by Lylah James
She tried to reach for me again, her little arms begging for me to hold her. Protect her. I staggered onto my feet as I was pulled by the hair too. My scalp burned, and I could only imagine what little Sophia was going through.
A gun was pressed into my neck. The cold barrel caused me to tremble, and I limped forward.
We walked out of the building, and I could only watch as the man continued to mockingly slap Sophia. He could tell I was angry, fuming at his actions.
He did it purposely to tease me, knowing that I was completely helpless to save the little girl who had woven her way into my heart. My little princess.
A small growl escaped past my lips when he slapped her again before letting her go. Her knees hit the ground hard, and she cried out, curling her body into a ball.
He grabbed her arms, shaking and pulling her back up. His leg moved, and I knew he was going to kick her.
I saw red.
Ignoring the agony going through my broken body, I twisted around and grabbed the gun. His shock was short-lived as I kneed him hard between his legs and tore the gun from his hand.
He sunk to the ground and screamed like a little girl. I took satisfaction in his pain and kicked him again. There were screams, but before anyone could grab me, I pointed the gun at the one holding Sophia.
When everyone froze, I knew instantly he was the leader of this group.
My vision blurred, and I shook my head, trying to keep myself straight. I could barely stand up. My knees weakened, and I locked them together.
Taking a step forward, I tried to hide my wincing. “Let her go,” I hissed through gritted teeth.
He smiled in the dark, his teeth flashing sinisterly. “Or what?”
“I will shoot you.”
“Go ahead, doll.”
“Let. Her. Go!” I screamed, taking another step into his direction. The gun was right over his chest. I didn’t want to miss his heart.
“Maria,” she whimpered, her sniffles breaking my heart further.
“Make me let her go, Maria,” he taunted, his lips curling up when he said my name.
When I didn’t move, my heart pounding too hard in my chest, he laughed. “You know what she’s going to be turned into?”
When I didn’t answer, he grabbed her jaw and bent down, licking a dirty path up her cheek. “A little fuck toy for us. Just like you’re going to be.”
I raged, my fingers feathering over the trigger.
“Maybe we will fill you up so many times that you might even pop out a baby or two for us. Perfect. We will train them just like we’re gonna train you to be the perfect little slave.”
He raised an eyebrow. “And this one, she’s going to be the perfect slave,” he continued, now referring to Sophia.
That was the line.
I pulled the trigger. The gunshot rung through my ears. The force of the gun going off pushed my body back, and I fell to the ground. My eyes squeezed shut as another wave of agony went through my body.
I breathed through the pain. There was silence, and then I heard laughter.
My eyes snapped open, and I wish in that moment…I was blind.
Sophia laid on the ground. Lifeless. Bloodied. Her neck was torn open.
The man who once was holding onto her held his stomach and continued to howl with laughter. The others joined.
My bullet missed him.
My bullet went through Sophia’s neck.
I killed Sophia.
I killed my little princess.
I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the scene in front of me. My lips parted, and I screamed a soundless scream. My fingers dug into the dirt, and I sobbed to the moon.
My whole body quaked viciously, and I was cold…so cold…so, so cold.
The man walked toward me, but still I couldn’t stop looking at Sophia. Her tiny body was broken. I broke her.
He took the gun from my hand and hit the barrel of it into my temple. Another searing pain hit me. Blood seeped from my brow, and it dripped down the bridge of my nose and the coldness of it lingered over my dried lips. I could taste the metallic essence of it. I was soggy and shivering. My breath came out in harsh, broken panting.
Darkness clouded my vision. And from the corner of my eyes, I saw the abbey on fire. The building burned in bright red flames. Someone dragged Sophia’s limp body and threw her into the raging fires.
I could only watch.
I fell…I fell hard into the pit of darkness.
Everything hurt.
Until nothing hurt.
Silence.
“Angel.”
I was being rocked back and forth. “Shhh, Angel. I got you. You’re safe. I have you, sweet Angel.”
Lyov’s strong voice broke through my memories. I was on his lap, and he cradled me like a baby. He kissed my forehead and continued to whisper soothing words into my ears.
My whole body was shaking, and my teeth chattered together, as if I were still cold from that day.
Lyov’s arm tightened around me. He wrapped the bedsheet around us, trying to warm my shivering body. He continued to hold me like a baby, and I curled more into his embrace.
“It…was…a massacre. They came…to…destroy…us. I lost…everything. I…killed…her.”
Chapter 14
Lyov
I never knew the meaning of true horror until the moment I listened to my Angel relive her memories. The faraway look in her eyes, those silent tears running down her rosy velvet cheeks…they were my undoing.
In this moment, Maria wore her broken heart on her sleeve. My chest ached, and I felt anger, a deathly fury at the men who had a hand in destroying my Angel’s life—her innocence taken in the blink of an eye. I felt a deep, surprising need to avenge the women whose honor were taken from them before losing their lives in such a cruel way.
But the anger was only a shield of pain at Maria’s words. I felt everything she felt, and my heart clenched when she released the first agonized sob, her body shaking with each assaulting memory. My emotions turned jagged, and my insides were tight in knots.
