by K. G. Reuss
“She wasn’t here earlier,” Levin said, knowing I was about to ask him if he’d sent me on a wild goose chase all because he hadn’t checked her bathroom.
I didn’t say anything. Instead, I went to her bathroom and opened the door, finding her naked in the shower, her fingers in her hair as she shampooed it.
I watched her for a moment as she rinsed the soap from her hair, my dick growing as much as my anger, until I couldn’t take it anymore. I snapped the glass doors opened with a crash. She let out a scream.
I grabbed her by her arm before she fell and hauled her out naked.
“Dominic,” she cried out, trying to tug away from me, but I held tight until she gasped.
She swung at me, but I caught her wrist and brought her wet body against me as she struggled. With hardly any effort, I lifted her over my shoulder and carried her wiggling form to her bedroom where I tossed her on her bed. She bounced as she scrambled to cover herself in front of us.
“Where the fuck were you?” I demanded.
Her blue-eyed gaze flicked to each one of us in turn as she hauled a throw blanket over herself.
“Right here.”
“Fucking lies. Where were you?” I hissed through my teeth.
“None of your business,” she said, glaring defiantly at me.
“Baby B, you’re going to need to be honest with us. Dom’s pretty pissed off. Just tell us where you were, OK?” Vincent tried to reason with her in a soft voice.
She shook her head. “I wasn’t anywhere.”
“Wasp,” I snarled.
Her hands trembled as she clutched her blanket.
It was in that moment that Levin spoke. “What’s on your neck?”
She clapped her hands over the small, purple bruise marring her skin.
I saw red. Vincent reached out to stop me, but I’d moved to her bed already and had a hold of her. I pushed her head down and looked at the hickey on her skin.
“Who fucking touched you?” My body vibrated with anger so thick it was choking me.
“No one,” she whispered.
“Don’t fucking lie to me.” My hands shook with my building fury, an ugly beast deep within me waking from a long slumber, as I did all I could to not lose it on her. “Who fucking touched you, wasp?”
Her eyes widened as I pushed her flat on the mattress and positioned myself between her legs, undoing my belt.
“Dominic, stop,” she cried out, swatting at me until I caught her wrists and pinned them over her head.
“We had a deal. Do you remember?”
She stared up at me with those pretty, blue eyes, but all I could see was the mark on her body someone had left there. Someone had been brave to do that, knowing damn well I’d find it. Or else someone had been very fucking stupid.
“Did I tell you to do this?” I demanded.
She shook her head at me. “I don’t need your permission to live my life, Dominic.”
“Wrong, wasp. I’m in charge.” I stared down at her, my chest aching. It felt like my heart was being splintered into a million pieces as I imagined someone else kissing her. Touching her. Making her moan. The fury surged, spilling out as I tightened my hold.
Guilt filled me as I considered my role in this whole thing. I knew taking a girl upstairs had been a bad move. But I wasn’t used to considering anyone’s feelings before I did things. “Was it because of Stella?” I studied her face, desperately trying to control myself.
“You can’t claim me and then fuck other girls.”
“You are not my girlfriend. You are my fucking property. You don’t tell me what the hell I can do, Bianca. You’re not a queen. You’re a fucking piece of trailer trash I picked up because I felt sorry for you. That’s it.” The moment the words left my mouth, regret slammed into me. I’d fucked up again. I couldn’t win with this girl, and that made me even more furious. My throat hurt from yelling at her. My chest heaved with so many emotions, I wasn’t sure how to navigate them. Anger. Disappointment. Disgust. And one I really didn’t want to recognize because it made all the others so much worse. Jealousy.
Her bottom lip wobbled as she glared up at me.
“Who was it?” I asked in a soft, wavering voice. “Who did you fuck?”
She said nothing.
“Fucking answer me.” I tugged the blanket out of her hands, raising my voice again. “I’ll kill him. I want a name.”
