Rise of a Queen: A Dark Billionaire Romance (Kingdom Duet Book 2)

by Rina Kent

  “The first one,” Margot says. “The forgettable one because she didn’t get suffocated and buried in a grave. My sister, Megan, was the Duct Tape Killer’s first victim, but it happened more than twenty years ago. She was kidnapped, but since she had issues with drugs, the police categorised her as a runaway. Your father made her death seem like an overdose and dumped her under a filthy bridge. He never admitted to that murder, and when Shelby, my sister’s boyfriend at the time, went to prison a few years ago, he asked him if there were any women he’d never mentioned. Maxim said he never talked about the ones who happened before his muse came along. Those were forgettable, mere practice, as he called them. The ones who happened after he met Bridget and Alicia were his real masterpieces. He didn’t even remember her name. My sister and only family was a nobody to him. He called her practice!” Margot’s voice raises at the end before she releases a breath and smooths it.

  “So Tom and I decided to make him pay in the best way we knew how. Tom is my nephew and I raised him after Megan died when he was only ten. We’d already tracked down Maxim before you turned him in. We learnt his patterns and his obsession with his pretty little muses. Bridget had already killed herself at the time, so we paid extra attention to you and Alicia. We were going to make him suffer, and killing him wouldn’t have sufficed. He had to lose the two people most precious to him.”

  I gasp as the pieces of the puzzle fall into place. “Y-you…you’re the one who poisoned Alicia?”

  “Her mind was fragile anyway. It was a piece of cake to slip her something here and another thing there. In no time, everyone, Jonathan and Aiden included, believed she was losing it. The bitch even thought Jonathan was poisoning her since she decided to be smart and test the tea he brought her. She never suspected me or how I made her think she was losing track of everything. Her hallucinations were mostly caused by elaborate plots Tom and I concocted over the years. We recorded whispering voices and made her think she was hearing things. A lost book here, a missed item there, and she started talking to herself in order to remain sane. Which, of course, only made her more insane. It was her payment for being Maxim’s willing muse.”

  Angry tears fill my eyes at the thought of what Alicia went through. That must be what they did to me, too. Those voices I heard the morning after I thought I was suffering from hallucinations were hers and Tom’s doing. These monsters made my sister believe she was insane. “She did that to protect me.”

  “Yawn. And what’s so special about you, Clarissa? Aside from the fact that you’re the final chink to Maxim’s armour? I admit, you’re not as easy to break as Alicia was. Shelby paid your previous building concierge to turn a blind eye on all the packages we sent, but you still wouldn’t give up.”

  Fuck. Shelby. I should’ve known there was something off about the standoffish old man who used to live next door to me.

  “Why didn’t you kill me eleven years ago?” I glare at Tom. “Does she have to answer that for you, too?”

  “You didn’t suffer enough,” he says in a monotone voice. It’s probably the first time I’ve heard him speak, and his tone is as quiet as his silence.

  “Besides, no offence, but you’re not important. The role you play in Maxim’s life is.” Margot clicks on the camera. “We’re going to record you being killed by Tom. It’ll be live and an insider will show the footage to Maxim. Once he loses his final muse, it’ll be his downfall and the best revenge Megan could’ve gotten.”

  Despite the heaviness of my head and my tongue, I meet both their gazes. “I’m sorry you lost a sister and a mother, but that doesn’t give you the right to blame it on me. I’m a victim, too. I turned him in, even though he was everything I had.”

  “Shut up.” Tom reaches me in a few steps and slaps me so hard, I reel in my chair. “She was my world. He took her and I will take you.”

  “Use the knife, Tom.” Margot motions at the glinting blade on the counter and he retrieves it.

  My chin trembles, and I start seeing the ending, but I don’t lower my gaze.

  I did nothing wrong.

  But as he brings the knife to my throat, a shudder goes down my spine. Regrets rush to the forefront of my mind. Most of them are about how I haven’t really lived, and now that I’m ready to, it’ll be taken away.