I curled my arms around her body and pulled her into my lap, listening to the horrifying tale of how she went from a happy young lady to being kidnapped and thrown into a cage, where monsters were sneering from the outside, watching the show.
The story of beauty…to ugliness.
The world isn’t exactly beautiful. But there are some people who don’t deserve to be touched by the ugliness of it. Maria was one of those. She didn’t deserve this.
And I somewhat had a hand in her undoing.
I was the fucking Master behind it all. I owned The Royalist. Those men were doing what needed to be done to put money into our pockets.
I never cared where these women came from. I never cared what was being done…all I cared was that my business flourished. All I cared about was by the end of a night, I was a richer man by a few million.
I never realized that this was the nightmare. That I was unknowingly breaking so many innocent souls.
My arms tightened around my Angel, and I closed my burning eyes. The Devil perched on my shoulders, whispering in my ears, trying to drag me down to hell again. But I shook my head. Not anymore.
This ended here. Tonight.
This fucked-up arena, the place where the Masters sat…everything was about to be burned to the ground. Only the ashes would be left, scattered to the open air.
Maria and I sat there for the longest time. Her tears eventually stopped, and her sobs turned into tiny hiccups. Her breathing was harsh against my neck. Her arms were curled around me, holding so tight.
She thought of me as her shield. Her protector. Her savior. Yet I was none of that. It made me sick. What a cruel fate.
“…Maria,” I said, my voice coming out in a hoarse whisper. I cleared my throat, the emotions heavy there.
Her hold grew tighter on me before she eventually pulled away to look into my face. Her eyes were red and puffy. Her expression was hollow—
I hated this look…this look of utter brokenness on her face. I wanted nothing more than to erase it all.
She moved in my arms until her thighs were straddling me on either side. Maria cupped my cheeks in her hands, and her lips twitched with a sad smile. “Why do you look like this, Lyov?”
Bringing my hand up, I held her touch there. “Look like what?”
“As if you are in pain. I don’t like it,” she expressed with a small whisper. The tip of her fingers caressed my rough stubble. “I don’t like this look on your face. It hurts me more than I am already hurting.”
Fuck. She was going to be the death of me.
My Angel was going to kill me one day. Slowly. With a fucking dagger slowly cutting through my open heart and I would be powerless to stop her.
“The Lyov I am used to, he is strong. He is powerful. He is not broken. Not this Lyov in front of me.”
“I am a bad man, Angel,” I finally said.
“A bad man with a big heart,” she cut off before I could continue.
I laughed humorlessly. What a fucking joke.
“Sweet Angel, how wrong you are.”
Maria moved closer, until our chests were touching. She laid her forehead against mine, and I took in a slow breath, my body shuddering with the effort to keep the swirling emotions at bay.
“If you were truly a bad man…your eyes would not be filled with tears right now, Master.”
I blinked, shock coursing through me. And that was when I felt it. A single fucking tear sliding down my cheek.
Maria quickly kissed it away, her lips lingering on my cheek for what felt like the longest time.
One of her hands released my cheek, and it came down to rest over her naked chest. Her fingers splayed out. Her words were whispered against my cheek, her lips caressing my skin. “Your heart is pounding. Just like mine. I am in pain. So are you. A bad man with bad intentions would not be feeling that.”
I gripped her hips, my fingers digging into her skin. She didn’t flinch. No, she moved more into my body, plastering herself against my embrace. Maria sunk into me, and I held her there.
My jaw clenched and my teeth grinded together. I was angry at myself. “I see you’re trying to find goodness in everyone. But some people are just plain ugly in the inside.”
“Lyov,” Maria breathed. Her lips met mine in a feather kiss. “People are not born bad. It is the world that turns us ugly, but somehow in a deep corner…there is something beautiful hidden. Not everyone has that corner. But sometimes, even the ugliest soul has it.”
I am the Devil from hell, Angel.
She kissed me again, and I tasted her tears. My Angel was still hurting. And it fucking gutted me from deep inside.
“Angel, I am not a man who just happened to be there that night,” I started.
She pulled away, her brows furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean?”
Her eyes focused on me as she waited for me to continue. “I own the Royalist. I own that damn place, Maria.”
I waited for a reaction, but I got none. Maria cocked her head to the side, and a moment later, she nodded. “I know.”
I reared back in surprise. There were dark parts of my life that I had been trying to hide from her. I had been trying to be her Prince Charming…yet all along she knew I was the monster.
“I heard the people talking that night. Valentin too. I knew who you were since the beginning. I am not as gullible or naïve as you think, Lyov. I am well aware of who and what type of man you are.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but I couldn’t really form any words. Maria placed a finger on my lips, silencing me. “I know I should hate you. But I can’t bring myself to do so when you have saved me from that place. You gave me something beautiful, Master. And I can’t hate you for that.”
My hands shook, and I fisted them against her sides. Before I could stop myself, I slammed my lips against hers. She kissed me back without hesitation. When I demanded control, she gave it to me. Her lips were plump under mine, and they parted as my tongue traced their seams.
“Maria. I’m going to end this,” I growled into our kiss.
“How?” she asked when we pulled apart. “How will you end this game?”
