AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“For what it’s worth,” I say, “the fact that he did send you a picture of himself in the end and showed you who he really was is huge.”
Cecilia chews on her lower lip and timidly reaches for my hand. Her fingers are clammy and cold when she grips mine.
“I keep wondering,” she whispers, “why someone like him would be interested in me. It doesn’t make any sense. He’s out there, making the world his bitch, having governments at his fingertips. Why me?”
“The Kings are a hard bunch to understand, Cecilia.”
An insistent knock makes her glance over her shoulder again, her spine jerking straight.
“They’re getting angry.” She turns to me. “Thank you. For all of this.”
I squeeze her fingers one last time before I watch her walk out the door, a tall, lanky boy taking her place. I’ve always displayed a cold demeanor with my students because I’m basically the same age as them, and I had to use every trick in the book to inspire respect, but as they come to my office one after the other, I notice a trace of fear in the way they speak to me. In some cases, even dread. It turns out that what I thought would wreck my reputation, only put me on a pedestal.
But it might also have signed my death sentence with Romano.
***
Micah
“ARE YOU INSANE?” CARLTON growls through his teeth, his eyes flashing from me to Sade. “What the fuck is wrong with you psychos? You getting out of your engagement with my cousin was supposed to be an exception, Sade, not the fucking rule.” He turns to me sharply. “And I thought you were just having some fun with Eva Brannan, not losing your head for her. I sure as fuck didn’t think that you’d make her your official date!”
“Not date,” I growl back. “My girlfriend.”
Carlton lunges his huge bulk forward, jamming his finger into my chest with every word. “You are an engaged man, Micah. Make her your cum whore all you want, but you have a duty to our organization. If it becomes the rule for Kings to go their own way, what’s there to stop the entire structure from crumbling?” Both Sade and I keep staring at him with blades in our eyes. It’s not the first time he’s attacked Sade’s relationship with Justine, and I don’t think he ever really got over what we did to his cousin to make her break off her engagement with Sade.
It doesn’t matter to him that his cousin was a manipulative snake who wasn’t worth a spit. He’s loyal to family like that, and he’s also the most rigid servant of our organization. Some say he was born with a gun in his hand, and that he sucked the blood of serial killers instead of milk from his mother’s breasts. They didn’t team us up with each other for nothing, after all. We’re all cut out from the same psychotic, violent, murderous cloth that’s out for blood. But he’s more dedicated to hierarchy and structure than us.
“It was Gertrude who broke off her engagement with me,” Sade says through his teeth. “So that one doesn’t count as a King gone rogue. Which would basically make Micah’s separation the first and only exception.”
I know it’s one hell of an effort for my brother to hold off from grabbing a sword from the racks around us and swinging it at Carlton for attacking his relationship with Justine. Our training compound is stacked with weapons, which is probably why we don’t usually talk about shit here. We use the space for training, and we take our beefs elsewhere, but Carlton ambushed us.
“You don’t get it, do you?” Carlton barks. “There can’t be any exceptions.” His focus clamps down on me. “The only reason that shit worked the first time was indeed that Gertrude made the move herself, but I’ll be damned if I’ll let you destroy another woman’s life just so you can have your whore.”
My fist flies toward his face with no warning, the leather glove tightening on my knuckles, but a second before it makes contact with the brutal edges of his face, Sade shoves himself in the way.
“There are other ways to do this,” he says, his voice like a splash of cold water over my flared-up temper.
“Like what?” Carlton grunts, staring daggers at me over my brother’s shoulder. I return the stare with double the amount of menace.
“This whole thing started because Micah wanted to use the philosophy professor against Romano, thinking she was his weakness.”
“Which it turned out she wasn’t,” Carlton puts in, clearly trying to point out she wasn’t worth the hassle. To think that I actually liked Carlton before this whole thing. That we used to hang out in the same porn group chats and share videos of filthy fucks.
“Maybe, but we do have reason to believe she plays an important role in what he’s planning with the Morningstars,” Sade argues calmly. “If anyone can help us expose Romano to the Elders, it’s her.”
Carlton scoffs. “Is it? Because she didn’t crack no matter how hard your brother fucked her. All her holes must be filled with his cum by now, but she hasn’t betrayed Romano yet. Maybe she likes his dick better.”
“Motherfucker.” I lunge at him, and not even Sade can hold me back this time. I swerve past him and, when Carlton moves out of the way, certain that I’ll go for his face, I duck and ram my fist into his loins. It would be enough to rupture a lesser man’s kidney, but all it gets out of Carlton is a frustrated hiss.
The pain does stun him enough for me to land another blow and then another to the same spot with the swiftness of a machine gun. It sends him reeling, but when I go at him again, he intercepts my arm, twists it, and hauls me against the wall. I block the impact with my foot, kicking myself off the wall, the plaster splintering, and racks of blades crashing to the floor. Carlton doesn’t lose his grip on me, so I butt him in the mouth with my head, and I’m just about to turn around and pummel him when Sade cuts in between us.
“Stop, you fucking animals,” he barks, yanking us away from each other.
“The only animal here is your little brother,” Carlton grunts.
“Don’t ever talk about her like that again you fucking asshole!” I roar.
“See?” He tells Sade, gesturing toward me like I’m a lunatic. Which is exactly what I must resemble, glaring at him like I want to set everything he holds dear on fire. “He’s defending a woman who goes behind his back with his own stepfather.”
