Fucked. This was all so completely fucked up.
I tried to relax and reel myself in as it neared eight in the morning. Eventually, a nurse approached us to take us through to a private room where Ambrose laid awake and lucid.
I watched from the doorway as our parents ran to him, hugging him. My heart ached. In a way, I felt like I was intruding on a private family moment - of someone else’s family. I think if he hadn’t just tried to kill me I would have felt sympathetic - guilty for stealing his parents away from him. After all, he’d grown up an only child, he was used to all the love and devotion our parents had to give. And clearly, they were used to only having one child to love.
It was such a shame that once again, I didn’t fit in there. But in another respect, I was at peace with it. Like I’d said the first time I met Rachel and Kaleb, I may have been curious about them, but I wasn’t looking for a family.
I’d found one. Albeit unconventional, but it was mine. I loved the King brothers and they had accepted me. Except Finch, he was a different story, but I had a strong feeling that everything between us would work itself out. After all, he was Nikolai’s brother, and although Nik was still furious with Finch, I knew how much love flowed between the two.
Soon, I would be home...
“Anastasia?” Rachel had noticed me still clinging to the doorway, I didn’t know if it was in case I needed an easy exit or if I just needed the physical structure to hold me upright.
“Sorry, would you mind giving us a minute?” I asked our parents and watched as they slowly, reluctantly, left the room.
Ambrose rolled his eyes as I finally moved closer to his bedside. “What? Are you going to gloat, because I’d rather not hear it.”
What a weird thing to say, I thought. Gloat?
I didn’t understand what that even meant. Did he mean gloat that he was the one in the hospital bed and not me? That his attempt to kill me hadn’t gone as planned. To me, this situation wasn’t exactly something for me to gloat over.
“I don’t understand why you did it?” I said as a question more than a statement.
He coughed a laugh. “Not so smart after all.”
“I managed to outsmart you. Now tell me why,” I demanded as our eyes locked for the longest time. Finally, his resolve seemed to crack as he blinked and gritted his teeth, his goading smirk had long disappeared now. Thank god for that small mercy, I would’ve hated to slap a man in a hospital bed.
“You were right, I was pissed when Mom and Dad told me that you would be replacing Dad when he retired.”
“That’s it? You know if you had fought his decision and proved that you were the smarter choice? You know, instead of acting like a brat, I’m sure he might’ve changed his mind.” I didn’t know if I was trying to lighten the mood for him or for me. This was all so fucked up, I was having a harder time processing it than I would have thought. I didn’t like the idea of showing my vulnerability.
Ambrose grimaced. “There’s more, you should take a seat… I don’t care anymore.”
I sat on the more comfortable looking chair out of the two, it was still plastic but it at least was covered by a blanket. I wasn’t sure what exactly I was asking him to do… I just wanted the truth, “tell me.”
“I was out with the guys when I was approached by a woman. She said that her employer had a business proposition for me that would be very lucrative. All I had to do was meet them at the right time and place, and then she left. My buddies thought she was just giving me her number.” He took a sip of water from the cup on the tray, and I topped it up for him.
He opened his mouth and closed it again. That anaesthesia cotton-mouth side effect was the worst, I knew that.
“When I got there, it was Marco and Cassio. They spoke to me about how they didn’t feel that the alliance would be as strong if Marco married you because they didn’t trust you. They asked if I’d be willing to help them with that. And I… I said yes, obviously.”
He shrugged, and I stayed silent. My heart was pounding in my throat. I felt sick, fevery. “They gave me a gun, and a million dollars in cash, with the promise of another million when I completed the job,” he finished, like it was nothing. Maybe it was nothing.
“They lied to you,” I said as I kept my eyes down. They hadn’t told him that they wanted me out of the way so that they could take a shot at the Varela territory. I felt sorry for him, he had been played for a fool. If I wasn’t standing in the way of Cassio getting whatever he wanted, it would be Kaleb or Ambrose with the target on their backs.