  It’s about how I can’t say goodbye to Lay, her family, and my family. Because, in a way, Aiden, Levi, Elsa, and Astrid have warmed their way into my life and become my family.

  But most of all, thought, it’s about Jonathan.

  I regret not saying the words I’ve felt for so long but have denied or thought I was no longer worthy of feeling.

  There’s a need to close my eyes, but I don’t. I’m going to die with my chin held high.

  A tear slides down my cheek as I realise it’s over before it even started.

  It took eleven years, but it’s finally over.

  Just when I’m about to surrender to my fate, the door barges open.

  32

  Aurora

  Jonathan is here.

  The moment my eyes fall on him, a sudden urge to cry hits me out of nowhere.

  I didn’t know how much I needed to see him in my final moments until now.

  His tall frame nearly blocks the entrance as he breathes harshly, and just like when I was a kid, he looks exactly like a god. Only, I’m not scared of him now. Was I even scared of him back then?

  A forgotten memory hits me straight in the chest.

  My small hand tugs on Alicia’s full wedding dress. She smiles down at me, her dark eyes nearly closing with the motion. “You don’t have to hide from Jonathan, Claire. He’s family now.”

  “Family?”

  “Yes.”

  “Cuz you’re marrying him?”

  She nods.

  I pull on her dress some more, which is our secret signal for her to come down to my level.

  Alicia is so tall, and I can barely reach her thighs. She says I’ll grow up to be tall like her one day, but that’s obviously not happening.

  She crouches and gives me her ear so I can whisper, “When I grow up, can I marry him, too?”

  She laughs, the sound making Jonathan stare at us, and I hide behind Alicia again, my cheeks flaming.

  My sister ruffles my hair and whispers back, “If I’m not here, you have my permission.”

  I’m thrust back to the present with tears hanging on to my lashes. Oh, God. I can’t believe I asked Alicia that. Jonathan is right to call me a wild one.

  My gaze follows him as he slowly approaches the scene, his attention set on the knife Tom is holding to my throat.

  He might’ve shown up, but it’s too late. Margot and Tom have no care for the consequences of their actions. That’s what happens when you live only for revenge. It becomes your start and your end. Everything else is collateral — their own lives included.

  They don’t care if they die at the end of this.

  “Let her go.” Jonathan’s voice is clear, hard, and leaves no room for negotiation.

  Margot stands in front of him. “This has nothing to do with you, Mr King. Leave and we won’t hurt you.”

  Jonathan’s guards follow after him, their tall, broad frames filling the entrance. Some of them have guns, but they’ll make no difference to my fate, considering that Tom’s knife is already slicing through my throat. A hot liquid trails down my neck.

  Jonathan’s face turns into granite as his stormy eyes fixate on Tom. “You’re going to die.”

  “Not before her.” Tom’s voice is as expressionless as his face. It’s like he lost the ability to feel when he was young.

  “Go,” I whisper in a barely audible voice at Jonathan. “Aiden and Levi need you.”

  “Shut up, Aurora.”

  “I’m lucky I found you again — or you found me. Y-you gave a different meaning to my life and taught me how to rise above myself, and I’m so thankful for that, Jonathan.”

  “Stop saying your goodbyes,” he snaps.


  “Try to compliment the boys more often. They don’t show it, but they love your approval. Try to forgive Ethan. I know you need his friendship as much as he needs yours. Take care of Layla, and tell her I love her and I’m so lucky to have found her.” My voice breaks at the end as tears fall unchecked down my cheeks. Blood soaks the hem of my jacket and I try to ignore how I’m shaking all over. How tiny shocks of fear wrap like thorny wires around my heart.

  No matter how brave my words are, I don’t want to die.

  I fought with death for eleven damn years. Why does it get to win now, when I’m so close to beating it?

  Jonathan approaches me, his jaw clenching under the stubble. Tom tightens his hold on the knife and Jonathan stops in place, his lips thinning into a line.

  “You’re not going to die,” he says with so much conviction, I almost believe him.

