AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I swallowed. He hated his last name. “You want me to carry your memento mori?” Somehow, this felt like an even bigger betrayal.
The minister coughed and nodded at a few papers. Apparently, I didn’t need to say the words for this marriage to be completed. I hoped he was getting paid handsomely for this unorthodox way of tying the knot. He needed my signature though, and that gave me power. The power to say fuck no.
“Sign the papers,” Kristoff commanded.
My lips curled. “No.”
There was a silence for a beat. “Sign the papers,” he repeated.
My heart might be in a dark place, but my smile was shining bright like a diamond. “No.” I could do this all day.
Kristoff’s face hardened. “So be it.” He looked at Viking, took out a gun, and aimed it at him.
I got another look, a silent one filled with the same command.
I scoffed. Like I was going to fall for their charade. “Let me say it in a language you can understand. A language you share with your precious Sokolov and apparently with my father;nyetthe fuck no.”
This time it was Kristoff who nodded. Right before he shot Viking. The explosion took me by surprise. The big guy groaned and his hand went to his shoulder. Blood seeped through his fingers, but he never wavered, staying upright like a statue.
I stared at Viking in shock, my chest squeezing tight.
Then I launched myself at Kristoff. “You asshole!”
I kicked and screamed, but he stood immovable. I looked at the others for help. They had formed a semi-circle around me. Their faces were hard as stone, even Angel’s. I finally understood why they were called the Bloody Ones. In that moment, I hated each and every one of them.
“I’m still not marrying you. You can shoot the next one,” I dared him. They deserved it.
***
KRISTOFF
No one could be as stubborn as my Ekaterina. Something I had expected.
Was any of it real?
The answer to her question burned in my throat. Nothing I would say mattered, not now. I recognized the unmovable set of her jaw and the way her shoulders squared, as if she was preparing for battle. And no one was as brave as my queen either.
Sadly, time had caught up with me. It had made all my carefully plotted plans obsolete. I’d intended to come clean to her after I’d put a ring on her finger. After I had tucked her away in a safehouse so she wouldn’t be caught in the middle when Sokolov and Aslanov went to war. But somehow she had found out about the piece of shit who had fathered her. Later I would find out who’d been responsible for that and tear their skin off, but right now time was of the essence. I didn’t have the luxury of easing her into this marriage, and there was no question about it that there would be one. With or without a willing bride. If I were a better man, I’d let her go. Except I wasn’t. There wasn’t a force on this planet that could make me set her free.
I took out the bullets from my gun, save one.
“Do you want me to explain to you the reality of your situation?” Her lips stayed firmly shut, so I took that as a yes. “When I took you into my bed, you bound your life to mine.”
“That was before I found out you were a lying, cheating—”
My hand flew to her neck, my fingers cutting her breath off. “I don’t cheat. You can call me anything you like, but not that.” I spun the gun’s chamber. “I always get what I want, Katya. And what I want is for you to carry my name. It might not be a name I like, but it’s the only one you will ever have from this day on. My name is Kristoff Romanov and I always get my way.” There was only one more thing I could leverage, the last feather in my cap: her love for me.
Six chambers, one bullet. I wondered if the gods were on my side today. They had been for most of my self-imposed exile in Russia. After all, hadn’t I drenched the soil in the Siberian woods with blood in their name? The gods of war, vengeance, death…they all had their tributes from me. Now there was one thing I needed back from them. The chance to protect Katya.
I held the gun to my head.
Katya’s jaw dropped, yet she didn’t say a word. A bolt of pride surged through me. My woman was unbreakable. My woman wanted proof of my feelings, though she didn’t realize she was doing just that.
I exchanged a glance with my men who stood guard over her. No more words were necessary. They knew the contingency plan. Protect Katya. Forgo the long game and blow the sperm donor into oblivion.
Then I pulled the trigger. A click, but I was still breathing, my skull intact.
Katya was as white as a sheet. “I think I’m going to be sick,” she whispered.