I didn’t look at Ambrose, I couldn’t look at what a disgrace to the Varela name he was. So I got to my feet and walked out the door to find Rachel and Kaleb in the corridor. They both looked up at me expectantly. I just shook my head.
“All yours,” I said numbly as I pushed past them.
I walked through corridor after corridor to find the damn exit. I needed air. I didn’t even know how I was going to begin processing any of this. I had no idea what any of this meant, other than that I was most certainly not getting fucking married to that bastard.
Suddenly as I paced outside, a familiar form appeared in front of me.
“Nikolai, what are you doing here?” Kaleb and Rachel were going to freak if they saw us together - if they saw him here full stop. I put my hands against his chest to stop him walking straight into me.
“Finch was watching the house when the ambulance arrived. I came as soon as I heard, we didn’t know what it was. I was panicking when you didn’t answer your phone. What happened?” His arms tightened around me.
I felt his heart race under my palm. He was scared, he thought he’d lost me. I leant into him to offer him the comfort he needed. I didn’t know what to say, but I knew, right then, we needed each other.
Minutes passed by before he finally released me from his suffocating grip. “I’m fine.”
“What happened, Ana?” Nikolai stressed again.
I couldn’t tell him right now, even though I barely knew what had just happened myself. “Nikolai, I’ll explain everything to you but you can’t be here. If they see you—”
“Anastasia, I don’t care if they see me. This is over.” He pulls back, holding my shoulders in his strong hands.
“What?” I whispered. I held my breath as my carefully constructed world began to shatter.
“I won’t go along with this plan of yours any longer. You’re coming home. This ends tonight,” I said. I kept as much of the anger and fear that I was feeling from my voice as I could, but she still looked at me with hurt in her beautiful eyes
“Nikolai, no, I can’t leave yet. The threat is still very much out there, I can do this. I’m so close,” she insisted, hurt turning to frustration at the flick of a switch. I was a little surprised that she didn’t stamp her foot to drive her point home.
I was so proud of her, but I couldn’t let her continue alone. It was much too dangerous. “Look at you! Ana you’ve come so far, you’ve changed and adapted so well. Maybe a little too well… I give you my word, we’ll deal with Bellucci. But together, I won’t let you deal with this alone.”
“But that wasn’t part of the plan,” she said, lacking all of her fight.
Oh, I knew it wasn’t a part of the plan, but I knew she would see it my way in the end.
“Plans can change. When you came here, you asked me to trust you. Now I need you to trust me.” It took her a minute. My Ana was beautiful but stubborn, she didn’t relinquish her control very often. Which was why, when she gave me a reluctant nod of her head, my heart soared.
I had to act fast before she changed her mind and things became difficult again. I pulled out my phone and hit the speed dial for Drex. She watched me closely as I spoke into the phone.
“Drex, get the boys, we’re gonna take down Bellucci. I need you here asap,” I said as soon as he answered. There was a murmur of agreement on the end of the line that sounded suspiciously like ‘about time’. “Tell them they should be
ready for some resistance, but nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Okay, boss. Got it. A dozen?” I considered what I knew about the Bellucci Family compound. They had a lot of land but the house itself was small. A dozen trained men should be more than adequate.
“That should be fine. Text me when you’re here, we’ll meet you over at the Bellucci estate.” I hung up with faith that my brothers would be here as soon as possible. They knew where to meet us because we’d done a ton of recon at the Bellucci place shortly after I found out my Ana was betrothed to one of them. Hopefully, that knowledge could come in handy tonight.
I turned to Ana who was still watching my every movement. I meant what I’d said to her, she had changed so much, adjusted so well. I was so proud of her, for all that she’s had to put up with in the past, to then be thrust into this world… she’d just gotten on with it like none of it was a big deal.
“Come on, let’s go back to the hotel room. We’ve got some things to discuss before we meet up with the guys,” I said, taking her hand. We walked to my truck. I didn’t think she was too concerned about leaving the Varelas behind. Good riddance.
