hint of anguish in his kiss, the faintest shade of misery and regret, I know it must be my imagination.

This secret I keep not for her safety, but for selfish reasons.

Because I know if I told her I’ve known all along that her missing fiancé didn’t take a tumble down a mountain like she thinks he did, she’d hate me.

Even if I did somehow find the strength to leave, I couldn’t stay away. She’s already proven too powerful for me to resist. Too addictive. I’m too far under her spell.

I can’t make a single misstep on this tightrope I’m walking, because her life is at stake. And I can’t lose her. If ever I do, I’ll burn the whole world to the ground before following her into the dark.

“My life doesn’t belong to me, do you understand? I made a vow. I took an oath and sealed it with blood. The Bratva is my family. The Brotherhood is my life. And there’s no way out of it. Blood in, no out. Not ever.”

You make your vows in blood, but I make them with my heart. And my heart belongs to you now.

A place without blood oaths or gunfights or heartache. A place without secrets or revenge or regret. A place that doesn’t exist, at least not for us.

“It’s a Russian love knot. The three interlocking rings signify different aspects of devotion. White gold is soft. It molds to the hand, the way love molds two people together. Yellow gold is hard, the way true love is hard against anything that tries to break it. And rose gold is rare.” He looks deep into my eyes. “Like what we have between us.”

I’m in love with a man who can’t have children. Who can’t live with me. Who can’t marry me.

“No matter what, I’ll always be yours. You’ll always be mine. That won’t change.” “It will if you’re married to another woman! Or did you think I’d share?”

“Thank you.” “For what?” “Giving me something to live for.”

“We are. But don’t worry, you’re gonna ride off into the sunset with Mafia Romeo. That will happen even if I have to threaten him with death myself.”

“I’m in love with you.” Now I do groan out loud. She just shot an arrow through my chest. I’m fucking dead.

Nothing means anything anymore. Except her.

“I love you, bossy man. You’re my life now. Come back to me soon.”

“Every day I’m without you I die.”

“You’ve wrecked me. Ruined me. I can’t think of anything else but you.”

“You’ve made this monster into a man again, my beautiful girl. Now fucking come for me.”

“I’d kill him before I’d betray you. I’d burn his whole empire to the ground before I’d turn my back on the woman I love.”

“You know what I’m saying, Kage. Don’t put your life at risk for me.” Eyes glittering in the dark, he gazes down at me in silent intensity, until he slowly shakes his head. “It already is, baby. It already is.”

“I’ve never met anyone I needed to possess like you. I don’t understand it, this obsession. For you, for a single taste of you, I would die. I’d give up anything. From the first day, you owned me.”

“I’d impale whole armies on my sword if you asked me to.”

“Who’s this?” “Maxim Mogdonovich.”

“To be honest, dorogoya, when I first discovered what was going on, I couldn’t believe it. My own Kazimir, like a son to me these past twenty years, would never disobey me. He would never lie to me. And he definitely wouldn’t betray me. Especially for a woman.”

“Nothing yet. But if my timing is right, he’ll arrive soon, to find you dead. On your birthday, no less. How tragic. I wish I could be there to see his reaction, but Viktor will tell me.”

I sit stunned, not understanding what happened. I stare in total disbelief at the dead man on my living room floor, until I raise my gaze and see Kage standing across the room, holding my father’s shotgun.

I guess he loaded it. Happy birthday to me.

“The one hundred million dollars your fiancé stole from Max.”

“My dead fiancé? David?” Kage pauses. Looks at me with those empty goodbye eyes. “His name isn’t David. It’s Damon. And he’s still alive.”

But me, now, standing here … I regret it all. If only I’d told her from the start, I wouldn’t have to bear that look on her face now. I wouldn’t have to witness Natalie’s love for me going up in flames.

“He made a deal with the feds. Gave them evidence in return for immunity. Testified against Max at his trial. Provided a huge amount of data, records, ledgers, files. Max was convicted and sentenced to life. Damon went into witness protection. The government gave him a new name. A new identity. A new life. They relocated him here.”

“Who are these people with him?” When she turns the phone to face me, I brace myself. Then I look her in the eye. “His wife and kids.”

“He was married when he went into WITSEC. Claudia still lives in the same house. Has no idea what happened to him. He left everything behind, including her.”

“He embezzled money from the mafia, turned state’s evidence, put Max in jail, abandoned his family … then came here with a new identity and … and…” “Met you. Proposed.”

“We didn’t know where he’d gone until last year. Then we made a contact inside the bureau. Someone willing to trade information for cash. He let us know where they’d relocated Damon, gave us his new name, everything. But by then, Damon had already moved on.”

“I’m guessing that moving on happened just over five years ago, right?” Her laugh is small and bitter. “Right. The day before our wedding. Oh god.”

“You were supposed to kill me, weren’t you? That’s why Max said you betrayed him. You were supposed to come here and find out if I knew where David hid the money or where he went, then kill me, just like Viktor. But instead…”

“Instead you decided to do things differently. You decided to have a little fun first. So you fucked me. Made me fall in love with you. Gave me a ring and told me a million pretty lies.”