“I own it. I can take it down whenever I fucking want,” I hissed through clenched teeth.
Maria looked sad at my confession. Her shoulders slumped. “Is it that easy?”
No. It wasn’t. And she knew it wouldn’t be. The realization sat heavily on us. But then again, I was the fucking King. My words were law. I would find one way or another to bring it all down. Whether I had to create more enemies along the way, I didn’t care.
Maria’s gentle touch on my cheeks brought my attention back to her. “Lyov. I don’t want you to end this because you think it will bring me peace or make me happy…because you think this is what I want. I need you to stop this because it is right to do so. Because you truly believe in giving freedom to all those trapped souls and saving any other future victims of this cruel game.”
I cupped her jaw firmly. “I am a selfish man, Maria. I think about myself, without considering the consequences of my actions. I do things for my benefit. And The Royalist is the outcome of that. I never thought of what happened behind the scenes. Fuck, I barely attend the auctions or any of the events. It is run by Valentin, and I only know about the money that ends up in my bank account. To me, nothing else mattered. I chose to stay blind to everything else. But Angel, I can’t stay blind anymore. Not now, when you are in my life. And especially not when I am hoping to keep you with me, by my side…for the rest of my fucking existence.”
Her lips parted, and she breathed, a silent gasp escaping past her throat. “But…”
“You are right. I’m doing this so I can give you peace. But I am also doing this because there should never be another Maria or Sophia affiliated with the name of my Empire.”
At the mention of Sophia, Maria flinched, and her expression became pained. Her nails dug into my shoulders, and she looked down. The crestfallen look on her face had me shaking her slightly. I nudged her face up and held her there.
“Don’t look away from me. Don’t hide.”
“I killed her…” she whispered. A fragile soul. A vulnerable heart. A broken Angel.
“You liberated her.”
Her eyes widened, and she choked back a sob, shaking her head—refusing to accept my words. “No. I killed her. She would have been alive if I didn’t…”
“She would have been a slave. She would have been…dead. Not living. Maria, think about it. Really think of what would have become of her if she were alive. If those men had thrown her into that cage, just like you were. You saved her, goddamn it!” I snapped when she kept shaking her head.
“Stop thinking of it from your perspective. Think of it from hers. Damn it. She is probably thanking you from the fucking heavens above.”
Maria lurched forward and wrapped her arms around my neck, burying her face there. She sobbed loudly, without any care. “It hurts, Lyov. It hurts so much. I miss her. I miss my little princess. All I can see is her blood. Her neck…oh my God. I can’t stop seeing it. Over…and over again in my head.”
I held her while shaking with fury again. But Maria didn’t need me to think of a bloodbath right now. She didn’t need me to think of how to turn the soils of the abbey a deep red with those men’s insides wrenched open and laid on the ground, right where Sophia took her last breath. I was going to hang each and every one of them by their fucking intestines.
That would come later.
When her sobs turned into exhausted hiccups and small, breathy sighs, she pulled away. Her eyes were glassy, and I saw the look in them. A desperate need. Not lust. No, not that. It was something deeper. Something so much more.
Right now, my Angel needed me to hold her and take her pain away. Erase every bad memory and replace them with new ones. Our memories. The good ones. The happy ones. Maria deserved nothing less.
“Make me
forget, Master. Make it all go away. Please.”
“Maria,” I started, but she cut me off.
“Please.”
Our lips found each other again, and she rocked against me. I could feel my length hardening, and she gasped against my lips before moaning when I pressed against the juncture of her thighs, right where she needed me.
My fingers wrapped around her neck, holding her in my grip. Her eyes fluttered closed, and she surrendered to my touch. My thumb stroked down the edge of her collarbone, and I explored the delicate lines of her throat. When my lips found their way to the throbbing vein there, she threw her head back and sighed in both pleasure and relief.
My other hand was ghosting over her bare arm, her back, caressing her. “Your skin is like silk. I can’t stop touching you.”
“Never stop. Don’t stop. I want it all.”
The pulse in her neck beat against my lips, and I continued to kiss down. When I reached the valley of her breasts, I sneaked a peek up at her. Maria’s eyes opened, and she brought her hands to the back of my head, pressing me against her.
I took one nipple between my lips, and she arched her back for me. There was a fire burning in me. With every touch, it sparked the flint of desire. Over and over again.
Maria continued to move, rocking her hips back and forth. One of her hands went between us, and she gripped my hard cock in her hand. I let her guide me into her heated core. She sunk down onto me, taking every inch of me slowly. She savored this moment, and I did the same.
My hardness against her softness. We fit. Perfectly. Beautifully. Our bodies were pieces of puzzles, joining, fitting, and molding to create one perfect piece. Us.
I let her set the pace, but my hand around her throat told both of us who really was in control. Maria moved slowly, building her pleasure and mine. It was a slow, burning love. And in that moment, it was everything we needed.
We both found our release, and I felt her in place. She didn’t let go, either. My heart accelerated when I heard her whisper my name like a prayer.
“Lyov.”
If anyone heard it…they would have thought she was on her knees, in some Godly place, praying for some kind of salvation to the higher powers. But no…I was her salvation. I was her fucking prayer.