I dropped Finch a text before I drove us back to the hotel, just to tell him that she was with me. I supposed he would appreciate knowing she was safe since he was the one that alerted me to the appearance of the ambulance after all.
“Do you have your keys to the house?” I asked, thinking on my feet that Ana needed a change of clothes. She couldn’t go around wearing bloodstained pyjamas and a hoodie, as much as I loved her legs in those shorts.
“I can’t go back there, Nikolai. I won’t ever be able to enter that house again,” she said, looking blankly through the windshield.
“I know, I need clothes, but I can’t go back. All that blood on the bedroom floor. I can’t do it.” She sounded calm, but I knew beneath that stoic exterior she must have been a mess of emotions. Shock was the only thing keeping her together, right now.
“Hand the keys over to me then. I’ll get you your things. Then we can go back to the hotel and you can get cleaned up. It’ll be a little while before Drex and the guys get here.” It was a five-hour drive, so even if they got moving straight away, we still had plenty of time.
She dug the keys out of her pocket and dropped them into my open palm. “My hold-alls are under the bed,” Ana said, before turning towards me in the seat, tucking her legs up to her chest, and closing her eyes. She must’ve been exhausted.
I pulled up outside the Varela house and got out of the truck. Ana blinked at me sleepily.
“Do they have a housekeeper?” I asked. The last thing I needed now was to be arrested for trespassing.
“It’s her day off. Upstairs, the room at the end of the hall,” she murmured, nodding. How fortunate.
It was cute that she thought she’d had to tell me where her room was. I’d spent weeks staked out front watching her every move. I knew where her room was...
I jogged up the drive to the house and unlocked the door. I immediately headed up the stairs and down the hallway to Ana’s room. I side-stepped a large pool of darkening blood at the foot of the bed and dragged out the two hold-alls she had mentioned. I shoved in everything I could find; her bathroom stuff, her makeup, and as much clothing as I could stuff in the bags.
There wasn’t anything in the room that told me she treated it like a home. It seemed like a hotel room, blank and featureless. I felt a twinge of satisfaction knowing that she didn’t need to be here anymore, that she was coming home with me as soon as the Bellucci matter was settled.
I was ready for tonight to be over, and by the end, I hoped Anastasia hadn’t changed her mind about me. Tonight I would kill a man, maybe more than one, and the icy feel of the adrenalin in my veins told me I would feel no mercy. These people tried to take my Anastasia from me. They would not succeed.
Back at the hotel, I ran Ana a bath, tipping in a generous amount of one of Ana’s products. It smelled fresh and fruity. It would be a massive improvement on the smell of blood and hospital-waiting-room that lingered on her at the moment. I put her shampoo and conditioner on the counter before going back to check on her.
Ana sat on the bed looking despondent as the bath filled. I moved over to her and nudged her knees apart, so I could stand between them.
“Lift your arms up,” I said softly as I reached down to lift the hem of her hoodie. I peeled it and the vest top underneath off of her in one smooth movement. She eased her feet out of her trainers and I took a step back so that she could stand. She slid her shorts off herself and then completely naked, looked up at me, an impenetrable sadness in her eyes.
I sighed as I opened my arms and pulled her to me. She was safe here, but what had she endured at Ambrose’s hands? I still didn’t know.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked her, expecting her to refuse.
“In the bath,” she said. Her voice was barely above a whisper. Holding my hand, she led me to the bathroom. I stayed standing, ready to catch her if she swayed, as she stepped into the bath, then I took a seat on the bleached-cleaned floor beside the tub.
“What happened back there?” I asked gently. She drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around her calves. The ends of her hair floated in the water around her, sinking slowly. For a moment, I thought she wasn’t going to answer me.
“The Belluccis. They paid Ambrose to try and kill me. Marco and Cassio. They met with him, gave him a gun, some money, and told him to get rid of me.” She didn’t look at me as she spoke, she just stared ahead to the wall. “The Belluccis played him and Ambrose hated me so much that he fell for their game. He was gonna shoot me, and I… I threw a knife at him,” she said with a small, sad shrug.
