Page 194 of Dark King Daddy

“He kept telling me it would be all right. Like he was looking after me.”

My throat closed. I stared at the handkerchief around my hand.

“How could he do that?”

“I don’t know.”

“He helped kill Papa, and then he—”

I couldn’t finish. There was too much of it.

Daniil drew me closer. He didn’t tell me what Kostya had wanted, or explain how men like him justified things. I couldn’t have listened to any of it.

“He doesn’t get near you again,” he said.

I closed my eyes.

For a while I listened to the road. Each time Nikita slowed, I felt it through my whole body. Daniil kept his arm around me and his hand over mine. He didn’t ask me to stop shaking.

“The video,” I said at last.

He lowered his head to hear me.

“I heard it. In the garage.”

“It wasn’t a surrender. The captains knew to ignore it.”

I looked up at him.

“You didn’t give it to them?”

“No.”

“Any of it?”

“No, Ksyusha.”

I let out a breath. It hurt my ribs.

“I thought you had. I thought it was because of me.”

His hand came to my cheek.

“Listen to me. None of this is your fault.”

“You were going to go inside.”

He didn’t deny it.

“Arkady and Anton were waiting. Sal’s men, too. They couldn’t move until you were clear.”

I looked at his open jacket. The place where a holster should have been.

“But you didn’t know you’d get out.”

His thumb moved once over my cheek.

“I was getting you out.”