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Micah and Romano lock eyes, hatred sizzling between them. Only now, raking my eyes over Romano’s frame, do I notice that half of his face bears the stains of blood, even though his suit is still impeccable, from his white shirt to his gray jacket and slacks. There’s also a sharpness in his eyes that I recognize as a killer’s high. I’ve seen it on Micah, and Sade too.
Whatever happened out there, he participated in it, and he did it competently.
He runs his hand through his dark hair that is streaked with gray, unhooking his ankles. Then he cracks his neck and rolls back his shoulders.
“Now that we both had our appetizers, I suppose we can finally move on to the main course that we’ve been looking forward to for so long.” Murder ripples in the calm of his voice, splashing a chill up my spine. But what scares me most is the change I sense in Micah. His body goes taught as he removes the safety he put on the gun before he fucked me with it.
I realize this room smells of my pleasure as much as it smells of blood, and my skin crawls. Romano’s eyes fly down to the gun, but instead of fear, what I see spreading on his face is a kind of sick satisfaction.
“Apparently, the professor’s pussy clouded your memory. Not that I blame you. She is, after all, one fine piece of ass. But remember—if I die, your mother’s location dies with me.”
He doesn’t even glance in my direction as he says that, but I know it’s a reminder of what he can take away from me too, along with Micah’s mother. I swallow hard, my entire body going taut. I keep still as the two men begin to circle each other like predators in the arena, ready to go at each other’s throats. The air thickens with their bloodlust. They’ve been starving for each other’s destruction for so long that they’re going to enjoy this last battle, even if it means that neither of them can survive the other.
Mutual annihilation is the most plausible outcome for two Kings with one hell of a track record.
Romano might be an evil bastard whose feelings are nothing but vestiges, but he did earn his place among the Kings. He was the reason why Sade and Micah were initiated into the organization, as his adoptive children. And training as Heathen Kings is what gave them a chance against a man doing everything in his power to get them killed since they were toddlers. It was never the plan for them to survive their training and make it up the ranks in the organization.
When I can finally see Micah’s face again, he resembles an angel of death preparing to fight against an ancient demon.
I have to do something. I can’t let Romano kill Micah.
“You know what the most likely outcome is, don’t you?” Romano says, his voice dripping with the pleasure of inflicting pain. “Either we both walk out of here alive, or neither of us does. And if we’re both still breathing when that door opens—” His eyes flick down to Micah’s pocket, as if he knows that’s where he slipped the state-of-the-art bomb Rufus originally placed in my mouth. “—then your lover dies.”
For some fucked-up reason, his threat doesn’t even make me flinch.
Maybe because I wouldn’t mind going down with or for Micah.
But I can’t tolerate Micah losing his life.
I don’t know when I became ready to die for him, but I know in my bones that he’d do the same for me. Only that what consumes him seems to be a sick need for possession, and maybe a sexual obsession that’s anchored in his kinks. I’m the only woman he ever wanted for himself, the only one he craved one on one, and that makes me precious to him, but it’s not love. The emotional connection I thought we shared in all the time we spent together? An inevitable side-effect that he didn’t know how to deal with, hence his lost gazes that I mistook for melancholy.
Or maybe those were due to his knowing where tonight would lead us.
Now that I think about it, it sure felt like he expected he would die tonight.
No, I can’t entertain that idea for a single second, or my heart will shrivel inside my chest.
I have to do something. Anything.
I look down at Rufus’ lifeless form sprawled in a slowly growing pool of his own blood. If I could just bring myself to crawl over and search his pockets, then maybe Micah and I might have a chance. I take a few short breaths in preparation, but just as I muster up my courage, an ear-splitting metallic lash rips through the air. My head whips up to see Romano sending a flurry of dead-sharp metal stars in Micah’s direction. I clasp a hand over my mouth, staring in horror at the weapons flying toward him. But he moves out of the way with the same sleekness with which he avoided the bullets before, slamming the last two stars out of the way with his own blade.
Romano hisses but doesn’t waste more than a second before he shifts his position and hurls another flurry of metal stars at Micah. His eyes flare as he dodges them with his blade. Metal clangs against metal. Every single time his eyes fly over to me, and only when he’s eaten up the distance between him and Romano, do I realize it’s because he’d been calculating the trajectory of the dodged weapons so they don’t hit me.
He’s a lethally precise machine.
Problem is, so is his stepfather.
Within seconds, he’s an inch away from Romano, his blade ready to slash across his throat. Everything could be over in an instant, but Romano swivels out of the way, pulling out his own blade and lashing it across Micah’s back. All it accomplishes is a slice to the back of his jacket, which Micah shuffles off of him, revealing holsters of blades strapped across his body over his black shirt.
The fabric tightens on his muscles every time he moves, enhancing the swiftness and efficiency of his every slash. The two Kings come at each other in a tandem of expert, deadly strikes that would be the end of lesser fighters. It would be like watching a movie if each second didn’t stab me in the chest. Each swipe of their blades and each blow feels like it’s hitting me in the gut.
I crouch down next to Rufus’ body and press my hands to my ears, as if damping down the sounds could make this less real. I need to pull myself together and search Rufus for something to use, but the moment I put my hand on him, Romano’s eyes cut over to me.
I only see the grin on his face for a split second before he throws one blade at me, keeping another in his other hand, ready to go. A roar tears from Micah’s chest. My eyes widen and time slows down as the blade flips through the air, coming right at my face.
So this is how it’s going to happen. These are my last seconds of life.
Maybe Rufus will be right there with the devil when my soul leaves my body, grinning before he drags me down with him.