  I almost think that I’ll come out of this chair and I’ll be able to hold him again. I’ll be able to tell him what I haven’t been able to all this time.

  “You’ll watch her die.” Margot levels him with her haughty glare. “Just like Maxim.”

  “My men are on their way to Shelby.” Jonathan’s gaze drifts from Margot to Tom. “If you don’t remove that knife right now, I won’t hesitate to kill your father, Tom. So what’s it going to be?”

  “He’s in prison,” Tom says. “He’ll finish Maxim off after Aurora dies.”

  “I’ll finish him anyway.” Jonathan’s posture is calm, despite the tension in his shoulders. I don’t know how he remains so calm under such circumstances. I’m on the verge of a breakdown.

  “Small price to pay.” Margot smiles. “Do you think death scares us?”

  “Then you leave me no choice.” Jonathan steps aside, and a part of me is glad that he’s putting his life first. His family and many people’s livelihoods depend on him.

  I ignore the bitter taste sticking to the back of my throat and try to gather the influx of thoughts scattering through my head.

  “Jonathan…” I murmur. “I lo —”

  My words are cut off when something punctures the kitchen’s window. The knife that was previously held to my throat clutters to my lap and the body behind me disappears. There’s a loud thud and Margot shrieks, the haunted sound echoing in the space.

  My eyes widen as I make out Tom lying on the floor, his eyes staring up at me — or rather, at nowhere. A hole settles in the middle of his forehead.

  Margot falls to her knees in front of him, sobbing and calling his name. There’s no answer. No movement.

  Holy shit. I think I’m going to throw up.

  A shadow appears at the window, and I flinch against the chair, the ropes tightening around my skin. For some illogical reason, I think Tom’s shadow has returned as a ghost and that he’ll finish what he started. The continuous bursts of adrenaline seem to be drawing energy from my life essence.

  The shadow slowly comes into full view. He’s wearing elegant slacks and a dark blue shirt that matches the hypnotic colour of his eyes. The rest of his face is covered with a mask. He nods at Jonathan, who nods back. The masked man winks at me, laugh lines appear under his eyes as he stares at Tom’s corpse, and with that, he disappears.

  Did he just kill Tom and smile about it?

  I’m still focused on the window when strong hands cut off the ropes using the knife. My heart flutters and soars to life as Jonathan kneels in front of me, his gaze hard and focused.

  He runs his fingers over the wound in my neck and they come away with blood. “Fuck!”

  “I’m okay.”

  “I’m not. Fuck, Aurora. What would I have done if something had happened to you?”

  The moment I’m free of my bindings, I wrap my trembling arms around his neck. My first inhale of his woodsy scent brings fresh tears to the forefront, but this time, they’re happy tears. Grateful tears. “Thank you.”

  Jonathan kisses my forehead and my cheeks, then brushes his lips against mine in a brief, soul-shattering kiss. With every touch of his mouth against my skin, it’s like he’s reviving me back to the life that was nearly stolen away from me.

  He carries me in his arms, and I don’t protest since my legs wouldn’t be able to hold me up anyway. I snuggle my body into his embrace so effortlessly, as if I was always meant to be there.

  And I was.

  There’s no doubt in my mind that I always was.

  Jonathan’s security wrenches Margot from above Tom’s corpse. I don’t want to look at him or the vacant look in his eyes.

  “T-Tom!” Margot sobs. “Come back, honey. You can’t leave.”

  Still carrying me in his arms, Jonathan stops in front of her and levels her with one of his wrath-inducing glares. The look of a god about to destroy everything in his path. “You raised him on useless revenge and eventually killed him, Margot. You’ll rot in prison for the rest of your life thinking that. You’ll regret the second you were born. Now, that is my revenge.”

  He doesn’t wait for her reply as he strides out of the kitchen, her pained sobs and wails following after us like arrows.

  My eyes are barely able to stay open, and my head feels wrong. What did they inject me with anyway?

  I thought the heaviness in my head would loosen after being released from the ropes, but it’s getting worse.

  “J-Jonathan…I…d-don’t feel so good…”

  “Aurora.”

