Page 88 of Vengeful King

I’ve always made sure the family did its business carefully. Even more than that, I try to take care not to directly involve myself in most of the minor deaths that happen in the business. I take care not to get entangled in the messy, low-level shit.

I’m the head of the family, the man behind the curtain. I orchestrate everything. I get involved only when it’s absolutely necessary.

So Yuri can’t have much on me. He probably played this as an insult, and it played well as one. It did its part in making me fucking mad.

But the insult isn’t even the biggest issue for me. The most important thing to me is that I was taken away from Katrina.

I can’t stop seeing her in my mind’s eye. The look on her face as she watched me being taken away hit me right in the chest. I never stopped to really think about what the wives in the family might have felt—what they thought when their husbands didn’t come back from a hit. When they were taken from their homes.

I’m used to having no one but my brothers. They have been the only ones in my life, the only people I could count on. The only ones I let close.

But that doesn’t feel true anymore.

Instead, what I’m thinking of now is whether Katrina is all right. The look on her face when I was taken was a complex tangle of fear, anger, and shock. I wonder if she’s home alone, or if one of my brothers sent her to their houses.

But then, they would have no reason to protect her. Not really.

They might suspect what’s between us, but I’m sure they don’t see it the way it is. They might think I’ve fucked her and that’s it. They may think I used her while she was around, an easy piece of ass that was available to me. Just a little bit of running wild while I have the chance. Before I’m married.

I’m sure they don’t know that things go so much deeper.

She’s worked her way into my heart. Katrina is there, deep in me, deeper than I can get out. I can’t pretend it’s not true, that I don’t care about her. I care about her more than I’ve cared about anyone in a long time.

And now that we’re separated, I feel it more than ever.

I sit in my cell and try not to pace. I try not to shake the bars of my cage, scream and yell for them to let me out. It won’t do any good.

But I want to be out. I want to get out,needto get out. I keep thinking of Katrina, scared and alone, wondering what’s going to happen and whether I’ll ever come back. I can’t leave her there.

But I have to sit and wait, because right now, the family I worked so hard to build is doing its work to get me back.

It’s a while before my brothers arrive. When they do, the door at the end of the hall opens and I hear distant voices arguing. I wonder if they’re cops, but I don’t care. All I care about is my brothers, walking alone.

There’s a cop behind them, holding the door, grim anxiety in his face. I’m sure he’s a dirty cop. He must be the one that orchestrated this.

I’m released from my cell, and we walk out as swiftly as I was brought in. A little less than three hours after I was arrested, I walk right back out, my brothers forming a wall around me as we go. They’re not going to put up with any shit from the cops as we leave. We have somewhere to be.

When we’re finally out of the building, Connor speaks up. “We called in a favor. With Ezra.”

My jaw clenches reflexively. But Connor isn’t done, and I have to school myself before I reply.

“He bribed a cop. Used a connection he had,” Connor adds.

I don’t like it.

I hate that I had to rely on Ezra, though I know why my brothers asked for the favor. Our payoffs are higher up than cops, and they’re far more tricky to manage.

But it rankles me to have called on Ezra, especially since I’m no longer sure about our deal.

I tell myself it’s because of this fiasco. Ezra may not want his daughter married to a man that could be taken away at any moment. I promised him I could protect her.

But that’s not the only reason, and the other reason is one I don’t even want to voice. If I do, it’ll seem even more real.

But I can’t say anything. I don’t know how to tell my brothers what I feel about Ezra’s help, so I think about the one thing I do need to know. The one thing weighing on me.

“Katrina?”

I ask with just her name.Is he okay? Where is she?

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