“You…” I was shocked that it had worked. She threw a knife at him? Stunned and impressed, I shut my mouth again and just waited for her to talk.
“I threw it, it hit him, he fell to the floor. Then… I pushed it in further. I wanted him to hurt, in all the ways I had been hurt. They’ve been using me since before I was born, and he hated me for it. Me. Not his parents. Not this shitty betrothal. He hated me!” She huffed out a bitter, angry laugh. “Some family, huh?”
“Some family…” I agreed. I was struck by the brutality of Ana’s attack. But it also turned me on. She had more fire in her than I could ever have predicted, and she was all mine.
“But, that’s it. That’s all that happened. I got Kaleb and Rachel out of bed, Kaleb had me call an ambulance.” She paused. “I could have killed him… just let him bleed out and die. But I didn’t. God! I am such an idiot.”
She absolutely could have killed him. And honestly, she should’ve. I wasn’t convinced it would be much of a loss but I kept my anger at his attempt on her life on a tight leash. I knew this would only draw the Valera family closer together. Now that Ana had left them, and Ambrose was the only heir, I wondered if this would cause ructions in the future… Now wasn’t the time for that line of thought though.
“I’m going to go and call Drex and the guys, you take as much time as you need. I’ll just be in the bedroom.” I got up off the floor then bent down to kiss the top of her head. I left the door ajar for her when I left the room.
I had taken my shirt off and was lying back on the bed, contemplating how this evening was going to play out when the bathroom door opened. Ana’s damp hair hung in gentle waves around her face as she walked towards me. She’d left the towel in the bathroom and the sight of her, the look in her eyes, had all of my attention.
I swung my feet off the bed and onto the floor as she walked over to me. She stopped between my knees and tilted my face up to hers. Her pink tongue darted out, dampening her lips. Her fingertips touched my shoulders and trailed down my chest, coming to rest over my heart. Lightly, she pushed me so that I’d lie back on the bed.
I knew what she wanted, I wished I could give in to her, but I needed to use the brief time we had together to worship her. Instead of lying back, I shook my head and
got to my feet.
“Oh no, princess,” I murmured as I kissed her. “Tonight’s about you.”
“What are you going to do to me?” she asked as I spun us around and laid her down on the bed.
I chuckled. “Nothing that you won’t enjoy.”
I knelt in front of my Ana and dipped my head between her thighs. She sighed as I kissed her and then bent my head down further. I gently rested my hands on her thighs to hold her legs open, giving me flawless access to her clit and sweet centre.
A soft groan of satisfaction escaped Ana’s mouth as she lay back, looking up to the ceiling. Her fingers pressed into the tops of her thighs as I worked her clit with my tongue. I reached up and caught one of her nipples between my thumb and forefinger, squeezing gently and massaging her breast.
“Nikolai…” Her voice was barely a whisper. I looked up to see her watching me. She lifted her hands, beckoning me closer. I was as hard as a rock, cock pressed tight in the confines of my jeans, but I still wasn’t quite done with her.
“Not yet,” I murmured, hot breath washing over her pussy.
She gasped as I buried my face in her wetness, licking and sucking until her hips bucked up to meet me uncontrollably. She cried out, the sound ripping from her throat as she unravelled — almost completely. I withdrew and stood, undoing the button on my jeans and pulling them off with my boxers. My need for her, my desire, was more than evident now that my cock was free of its constraints.
“Nik,” She looked up at me, face flushed and lust darkening her eyes. “I need you...”
I smirked down at her in response as I took hold of her legs and pulled her to me. More than happy to oblige, I positioned my cock and tilted my hips so that the tip rubbed hard against her swollen clit. Taking it in my hand, I sunk fully into her. Ana cried out again, gasping as she took the full length of me in one strong stroke. Her hips bucked up, twisting slightly as she writhed on the bed. Her nails scraped down my tight abdomen, digging in and eliciting a gasp from my own mouth.
Be My Queen (The Crown Duet Book 2) Page 10