She continued her silence, and I lost the small grip I had on my control. I finished undoing my belt then rolled her onto her stomach. Random scrapes and scratches decorated her back. They turned the red I was already seeing from my rage into a burning crimson.
“You don’t want to fucking talk? Then fucking scream.” I let my belt loose on her ass.
She cried out as the leather bit into her supple cheeks, painting them red. She was a fighter, I’d give her that. I nodded to the guys. Levin stepped forward and took her arms, pinning them against the mattress as I continued to spank her.
She shouted through her sobs, her body trembling beneath my lashes. Her skin bloomed pink and red with every strike. She screamed so much into her mattress it only drove me more insane. My heart broke with each crack of leather against her flesh. I was beating her supple ass in an effort to beat the feelings out of my own heart. It was wrong. I knew it. But I was so lost and hurt. And there was little that I hated more than hurting.
“Enough, Dom. She’s had enough,” Vincent said, stopping me mid-strike by capturing my wrist.
I backed away, breathless, my hair a mess from the delicious violence—my drug of choice. Levin released her wrists. She lay crying softly into her mattress, her ass covered in red from my belt, not looking at any of us.
“When I find out who it was, I will kill him,” I vowed again. “He’s fucking dead.”
I stormed out of the room, my body trembling. The moment I was in the hallway, I rammed my fist through the wall, scaring a couple girls strolling past. They squealed and rushed away. Pissed, I stalked to the elevators so I could go outside to get some air.
Levin joined me a moment later.
“I want to know who it was. Find him. Bring him to me,” I said softly.
“And then what?”
“And then he’ll wish he was never fucking born.”
“Why does it matter so much to you?”
“Because she’s fucking mine!” I shouted, pounding my chest. “Mine, Levin. And she’s yours. Vincent’s. Besides, she made us look weak. She’s not above our rules. The guy who was just buried between her legs is walking around like he won the fucking world. No one is above us. No one. Get his fucking name. I want him.”
Levin nodded. “Consider it done.”
I exhaled and stared up at the building, my guts aching.
Dead. He was fucking dead. And I’d fuck her in his blood after I gutted him.
Thirty
Fallon
Kings must be giving it to her hard,” Tate said, eyeing Bianca as she shuffled across the courtyard on Monday.
Her head was down, her blonde hair shielding her face. She looked like she was in a lot of pain as she limped every now and then. My insides crawled seeing her like that. I’d had an incredible night with her. Leaving her the following morning had been fucking torture. Now to see her like this. It took every ounce of self-control I had not to go to her.
Of course, those feelings had no place being within ten feet of me considering what I was supposed to do to her.
The words of Matteo De Santis played on repeat in my head.
“Kill Bianca D’Angelou. Don’t let her marry Mikhail Ivanov. Kill her, and we’ll release your sister.”
I was surprised the task hadn’t fallen to Dominic, considering his father preached the gospel about the cunning, cruel king. But I supposed the betrayal would be so much sweeter when I killed her, and her death came from the inside. If the Ivanovs ever found out. From what I’d gathered, Dominic had no clue his father held my older sister, Natalia, captive aft
er Stefan Seeley was found murdered.
What a fucking shit show their secret romance caused us all.
“Fuck you,” Hail grunted, glaring in her direction for a moment, a muscle twitching along his jaw. His voice pulled me back to the conversation. “The bitch deserves everything they give her. She had it good with me. I hope they beat her into her fucking grave. She’d better hope they do before I get to her.”
“You tell your old man yet?” Drake asked from his perch on the stone table.
“No. I don’t intend on it either. I’ve got a plan.”
“What’s that?” I asked, wondering how he planned on going about everything now that Dominic had Bianca.
He smirked at me. “Easy. Get her back. Marry her. Fuck her. Kill D’Angelou. Get the keys to his kingdom. Fuck her mother and then kill Bianca. I’ll have it all then.”
I swallowed. If he kills her, I won’t have to. But I don’t want her to die. Damnit. Why did she have to be so fucking perfect? Why did I have to feel. . .
