Page 66 of Vengeful King

“We’ll look into what we can with Yuri,” Aiden says quietly, bringing me back to the present.

I clench my jaw and force my mind back to business. “Before that, I want to pay a visit to Nikolai.”

“You think the Russians are in on it?” Connor asks, uncertain.

“No. But if anyone knows anything, it’ll be him. And we need to know now.”

“All right,” Aiden says, casting a sideways glance toward the stairs. “We can leave now.”

“We will,” I say shortly. “But not alone.”

I go upstairs, one thing on my mind. Katrina is still there, silent, sitting on the bed in the room I left for her when I first let her stay out of the basement. She still seems hurt, still wary when I appear.

I have to remind myself to harden against this, harden against the obvious distrust in her eyes. I don’t owe her anything. She’s not supposed to be my woman or even my guest; she’s a prisoner. A pawn to figure out what Yuri is up to and how to protect my family.

It doesn’t matter what’s happened between us. I don’t need to feel guilty or angry—though I do, deep under the mask of business that I’m wearing.

“You’re coming with us,” I say coldly.

I turn and walk out, and I don’t look back to see if she follows.

CHAPTER24

Katrina

The brothers are silent when I appear. They barely acknowledge me; only Finn really looks, and the curiosity in his gaze is veiled by open distrust.

I can’t blame him. He knows I tried to kill his brother.

Still, I wish I didn’t have to go with them. I know where they’re going; they’re going to meet the Russian mafia family. Lachlan said he had to check if they’re involved. If they are, it might mean a fight—a fight I don’t want to get in the middle of.

It’s even worse now that Lachlan is being so cold to me. It seemed like after visiting my mother, things had shifted. Maybe it wasn’t perfect, but it felt better. Different. He seemed… warmer. Like he was actually starting to understand me, even if I hadn’t intended for it to happen.

I never expected him to understand me or sympathize. I’d only dared hope he would find me useful enough to keep me alive.

But after visiting my mother, it seemed like maybe he saw me as a human. Like maybe he saw my pain, my hope, the reason I was doing any of it. I had hope that maybe things would change.

But now he’s changed again, and he’s being harsh and cold.

I don’t like that I’m hurt by it. I wish I didn’t feel any way about it at all. I don’t want to feel disappointed, almost betrayed by the way he’s turned around and treated me like I’m just some woman who tried to kill him. As if he hasn’t held me captive, seen my mother, known me more than most people in my life.

But for some reason, I am hurt. I do wish it was different. Some part of me wants him to look at me the way he did before—like there was something familiar about me, something understandable.

It’s not like that now. Now, we’re strangers.

I don’t speak in the car. He’s silent too, his brothers following in another car just behind us. I don’t want to be the one to say anything. I figure if he wants to talk to me, he’ll say something. Maybe he just doesn’t want to look weak in front of the others.

But he isn’t open in the car when we’re alone, and the doubt I have is crushed. He’s not going to open up to me again.

I try not to feel anything about it as he drives. I force myself to repeat the words in my head, to remind myselfI shouldn’t want him as a friend at all.

And I definitely shouldn’t want whatever drove him to touch me in the first place.

When we arrive, it’s to a building on the outskirts of the docks, right on the border of the south side of downtown. It’s near where I live, I realize, and I wonder what would have happened if I’d found the Russians instead.

Would they have given me the money I needed? What would I have done in exchange? All this time I thought I was so far away from these people, and it turns out they were just past my back door.

I stick close to Lachlan when I get out of the car. I can feel his brothers watching me; it makes my skin itch. I don’t know what they’re thinking, but they’re intimidating. They’re not just tall or big, they’re imposing. It’s their presence.

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