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Roman shrugs his shoulders, his dark gaze glistening. “They’re better off without him.”
“How can you say that?”
Roman’s face darkens as he steps around the glass wall of the shower and crouches down right in front of me. The hot water soaks his skin, washing away the stained blood as he reaches out and grips my chin, keeping my stare focused on his. “You don’t know that man, Empress. You don’t get an opinion. You had one forced conversation with him. I’ve had a lifetime. So when I tell you that his family is better off without him, you’re to trust my word. Don’t you dare question me.”
I tear my chin out of his grip and look back at the marble tile, unable to keep looking at the blood that’s slowly mixing with the water and rushing down the drain.
“Who was she?” I murmur, my throat raw from my performance over the toilet.
“She?” he questions, his stare boring into the side of my face.
“She. The girl you guys knocked up, the one the doctor warned me about. Who was she? What did you do to her?”
In the blink of an eye, Roman rises to his feet, taking me right along with him and slamming my back against the cold tiles. He presses into me, his face barely an inch from mine. “She is none of your damn business,” he growls, his warm breath brushing against my skin. “She was twice the woman you will ever be and she met her downfall because she refused to follow instructions.”
My hands curl into fists at my side and I clench my jaw, the anger pouring out of me in waves. “Your father murdered her because she got knocked up.”
Roman presses into me harder. “You don’t get to speak about something you know nothing about,” he murmurs, the authority in his tone sending shivers through my spine. He pulls away, releasing me in an instant and moving out of the shower.
Water rushes off his body and I watch him, my jaw clenched and my nails digging into my palms. He stops just outside the shower and lets out a deep breath before turning back to face me. He peels his soaking shirt off and throws it in the corner of the bathroom, the wet material making a sharp slapping sound against the smooth tiles.
My gaze drops over his body, taking in the tight ridges of his defined abs and skimming over his wide chest, but as he watches me in return, a soft sigh of relief passes through my lips, realizing that there’s absolutely nothing sexual about this, he’s just simply getting rid of his wet shirt.
“Look,” he finally says. “You … you’re not the only one being held against your will here.”
My brows drop as I watch him in horror. “How many are there? Do you have little sex slaves hidden all over your freaking castle? Do you just pick one each night to go and fuck with, or am I just extra lucky because I’m new?”
Roman groans, the sound so soft that if I wasn’t paying attention, I would have missed it. “I’m talking about me and my brothers,” he snaps. “Our father confined us here to this place because whenever we step out, too much attention is drawn to us. Every fucking murder in the city is pinned on us whether we did it or not, so here is where we stay. And you,” he continues, “you were supposed to be a gift to entice us not to cross out into the real world.”
“What?” I rush out. “That doesn’t make sense. You said that I was here because my father made a deal and sold me to clear his debt.”
“He did,” Roman says, stepping closer to the shower glass again. “The debt wasn’t with us. Your father borrowed from the DeAngelis family, and when our father collected, he saw it as the perfect opportunity to set things right with his sons. After all, he took her from us, so in his mind, it’s as simple as replacing her with someone else.”
My gaze shifts up to meet his. “Why does he try to keep you locked up here?”
Roman’s eyes darken and a soft smile pulls at the corners of his full lips. “Because every time we leave the boundaries of this property, we make it count.”
A chill sweeps through me, and despite the hot water raining down over me, I can’t seem to make it go away. “You’re sick, you know that? You and your brothers. You’re callous, cold-blooded murderers.”
“So what if we are? It’s exciting, don’t you think? Watching the life fade out of a man’s eyes while he struggles and begs for another shot at freedom?” He smiles and his eyes sparkle wickedly, almost as though he means every damn word. “Don’t worry, Empress. There’s still a chance for you. Give me a reason to keep you around and I might just let you rule by my side.”