“I guess you have it all figured out.” I gave him the best cruel smile I could muster as agonizing thoughts of a world without Bianca in it bounced through my head.
“We just need to put a plan in motion to get her away from those pricks. She’s eighteen. She can marry without needing consent. Not that her parents will fight me on it. D’Angelou wants her out from beneath his feet, I’m sure. All I gotta do is threaten to kill her mom, and she’ll be putty in my hands. Her mom is a dumb cunt, but it’s her mom, so I know Bianca will do whatever she has to so she can save her.”
“Even marry you.” Drake laughed.
“Fuck you,” Hail scoffed, shaking his head at him.
“Aside from D’Angelou’s money, why does she matter so much to you?” I asked. I had no clue really, aside from the money and power thing between the two families.
“I can have any girl I want at this place. Hell, any place. Except her. She fights me. She’s the perfect little princess for me to take my aggressions out on. I like it. And when she cries…” He let out a groan, his eyes rolling back. “My dick gets so hard that all I can think about is running my cock through her tears and then fucking her with them.
“She sucks cock like a champion,” Tate said with a grin. “Best head game I’ve ever experienced.” He fist bumped Drake who chortled.
I nodded, my anger simmering just beneath the surface. “It was good.”
“And you were trying to avoid it. You’re welcome,” Hail said. “I just wished I could’ve fucked her before she fucked me over, but I’ll get my chance.” He gazed out across the courtyard and sat up straighter a moment later. “Check it out,” he said.
We followed his gaze to see Dominic standing in front of Bianca, his arms crossed, his face pinched in irritation. He said something to her that must have pissed her off because she snapped back at him, her face twisted in fury.
I slid off the table I was sitting on as he snatched her by the arm and hauled her to him.
Be cool. Don’t bring attention to yourself.
She yanked her arm away from him. The move only seemed to piss him off more because he grabbed her arm again before leaning in. She stiffened against him. When he pulled away, he pointed to the ground.
“Think he’ll make her suck his dick in front of everyone?” Drake asked, his eyes glued to the interaction.
“I bet she punches him in the dick,” Tate added.
“I fucking hope they kill one another,” Hail snarled, glaring at them. “But then again, I hope they don’t, so I’ll have the pleasure of doing it myself.”
I said nothing as I watched Bianca drop to her knees in front of him. He loomed over her, scowling.
“Gotta admit, De Santis has style. You never got her on her knees in front of people,” Tate commented.
“Fuck you. I preferred to dominate her in private. She’ll wear my burns forever. The worst De Santis does is humiliate her. She can heal from that. She can’t heal from what I’ve done. Or what I’m going to do.”
I clenched my lips together but remained silent. The fact he’d burned her with a cigarette pissed me off. When Tate had come back bragging about that evening, I’d nearly punched him in the face. Of course, on the other side of that was me being a shady prick with a job to do.
Dominic sat down at a table while Bianca remained on her knees. I hated seeing her submit like that. Bianca D’Angelou wasn’t that sort of girl. She deserved a crown on her head and men at her feet. She was fucking perfect in every sense of the word. Maybe I related to her too closely, and it altered the way I saw her, but fuck it. I liked what I saw. I fucking loved what I felt when I was buried deep inside her tight body.
I’d said I’d help her. And I wasn’t a damn liar. Or maybe I was. My sister’s life was on the line. She’d been in De Santis’s clutches for too long, being forced to do God only knew what. The anger burned my guts as I pictured Natalia pleading for help. Everyone else thought she was dead. That’s one of the reasons why Stefan was killed. Retribution. Ah, but what a fucked-up web we wove. I hadn’t gone to my father with the information. He would’ve never believed me. I wasn’t exactly his favorite. That had always been Natty.
I clenched my hands into fists and hauled in a deep breath to calm myself. This whole situation was fucked.
“I heard her old man came up missing,” I said, letting go of the breath.
Maybe I could give Bianca some answers before her death. She could go in peace, at least. All I knew was as much as I cared about Bianca, I had to save my sister. Even if it meant losing someone I felt something for.
