Page 103 of Nash

“Yes. Once the threat of Turner is gone, there will always be another. It’s the risk we take with what we do. But it gets even riskier if Alena knows, if she becomes an asset someone can torture for intel.”

“But,” Vale scoffs, “it’s okay if they take and tortureme?”

“Never.” I cup her cheek. “That’s why you’ll be my queen. I’ll protect you, and so will the other kings.”

“Okay.” She pops up, sitting like a kid ready for her lesson, and I’m the teacher. “Tell me everything. What is this whole king/queen thing, and how does it work? I know it’s not like the British royalty. It’s all Bratva and taboo, and I’m in.”

I scrub my face, mentally parsing what I can and cannot tell her. Yes, Vale is in my world, but she can never know the depths of it, the depravity sometimes. Not everything.

It’s too dangerous.

“The king and queen tradition goes way back,” I explain. “It was done for survival, to protect an entire family. A king claims his queen, and the other kings agree to protect her, to provide for her and their kids should something happen to him, which it usually did.” I pause. “Itdoes. This is a dangerous world we live in, Vale, and if something happens to me, my brothers will protect you.”

“Okay,” she shrugs, “I get that part. Of course, I don’t want anything to happen to you, but it’s romantic as hell they’ll protect me, so what’s the problem?”

“The problem?” I sit up, too. “Vale, with me or my brothers, you’ll be in danger for the rest of your life. Do you not get that?”

She blurts, “Do you not get women are always in danger? Hell, I can go to the grocery store and have some man grab me outside and ruin my life. Safety is not a reality for most women. But at least with you and your brothers, I have a fighting chance.”

Fuck, she’s right.

Again.

“Besides,” she says. “I love you, I adore Jace and Grant, I can tolerate Axel, and as long as that Sire guy doesn’t preach all the time, I think it’ll be fun.”

“Fun? There are other brothers, and they’re not always fun.”

Her eyes grow. “There aremore?”

“Yes, there are seven of us. Seven kings and I’m the only one who’s not a brother. Well, not by blood. And we all answer to one woman,TheQueen.”

“Wait? What?” Can her pretty eyes get even bigger? “TheQueen? Who is it?”

“Their mother. She’s like my mother, too, and you know her.”

It’s beautiful watching how wickedly fast her smart brain works. “Ms. Faye!” She snaps her fingers. The CIA has nothing on my woman.

“She’s Jace’s mom? And Grant’s? And Axel’s?” She sighs, “Jeez, it makes so much sense now. God, they all have her blue eyes. Wait!” Yep, her eyescanget bigger. “You said your tests involve fucki?—”

“God, no!” I interrupt her assumption. “We don’t involve her like that. When the kings make their queens, The Queen isn’t there. She’s not involved, but it is her tradition. It’s how she escaped Moscow with her six sons. Their father, her husband, was an evil man. He kidnapped and raped her and made her his wife at fourteen, but he didonething that wound up saving her. He made her have a second husband, in the king and queen tradition, and that man, her second husband, loved her and got them out.”

Vale shakes her head, taking it all in,and there’s more, but I don’t want her to run away screaming.

Not like she could escape me anyway.

“What do you mean?” she asks. “Asecondhusband? First, are we getting mar?—”

My heart drops. “This isn’t how I wanted to ask you.” I take her hand. “Let me do that part right. And later. And you fucking better say yes, but there’s more you should know before you do.”

She chews her lip, joy dancing in her smokey eyes. “Okay, I’ll wait.” Pause. “And I’ll say yes.”

I can’t let myself be happy about it. Not until she knows everything. Because once she does, she’ll change her answer.

“I won’t share you, Vale. You’ll be mine, and only mine, but to be my queen, you have to have a second king. We’re supposed to do your …initiation. Just once and never again.”

Fuck, I still don’t think I can do this.

I can’t watch another man with her and not murder him.

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