Page 43 of Taken By the King

A lot of her girlfriends had lesbian or gay children, so this was supposed to be perfectly normal in the twenty-first century, and yet to our mother, it wasn’t.

Nick paled, seeming lost for words as he cleared his throat.

“Mum, you always knew I was different. Don’t pretend you couldn’t see it,” he said, sounding broken.

Mum started shaking her head before she slapped him so hard, I gasped.

“Don’t you fucking say that again. I don’t want to hear I’ve given birth to someone so disgusting and weak—”

“That’s enough now, Mother. What the hell is your problem? Don’t act like you didn’t know, like you had no idea he was gay!” I intervened, barging inside the room like a bulldozer. I wanted nothing more than to scratch her face out.

She turned to face me.

“This is all your fault, you little bitch. You put these silly ideas into his head, so now he thinks he’s gay!”

I pushedthat vision of the past out of my head and brought my legs up to my chest to bury my face between them. My mother had the tendency to blame me for everything that had gone wrong in her life. That day, she hurt Nicolas so much. I promised him she was going to take it well and I wasn’t able to keep that promise.

I don’t know why he wanted her blessing so much, her validation, but her reaction led him to take his own life. He’d always been so sensitive and tender-hearted, hoping against hope our mother would love us the way she should have. Nothing but an illusion.

In the end, I was the one who’d found him in that bathtub that day, the one who called the police. I was the one who had to live with this guilt forever.

I lost him because our mother couldn’t—wouldn’t—accept him for who he was.

Now, looking back at the past, I somewhat understood why this all had happened to me.

Everything slowly made sense. After witnessing what happened on that yacht, everything became much clearer as to why mother reacted the way she did then.

She hated me. Utterly and deeply, and she’d get back at me for my brother’s death. The way she saw it, everything ‘broken’ in my brother, it had been up to me to fix, and instead I’d encouraged it. Nothing came in the way of her status, image, and way of life—and that included her children.

I took a long, deep breath, trying to calm down. Telling myself I’d never forget my brother, and the love I had for him.

20

Sebastian

I wasin a dark mood since our return to Chicago. Vinny hadn’t gotten back to me, so it seemed that Marcus was right. My deal with the Italians seemed to have fallen through due to lingering trust issues, and tonight I was driving to one of the clubs to try to salvage it somehow. I wasn’t entirely sure if my family was supposed to be taking this deal and yet, I continued to pursue it. My brothers wanted to branch out with a connection to the Italians.

Whereas if it were up to me, I was curious about what Marcus Petrovsky wanted to offer us. Nevertheless, I’d approach the man with a long-handled spoon. No one could figure out how he knew I’d be in France that weekend. All my contacts told me that Marcus was back in Russia now. I hadn’t yet reached out to Marinka’s father—it was too soon—but I knew he’d had dealings with him in the past, so I needed to explore that avenue.

I resumed dinners with Marinka. She came out of her shell a little and was trying to make an effort by talking to me. Jordan’s detailed reports suggested that she had made progress with her training, and she was acting more like Russina every day. I had to admit to myself that I hadn’t treated her well in the beginning, but she’d somehow gotten under my skin.

I was restless and unsettled. Pedro and Marco both noticed this—I’d caught them regarding me with concern.

Vinnie’s associate, Gino Valenti, had promised a shipment of coke from Italy to the United States. He also wanted to make a deal relating to a vineyard on the West Coast. Sparky and Milo insisted that we needed to secure this deal, but I kept thinking about the Russians and the unexpected visitor in Saint-Tropez.

Although lately, things were getting worse. The FBI had discovered my connection to the Musink family in Chicago. They raided a few of my warehouses last week and made several arrests. I had a feeling Russina’s sudden disappearance had something to do with it.

No one was supposed to know that she was dead. She had some great connections with certain politicians that had made my life easier. That was the main reason why I’d married her—she knew many useful people and was willing to work with me from the start. This was never about love. My brothers weren’t happy with me, so to make it up to them I hoped Gino would fucking see the potential in this deal tonight and shake hands with me.

The club was busy tonight. The music was blasting away when Pedro let me in through the back. The deal wasn’t the only thing making me uneasy. Marinka had been on my mind a lot, distracting me. I wanted to take her, possess her fully, especially after seeing her beautiful orgasm.

I told myself that if everything went well tonight, I’d ask for one of the girls so I could forget about Marinka for at least one evening. I saw her clothes in the penthouse, smelled her scent on my skin. This whole fucking thing was slowly driving me crazy and I couldn’t even think straight.

I walked through the busy club. Half-naked women were dancing, people were seated all around, drinking and chatting. I inhaled the strong odor of sweat, smoke, and alcohol as I moved past the bar.

I headed straight to the meeting room that was situated on the first floor. Outside the door stood Ricky, Dom, and Nick, which meant that Milo and Sparky were already waiting for me.

I cursed under my breath, wondering how my brothers had found out about the meeting. They’d asked me to handle it, so I did. Why the fuck did they need to get involved now?

---