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“I can do anything I want, my bride,” he said, hooking his finger under one thick curl. “I own you, remember? I own all of this.”
With a horrific tearing and a jerk of his fist, he pulled a large strand of my hair right out of my scalp. I lifted my hand to my mouth to suppress my scream. I bit myself in the process, leaving blood dripping down my jaw as well as the spot on my head where the chunk of hair had been.
He held it in front of my face and said, “I think I’ll add this to my collection.”
He laughed, Ilya laughed, and the crowd watched with greedy, violent anticipation as the selection process in the pit began.
One of my Kings would be chosen, and I had no say in which one.
They were all in danger.
“Please don’t do this,” I cried out. “Please! I’ll do anything you want. Please don’t hurt them. Let them go home, and they’ll never bother you again.”
I didn’t even know who I was pleading with at that moment, it could have been Maksim, or it could have been his father. Neither one of them even noticed my anguished cries other than to laugh at my pain when I told them again that I would do anything they said.
“We know you will, darling daughter,” Ilya chuckled and dismissed me with a wave of his hand. “That’s the entire point of all this. You will do anything we want because you have no fucking choice.”
And with that, he leaned forward and gave the command to choose one of my Kings.
But it turned out he didn’t have to go through a selection process because Ryker stepped forward to volunteer.
Ryker, sweet, sexy, dirty, and funny Ryker. My eternal bad boy, the reluctant one who had finally submitted to me in our time of play. My survivor and my skilled fighter.
Of course, it would be him, thinking he was saving the others. Thinking he was saving me.
If only he knew his sacrifice would be for nothing. Ilya planned on killing us all.
CHAPTER10
“Let them go, take me,”Ryker said, speaking with a clear, powerful voice. His tattoos were dotted with bruises, obscuring the ones that had meant so much to us both. “I’ll kill this asshole. Then you give us Everly. That’s the deal.”
“Sure, the boss will agree to that,” one of the guards said, and I didn’t know if Ryker was too tired to detect sarcasm or if he just didn’t care. He was willing to throw himself on the knife to protect the other three, and for that, my heart filled with so much love and hope I almost started fighting Maksim right then and there.
“Okay, come, and we’ll explain the rules,” the other guard said, motioning to Ryker.
Ryker leaned into Kingston’s ear and whispered something. Kingston shook his head and tried to argue. Archer and Valen came up to stand with them, and my four loves huddled together, obviously fighting about who was going to fight the behemoth Russian waiting for them on the other side of the pit.
I could see them gesturing with anger and heard their voices every once in a while, cutting through the crowd into my ears. I wanted to cry out to them, but Maksim seemed to sense my desires and leaned over me again.
“Keep your mouth shut and behave yourself,” he growled, his breath hot and moist and stinking of alcohol and onions. “If you make a scene and embarrass me in front of my father, I will fucking kill them all. Understand?”
I nodded out of fear and pressed my lips together to keep my words inside my chest. I had a million things I wanted to tell my Kings, but all of them were trapped in my heart now, fluttering round my cage of bone, fluttering against the confines and desperate to escape.
I swallowed them all, kept them all inside.
“This is where it gets good,” Ilya said with a grunt. He reached down and casually slipped his hand inside Avery’s shirt and began to play with her breast. I was filled with disgust yet again. Everyone I saw at Ilya’s villa was horrifyingly depraved, but Ilya and Maksim were beyond that. They were filled with sickness that rolled off them like an infection. They destroyed everything around them, including themselves, all for the simple fact that they could.
“Watch this fight,” Maksim said to me. He tried to copy his father and slip his hand into my tee shirt, but I made sure Ilya wasn’t looking and slapped it away. I couldn’t let him cross that boundary, not while I was still breathing. “Good call,” he added. “We’ll wait until our wedding night, and then I can tear all your holes open, even if they’ve been stretched out.”
I didn’t respond this time because I was too focused on the scene in front of me. The pit was so close and yet so far. They were fifteen feet down and across from me, but the nature of the design and the roar of the crowd talking, making bets, and discussing the fight made it too loud to hear anything. But I could tell they finally all came to a reluctant agreement to let Ryker fight, and he hugged them each one by one, saying goodbye.
I wanted to weep as I watched them. They took turns hugging Ryker, clapping him on the shoulders, and wishing him well. They told him they loved him and looked like they believed they would never see him again.
I wanted to tear the rest of my hair out and make my entire head throb like the ripped scalp where Maksim had hurt me. I wanted to rend my clothing and go into mourning even before the fight started. I was that afraid.
Just as Ryker was crossing the pit and the other Kings were leaving through a door, I thought I might catch his eye. But a serving girl showed up, blocking the view and offering us all a variety of delicate pastries, meats, and cheeses on a beautifully arranged tray. I wasn’t going to take anything, but I spied a small paring knife, something to cut cheese or sausage, and I had to have it. Before anybody else really saw the tray, I reached out and snatched up a small croissant and a piece of brie while pocketing the knife at the same time.
My luck held because Ilya was more focused on Avery, and Maksim was talking loudly on his phone. He’d gotten a call and was too focused on placing bets on horse races in Madrid to pay me any attention.