  His voice turns hollow and distant.

  “Aurora!”

  My grip on his shirt slackens as my head rolls back and everything turns black.

  33

  Aurora

  Life has never been the same after that night.

  I think that’s a given, considering how Jonathan’s ‘man’ sniped down Tom as if he were a fly. When I asked Jonathan who the sniper was, he told me it was no one I needed to worry about. Something tells me his type might be even worse than the monster I spent my childhood with.

  It took me a few days to regain my strength with the amount of propofol Margot and Tom injected into me.

  Jonathan, being Jonathan, admitted me to a private clinic. When I told him there was no need, he gave me that look — the one that says ‘you don’t get to argue with me when it comes to your health’ — and I eventually kept my mouth shut.

  Layla came over, brought me her mum’s couscous and hugged me to death. I joked, telling her maybe I should get hurt more often so she’d hug me. That earned me harsh glares from both her and Jonathan.

  Ethan and Agnus showed up, too, and for the first time, Jonathan didn’t kick Ethan out. It might have something to do with how I begged him not to, but I believe this is a start to rekindle their friendship. I meant it when I told Ethan I’d help.

  Aiden, Levi, Elsa, and Astrid visited, too. The boys were shocked about Margot’s involvement, considering that they’ve known her their entire lives, but after a one-on-one talk with Jonathan, they seemed to have accepted it.

  My nephew begrudgingly said he’s glad I’m safe, and by begrudgingly, I mean, everyone said it first, then stared at him so he’d follow.

  Aiden and I might have started off on the wrong foot, but I have faith in the future. After all, we’re the people Alicia loved the most. I cropped the clip of her last moments and sent him the part where she said she loved him so much.

  Elsa’s eyes filled with tears as he listened and re-listened to that part. I think both he and I needed that goodbye from Alicia. Jonathan knew what my sister’s opinion of him was before her death, the part where she thought he was poisoning her, and that she forgave him. I could tell he didn’t like that she had those thoughts about him, but on the other hand, the closure gave him and Aiden a much-needed fresh start.

  They’re revisiting their father and son relationship that was basically non-existent after Alicia’s death.

  The small cropped parts are the only thing Jonathan and Aiden heard — I would never let them listen to the entire clip of her death. I’ll bury that painful experience betw
een me and Maxim.

  My father got attacked that night by Shelby. He was saved at the very last minute by a guard and he’s currently in a coma that he might never wake up from.

  When I learnt the news, I didn’t grieve or feel sad. I didn’t feel relief either. I’d already mourned my father, so whether he stays alive or dies doesn’t really make much of a difference to me.

  It’s ironic that he tortured people until they died slowly, and now, he might receive the same treatment. He’s neither dead nor alive — just floating in between.

  Due to that fact, the parole case was dropped, and I didn’t have to stand in trial. The media attention slowly withered away after Maxim’s attack. The victims’ families who were thirsty for justice all these years stopped protesting, too.

  I’m slowly but surely getting back my life. Layla and I will finally launch our new product next month, and so far, we’re having great prelaunch attention. It might also have something to do with the whole press interference.

  Layla says any publicity is good publicity and it’s only fair we use the suckers who harassed us.

  Taking a deep breath, I hold the box in my hand and tap on Jonathan’s office door. I don’t wait before going inside.

  Since Tom’s death and Margot’s arrest three weeks ago, the two of us have been on our own in the house. Harris arranges for a cleaning staff to come, but they’re supervised by the security team. Needless to say, Jonathan doesn’t trust anyone anymore. Not that he ever has in the past.

  He sits behind his desk, focusing on his laptop. I stop and stare at the way his shirt is rolled to his elbows, revealing his strong forearms. He’s not wearing a tie and his top shirt buttons are undone, hinting at his chiselled chest and the raw masculinity he exudes by just sitting at his desk.

  I doubt there will be a day when I won’t stop and stare at him. He owns me in every single way — just like I own him. And it’s the best type of belonging I’ve ever felt.