Page 98 of Vengeful King

She kisses me back as I hold her, clinging to my shirt as if she’s trying to stop herself from being swept away. I can feel her pouring everything back into the kiss, her relief and desperation.

When it ends, she whispers so close I can feel her breath on my lips. “Thank you,” she says, so quiet I almost don’t hear it. “For coming for me.”

“I will always come for you.” I hold her tighter. “I will always protect you.”

I don’t know how we came to this. I only know that I lusted after her once, then hated her for what she did. Now, I know I could never be separated from her. I love her too much.

I pull her in and guide her to the stairs. As much as I want to stay here forever and let the others handle the mess, I know I can’t just step away. There are things to be done.

I’m careful with every step we take. I know there could still be some of Yuri’s men hiding; I keep Katrina behind me and my gun drawn. I’m lucky it didn’t fall off the roof, but it only has three rounds left. I know I have to be careful.

As we move, it seems like most of the fighting is over. I can barely hear any shouting anymore, and there aren’t any gunshots. When I round a corner and see a man running away, heading for the stairs, I ignore him and keep moving.

The next floor, I find a man with a gun. He turns and faces me, but before he can react, I shoot him and move on, kicking his gun away as I pass him twisting in pain on the floor.

There isn’t much left behind. Several of Yuri’s men must have fled when they realized he was dead; the place has windows, and I’m sure they saw him fall. He’s still down there, on the ground, clear evidence that he never had nine lives.

He barely had one.

The fight is over. I know it as I watch Yuri’s few underlings scatter, desperately escaping the mess. And when I finally reach my brothers, I feel relief settle in my chest as I find them all present and mostly intact.

Aiden is looking at Finn’s side, bent over at the waist. He glances over his shoulder when I come in.

“How bad?” I ask.

Aiden shakes his head. “He’ll live to drink another day.”

“Let me see.”

Aiden steps aside and I look at the wound. It’s from a gunshot; it’s not terrible, but it will probably need stitches. I nod sharply, seeing the look in Finn’s eyes. He’s not faltering. He shrugs it off like anything else, and I smirk.

Aiden and Connor are roughed up, but they’re mostly clean. I can see the struggle in their clothes, smudged with dirt and streaks of blood. But that’s the only sign that anything happened to them at all.

They took care of several men when I was gone.

“We can go now,” I say, and the words have an air of finality. “It’s done.”

Aiden nods. The five of us make our way out of the building, still cautious, still knowing there could be a person with a gun around every corner.

But nothing happens as we leave, and I’m relieved to get out and into the fresh air. But there’s one last thing I want to do.

I walk up to Yuri’s body and shoot him in the head twice. Then I shoot him in the heart. I don’t blink each time; I just let the bullets hit him, watching his unmoving body jerk at the force.

Aiden sends me a questioning look when I turn back around. I just shrug and say, “I’m not taking any chances this time.”

Connor runs a hand through his hair. “We’ll have to deal with Ezra soon.”

“He did give us a hand in this,” Aiden adds. “The sooner we speak, the better.”

I don’t disagree. But right now, I don’t want to think about it. I have Katrina at my side, and she’s all that matters.

“Soon,” I say. “I need to get Katrina home first. Can you handle cleanup?”

“Yeah.” Aiden nods, tossing me the keys. “A crew of our men is on the way.”

I can see in their faces that we’ll talk about this later—we’ll have to talk about the implications, about appeasing Ezra, about what will happen now that we’ve broken an arrangement that would have done so much for the family.

But now is not the time. Now, I have Katrina to think about.

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