Page 5 of Dirty Crown
Valen and Archer were almost inconsolable in their panic. I felt horrible that I’d done it to them, so I pulled them both against me and let them just hold me for a couple of moments before stepping back.
“I can’t believe I ever doubted how you would feel,” I said as my alcohol high wore off. “What happened to me back there?”
“You’ve gone through a lot, babe,” Valen said, rubbing my shoulder. “Fuck, anybody’s mind would crack if they went through half of what you’ve endured.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t notice how much you were suffering,” Archer said and hung his head. “I feel ashamed that I didn’t see your pain. I was so fucking caught up in all of this that I didn’t see how it hurt you.”
“That, too,” Ryker agreed. “I feel like a piece of shit about it. I hid my own injuries from y’all, I should have picked up that you were doing the same.”
“I think we all need the time to do an inventory of hurts and injuries, both emotional and physical,” Kingston said. “But not now, after we figure this shit out, okay?”
And then he turned to me and took my face in his huge, strong hands, looked me in the eye and added, “Promise you won’t run away again. Promise me you’ll let us know when you’re falling apart. We can’t fix it if we don’t know it’s broken, and the thought of you breaking when you’re in front of us absolutely fucking guts me, princess. So promise me you’ll trust us with your care and support when you desperately need it, okay?”
Tears prickled my eyes and I nodded my agreement, unable to speak.
Everything felt like it had clicked back into place. Like the gears of the universe aligned again and the world was turning on its axis the way it should have been all along. It was my head that had thrown it off its balance, and my own fearful, furtive imaginings that had almost destroyed everything.
I was broken inside, I could see that now. But I was also healing. Eventually these breakdowns would become fewer and farther between as I knitted myself back together with help from my Kings.
“Okay,” I said at last, not exactly wanting to give up the sensation of their hands on me, comforting and supporting me. But...we had business to get to. “We need to move these two. Wait, has Avery been loose this entire time?”
I looked around in shock, half expecting to see her crouched in the corner with a cell phone or gone from the building all together and on her way to call Ilya.
“No, we tied her up,” Valen said with a lopsided grin. “I can’t stand her, and she wouldn’t stop talking. She hits on us constantly and honestly? I wish I could have shut her up back at Fincross but I know it’s not acceptable out in the real world.”
“But here? Fuck yeah, I’ll run a strip of duct tape across her mouth in a heartbeat,” Archer chuckled. “Seriously, when you’re not around it’s nonstop from her. And she doesn’t get it, she doesn’t understand how we’re so focused on you, and you alone, princess.”
We walked across the open space and just around the large concrete pillar in the middle of the room, I found Avery bound and gagged and glared up at me with pure hatred.
She was on her side, her wrists and ankles were taped up, and her mouth was covered. She looked miserable, and I didn’t exactly revel in it, I did appreciate the fact that my Kings didn’t want to hear her spew her bullshit so they shut her down.
“She’s never had anybody loyal to her,” I said, looking down with pity. I knew the pity would hurt her more than anger. I nudged her with the toe of my boot and continued. “She sees Maksim and how he’ll fuck anybody that slows down long enough to let him slip his little dick inside. She can’t believe that all men aren’t like that, low down slippery and unfaithful.”
“Sad,” Kingston said, looking down next to me. “Anyhow, she’s not the one we’re worried about. We need to get this piece of shit on the move before they figure out where they are.”
“But first,” Ryker said, stepping forward to the chair where Maksim was still bound and gagged. “We want to help you get a little revenge.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I want to put a bullet in his head, but we need him,” Kingston growled, stepping towards him with such a long stride that the confident defiance fled from Maksim’s face and he blanched white in fear.
“So we decided you get to do what you want,” Archer said. “From the neck down, and he has to be alive at the end of it.”
“Well that rules out what I really want,” I said, pondering the terrible things I could do to him.
“That’s what I said,” Valen said from beside me. “But then again, that’s what we all want. Even Avery, I’m sure, if we asked her.”
Maksim glanced down at the floor along with the rest of us. Down there, Avery shook her head and pleaded to him with her eyes. She wouldn’t want him to know how she disliked him, her life depended on Maksim thinking she worshipped the ground he walked on.
“So anything?” I asked, scanning his body for the things I could do. “I’d like to cut his dick off, but that wouldn’t make much difference.”
My Kings laughed and Maksim winced, but glared. He shot me daggers and I would be dead if he could kill from a distance.
“What about his balls?” Ryker asked, producing a large hunting knife. I had no idea where he’d been keeping it on his body, but Ryker was a man of constant surprises. I had a feeling he wasn’t planning on getting caught without being prepared ever again.
“He’ll bleed out,” I said. “At least that’s what I’ve heard.”
“He will,” Kingston said, not taking his eyes off Maksim. “There’s much to green t a risk and we need this piece of shit alive. For now.”
