Page 159 of Lethal King

“I’ll get you to Italy if it kills me,” I tell Mel, placing a cautious hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t say that,” she snaps, finally turning around. Her eyes glimmer with barely restrained tears.

I knew she wasn’t alright.

How could she be?

Two nights ago, my baby sister came face to face with a monster.

My hands curl into fists.

Tytus.

“Come here.” Mel doesn’t get a choice, I wrap her in my arms and give her an inescapable hug. “I’ll make him pay for scaring you.”

But first, I should make every last asshole on my security team pay for their failure.

After all, they were the ones who let Tytus sneak past them. Hell, I doubt we would have even known he’d been here if Mel hadn’t stumbled out of her studio at three in the morning and come across the despicable beast.

It was only when she screamed that my men were finally alerted of a break-in.

But Tytus had already vanished, and he’d left his message in the form of a gift. A huge canvas that he somehow managed to smuggle past a small army’s worth of security.

Mel’s painting.

He returned it, alright. And he’d gotten close enough to my baby sister to scare the life out of her.

Thankful, that’s all he seems to have done.

“Are you sure you’re not hurt?” I ask, only letting Mel out of my arms so I can inspect her.

“I’m fine,” she says, wiping a tear from her cheek. “It’s you I’m worried about.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“But Tytus is so big…”

Hearing her say his name infuriates me. I’ve tried so hard to keep Mel from the worst of my world, yet here she is uttering the name of a demon.

Tytus is going to pay.

“You need to rest,” I say, patting Mel’s head as I try to keep myself from saying something vile.

Really, all I want to do is tell her every last brutal detail of what I’ll do to Tytus for breaking into my sanctum and threatening her. But I know that won’t help.

So, instead, I take her hand and lead her out of the messy studio.

By the time we’re back upstairs, Maksim has dropped the painting off in my office and come back out to join us.

“Where did you put it?” Mel asks the second we see him.

“Somewhere safe,” Maksim assures her.

“Don’t worry about it, Mel,” I tell her. “Here, let’s go to your room. Watch something comforting on your laptop. I’ll have someone bring up your favorite tea.”

I’m so used to dealing with Roz that I’m expecting my sister to fight back.

But Mel isn’t a fighter—at least, not in the same way Rozalia Dorn is.