Page 176 of Vicious Games

She needs him to stay sane and in power—her ticket up the syndicate ladder depends on it.

But she didn’t see what I saw.

When he killed that priest, I saw bloodlust in his eyes. Pure, unfiltered rage.

That kind of hunger doesn’t just go away.

When all his enemies are dead and gone, what happens next?

Will he turn on his men?

His family?

Yeah, that doubt doesn’t sit well with me, and it sure as fuck shouldn’t sit well with Stella either.

I’m about to tell her that when the bedroom door opens.

“I didn’t know you had company,” Kirill says as he walks in like he owns the place. “I came to check on you. See if you needed anything,” he adds, his focus solely on my sister.

“What I need is to get out of this damn bed,” Stella grumbles, arms crossed.

“Oh, I don’t know. I think you’re perfect right where you are.” He smirks and moves closer. Stella throws him her most menacing glare and then pointedly turns her head away.

“Your prisoner is fine. You can go now,” she says, refusing to look at him.

“Fair enough. I just wanted to tell you that Dr. Solokov will stop by later to change your bandages. You can ask him if you’re ready to be off bedrest then.”

“I don’t need a doctor to tell me what I already know. I’m perfectly fine,” she snaps. “Besides, it’s just a flesh wound. I don’t see what all the fuss is about.”

“No,” he corrects, grabbing her chin and pulling her face towards him. “It’s not a flesh wound. It’s a bullet wound. I know because I fished the bullet out of your body myself. And that type of injury is not to be taken lightly.”

“What I take seriously is the fact that I got shot by your order.”

“I never told my men to shoot you,milaya,” he says, visibly offended.

“No, you just told them to kidnap Frankie. By any means necessary. If I got shot, then that’s on you.”

Kirill scowls at Stella before releasing his grip off her and shifting his attention to me.

“Frankie was looking for you downstairs. You should go to her.”

I don’t budge since leaving Stella alone with him doesn’t feel right with me. But when she waves me off, I have no choice.

“Go. I can deal with this asshole on my own just fine.”

“You sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“She’s sure,” they both answer in tandem.

Well… that’s that, I guess.

I leave Stella’s room and go looking for Frankie. But when I find her in the library, seated across from Mikhail and Aleksandr, my hackles rise.

“You wanted to see me, babe?”

She opens her mouth, but it’s not her voice that answers my question.

---