Fuck. When did my life get so screwed up? But in this life, loss was a natural part of it. My own mother told me to never fall in love. Fuck, she’d been right. Her own husband had killed her in a fit of rage.
Hail snorted. “Yeah. Guess he did.”
I glanced at him, trying to push the ugly thoughts out of my head. “Do you know what happened?”
“He was in deep with the De Santis clan. Gambling debts. They offed him.” A wicked smile curved his lips. “Or at least that’s the story.”
“Sounds to me like there’s another story,” I said.
Hail nodded. “Might be.”
He didn’t elaborate, and I didn’t push. All in good time. I could at least make good on one promise. I looked back to see Vincent had joined Dominic. Vincent was patting Bianca on the head like she was a dog.
“The bitch is getting a taste of what she deserves. When we strike, they’ll never see it coming. Come on.” Hail got up and nodded for us to follow him.
We did, but not before I glanced back to see Bianca shining De Santis’s shoes while he stared right at me.
I waited in the dark alley between buildings for Bianca to pass by. I was hoping she’d be alone. But all day long, one of the kings had been trailing her, so I hadn’t even been able to talk to her. I watched around the corner as she approached with Levin behind her. My jaw hurt from clenching it so hard. A breath past over my lips as she walked by, her head down.
Damnit.
I needed to see her. To talk to her. To touch her. To tell her I was sorry for being me.
Fuck. I hated this.
Defeated, I waited a few minutes and then stalked across campus to Hail’s room. Everyone else was already lounging around when I strode in. Silently, I took a seat and tried to pay attention to what Hail was saying.
“The dance.” Hail looked over the three of us as we sat in his dorm. “That’s when we’ll do it. Homecoming. We’ll create a diversion. In the fray, we’ll grab her. There will be too much chaos for the kings to keep track of shit. Once I have her, I’ll have someone on standby to perform the marriage. She’ll be mine. I’ll take the fucking crown and the whore. I’ll kill her later. Maybe a tragic accident on our honeymoon where I narrowly escape.” His eyes gleamed as he stared out at us.
“Like Amberly.” Tate snickered.
My stomach churned. Poor Amberly. She hadn’t seen it com
ing. Of course, how could she? She’d been killed in her sleep when she’d threatened to go to the cops about the coke and heroine Hail was cutting and selling to the student population. She’d threatened to go to the kings. Hail may have let the cop thing go, but he couldn’t let the threat of telling the kings go unanswered.
She’d paid the ultimate price.
“That bitch had it coming. She was useless. Even her pussy was loose. Fucking her ass was better,” Hail grunted.
Amberly had been nice. Sweet even. She’d been my friend, if I had to label her. The fact I couldn’t save her haunted me. Unfortunately, I was standing in the same position again with Bianca. Except now, it was me holding the fucking gun. Or at least it would be. I figured shooting her would be a quick death. I didn’t want her to be scared or to suffer. I’d be quick about it. Hell, she probably wouldn’t even know it was me. If I hadn’t fallen under her spell, she’d be dead already. But Bianca had ensnared me. It was becoming a bit of a problem.
“She had nothing on Bianca when it comes to dick sucking skills. Can you image how tight Bianca’s pussy is? I bet she squirts.” Tate licked his lips.
Fucking asshole.
“I’ll let you know,” Hail said with a smirk.
“You want to fuck her after De Santis has been inside her?” I asked, casting him a cursory glance.
“Only to prove I’m the better choice, and she would’ve known that if she would’ve submitted instead of being a fucking backstabbing slut,” he growled, his eyes flashing. “I’ll cut her tits off when I’m done and mount them on my wall. She has an amazing rack.”
I stared at the floor, my legs bouncing. I needed some fucking air.
“I’d like a go at her when you’re done and before you cut her tits off,” Drake said.
“Help me make this happen and I’ll let you,” Hail said easily, like bargaining the chance to fuck her was like discussing the weather.
