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“You could, Katalina, but it wouldn’t matter.” His solemn tone signaled that he was in as much turmoil over what we had as I was. “I don’t step away from what’s mine, and you’re quickly becoming that. Even if I don’t want you to be.”
“Then I guess what I want is for you to claim me, because the harder you both pull the more I’ll relish the pain of splitting in either direction.” “Ever the masochist, huh?” “Takes one to know one.”
“I’m not sure, Katie.” He narrowed his eyes and looked me up and down. “I enjoy you, that’s for sure. I know another man does too. He’s supposed to be the man who will give his life for me, though. Rome is supposed to be my brother, woman. We need to find a balance.”
“You told me you needed to figure things out, and I’m trying to do that too. I’m trying to figure out what you want, Katie. I’m not sure I can, because I don’t think you know either.”
“I think it’s because I could really fall for you. I could really rule an empire with you too. We’d make a fascinating and devastating team.”
“I’m not asking you to be anything to me.” “And yet I’m yours and you’re mine.”
“Choose me, Katalina,” he whispered. “Let me consume you. Pick our destruction, not his safe haven.”
“I don’t want just little corners of darkness. I want it all. I want your darkness and your light if there’s anything left. And if not, I want the monster in you because it’s the only thing that saved me so long ago. If I can’t have that, I’ll take a dream with Bastian.”
My friend had been sideswiped by a car. No one was found guilty. No one was found dead either. Which meant Jett Stonewood and Bastian had tracked them down and made them pay in more ways than one.
“Protecting her? Katie’s never needed protection from anyone. She needs someone to show her life is more than a series of events, that she doesn’t have to keep moving forward every time something bad happens to her. She needs someone to take her in while she learns to feel again.”
She scoffed. “It’s not my place, but I’ll say it once anyway.” She glanced at her husband. “Cover your ears.”
“I’ve lain next to you after sleeping with you, Rome. I stared into your eyes and tried to find something other than what I was feeling. We were both destroyed back then. You had your demons and I had mine.”
“Katie pushed us together. I’m realizing that now. I’m not sure why, but she trusted you to be nothing but a comfort to me. And you were. But you never, ever looked at me like you did her.”
“Like she’s your heaven and your hell. A dream and a nightmare all wrapped up in one tiny little warrior.”
“Yes, my family bleeds for me and I for them.”
“Remember those words. When I see you next, I’m going to enjoy reminding you.”
“Meaning I’m sure he’s as fucked in the head for you as I am. Meaning we’d die on a damn stake for you if we had to because you’ve jumbled up all our shit and stuffed it into a bag you control.”
“You ready to show the family that you’re better for me? That we can be together, that you get me to my high better than Bastian ever would? Show me. Show him. Show us all.”
“Get off this balcony, Bastian, and let Kate-Bait fuck her man.” His command was swift and filled with more authority than I’d ever heard.
“If we bring her in, she’s taking his place. It’s the only reason he’s seeking her out now.” “Or he’s bringing her in to do that himself. I’m not stepping on his toes, you dumbass.” “We just say she did it herself. One bullet to the head is a reasonable story.” “That’s his granddaughter. I’m not fucking with his granddaughter,” the other one spat.
Mario Armanelli was hiding something, and I was going to figure out exactly what it was.
“And why not? Because you chose him? You chose him long before tonight.” He took a moment to sit down on one of the velvet-upholstered barstools. “I’d hoped you wouldn’t, but then again, I knew you would. I only had to test which thirst was greater—love or power.”
I spun quickly on my heel and caught just a glimpse of the ski-masked man who’d taken down Dante in an instant. He had a cloth over Dante’s mouth as the big guy’s eyes rolled back in his head.
“I needed to get you out of there quietly and quickly, okay? If it hadn’t been me, it would have been the Russians. I figured out their plan in just enough time to do what I had to do to get you out.”
“It’s your home, baby. I’m always your home.”
I left her to get breakfast, to get my bearings, and to get intel on the fact that I was sleeping with the heiress to the Russian mob.
Our new boss would have to decide if he could trust this lone wolf because, after the information Cade was about to share, I would have to share something about Katalina.
“We know enough,” said Bastian. “You took her last night. I don’t know if that was to save her from us, to save her from them, or to dispose of her as a complication to the family, which she inevitably will be if she’s still alive. Where do your loyalties lie?” Bastian asked, narrowing his eyes at me.
“I saw him lean a little too much toward his ear. He’s got a bug in there, I guarantee it.”
The man left standing by his side dug around in the dead guy’s ears and held up a small device. “He’d been vetted so many damn times.” Bastian turned to his other muscle. “Don’t fuck me. Or we’ll fuck you.”
Katalina was the daughter of Anastasia, Dimitri’s sister. She’d died years ago, after a supposed deal gone wrong. I knew it’d been a bloody mess that her father always regretted, but now I questioned the story. Her brother took over when their father got dementia. Dimitri reigned while his father, Ivan, deteriorated in a nice house right outside of the city.
“Not a damn thing. Or maybe everything. He doesn’t know what we know. He doesn’t know they’re looking for her, but he may know she’s Russian blood. My father was always . . .” “Too good to Katalina,”
“Your blood is my blood, Kate-Bait. You die, I die.”
“There’s no arguing your place. Your blood is mine. We bleed together, woman. Always. Remember that.”
“You’re fucking beautiful. And one day—not today, but one day soon—I might have to tell you I love you and watch the chaos that ensues.”
“You’re the biggest distraction because I may put you before everything, even the family.”
“You think you can keep lying to me and playing with my emotions, girl? Your mom was just as much of a bitch right before we killed her.”
“Oh, baby. Don’t look like that. I didn’t know much of you then. And you had me fooled real good up until a little while ago. Damn, I almost thought I loved you. Maybe it was my love for your mother. She was hypnotizing, I tell
you. And I may not have got a taste of her, but I like to think you tasted just as—”
Dante trained her, and Cade talked with her when he wouldn’t open his mouth to anyone. And I slept next to her like a cub trusting a lioness. We respected Bastian as the king of the family. But we loved Katalina.
“Woman, I swear to Christ.” He stepped toward her, but Dante got in between them as I stepped in front of her. “You’re all kidding me, right? I take control of the damn city, and you question what I know about the one fucking woman we all have ties to. I love her.”
“I love that she’s a part of this unit. I love that she is who she is. With you. I don’t want things to change just because we know her bloodline.”
We all stood there, four men about to get on their knees and beg her. We would have made a perfect picture, all the men in love with Katalina. None of us moved an inch either, like we didn’t want her to jump away from us.
“You follow me, you don’t let them have me, you ruin this for me, and I’ll tear this family apart by tearing myself apart first.”
The monster in me stirred. The beast had fallen in love with her, had made a comfortable place to hole up in while she silenced all the noise that used to aggravate him. Without her, my mind and body screamed. The demons ricocheted around in me, trying to find a way out. The monster wanted answers and names and heads rolling. Anyone who knew, anyone who even looked sideways at how we’d come to know her, had a price to pay. And payment was overdue.
