Page 130 of His Prince

Or I’ll die trying.

My eyes move around the room, and I make a plan to escape. No one is going to save me but myself. And the one thing Daniil has going against him is that I do know him better than most. I may not have known his secrets, but we were friends once upon a time, and I believe I can use some of that against him.

And if that fails, I’ll fight like hell to escape, to get back to Angel.

We still have so many years to live together.

I refuse to give up now.

A shout resonates through the cold, damp space, Daniil making an appearance, his lips turning into a deep frown as he approaches me.

He doesn’t stop though, just wrenches his arm back and punches me across the face. My entire cheek throbs in pain as the crack disorients me slightly. But I’ve had worse. He’s going to have to come at me with a lot more force to make me cave.

“That’s for Katarina.”

“So, you were fucking her?” I ask, blood pooling in my mouth, my cheek on fire.

“I did. She loved me.”

“She didn’t love anyone but herself.”

His fist flies again, knocking into the other side of my face. I slump sideways, my eyes closing slightly as I take the beating. I’ll take whatever he has. Nothing can hurt worse than the fact that I considered him a brother and he betrayed me.

“She loved me. Not you,” he seethes.

“And I killed her, so we’ll never really know will we?” I ask, forcing my lips into a small grin. “I slit her fucking throat and watched her die.”

That earns me another punch, this time to my stomach. The chair almost falls backward from the force of it. I grunt and cough but then laugh, antagonizing him. It works, his fingers flexing, already starting to bleed and bruise from the force of hispunches.

“You were always shit at boxing,” I say, and he huffs a laugh.

“So were you.”

And then he lands another to my stomach, making me wheeze.

“You’re a coward,” I gasp. “You can only face me when I’m tied down. You could only fuck my wife while I was away. You run my businesses. You can’t stand on your own two feet. You’re nothing without me.”

He growls and comes at me, knocking me backward, my head hitting the cold cement ground. His fingers fall to my throat and he chokes me, my life being snuffed from me. I see it all, the hate in his eyes, the set of his jaw, and then everything starts to flicker out. Angel, his beautiful blue eyes, the pink of his lips and his cheeks as he blushes for me.

I see it all as I start to pass out, but before I can fully cross over, Daniil lets go and I gasp back to life.

“Not yet. Mila wants a fucking word with you. Several, in fact.”

“Who. The fuck. Is Mila?” I manage to ask, my throat sore, my words broken.

He pushes himself off me and brushes his jacket off. “Mila is Katarina’s sister. You’d have known that if you knew your wife. But she didn’t tell you anything because she despised you. She hated you with everything inside of her. She couldn’t stand to even touch you.”

“You could have had her, you know? I would have let you two run off together. She was a thorn in my side from the beginning. I would have given you up too, Daniil. Even though I loved you like a brother, I would have let you both go.”

He falters for a moment but then schools his face. “You lie. You fucking lie.” His words break and he looks unsure for a moment, but erases it once again. “And it doesn’t matter. You’ll get what’s coming to you. You’ll get what you deserve.”

He stomps up the stairs and calls back to me, “And soon, you’ll join her.”

“In hell,” I murmur and then let myself sink into the darkness.

28

ANGEL

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