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Her laugh was eerie because it held no humor. “Some might say I have a death wish.”
Her tone suggested those people might be right. Before I could come up with a retort, she’d hung up on me. Well, then. Guess I had nothing but time on my hands for the next week or so. What to do? What to do, indeed.
I thought of all the times I’d spent with Kristoff in his home office, the library. All the books I’d read, the worlds I had traveled to in my mind. I’d chosen the icy plains of Narnia and the prairies of Gondor, while Kristoff got me reading classics such as theOdysseyand theArt of War. I was never much for non-fiction or tragedies, as I preferred fantasy opposed to tales of harsh realities. Why choose to read about tragedy and strategy when my own life had been anything but peaceful or painless?
Kristoff’s mind was like a brilliant vault. It contained so much information that it had never even crossed my mind I would be one of those subjects in his head.
I dropped onto my bed, clutching my phone as if it was a lifeline. Kristoff always had a tale to tell, a philosopher or master strategist to quote. While his stories were generally a few millennia old, my story was from our century. It wasn’t attributed to a philosopher, author, or political figure. No, it was five simple words that transcended power, creed, and background: he could go fuck himself.
2.
KRISTOFF
My wife hated me.
I vow on my blood that I will leave you, even if it’s the last thing I do.
Every fiber of my being had rebelled against those words. I’d stomped out of the bedroom, afraid that I’d do something that couldn’t be undone, like throw her on the bed and prove to her that she belonged to me. I knew Katya’s body like I knew my own. Every touch and kiss that made her gasp and moan and surrender to me. Letting her go would be like extinguishing my soul, an elusive part of me I thought I’d lost years ago.
Never. I would never let her go. I wanted to remind her that she’d promised to be with me forever, that I’d given her a way out before, and she hadn’t taken it.
A maid yelped as I barged past her in the hallway.
“Don’t let her out of your sight,” I barked at a soldier hovering around the corner.
He didn’t ask me any questions. No one would in the state I was in. Just a few days ago, I’d finally made Katya mine in every sense of the word. Of course, she already belonged to me like the flower belonged to the earth; she was the sun and the rain that gave me life. I had lied to her by omitting the truth. And that was only the tip of the iceberg. She had no idea of the other, even darker, secret I kept from her. If she ever found out, she might take a gun to my head herself.
I cursed as I turned another corner, and entered my office.
“Finally,” Viking drawled. He leaned against the windowsill, his shoulder bandaged because of the bullet I put there.
I dropped into my chair.
When I lifted a brow, he clarified. “Finally I get to witness the day that you lose your cool.”
“Where are we on Aslanov?” I asked, ignoring his comment.
Everything had started with that bastard and would end with him as well. If he had died in that gulag prison as he was supposed to, or if the assassin I’d sent after him had been successful, Katya would have never been in peril from her father’s many enemies. Sokolov would never have come after her, and I never would have had to force her to marry me for her protection. We could have kept on living our merry lives.
A part of me, the dark and twisted part, rebelled at that. I could almost hear the rattle of the chains holding my inner demon in check. No, I would never live a happy life like a normal person. Not while my own personal devil was still walking this earth. My old mentor Sokolov wasn’t the only one who had sleepless nights plotting and planning his revenge.
“Really?” Viking quirked a brow, pulling me back into the here and now. “You’re just going to pretend like the past hour didn’t happen? Like you didn’t just force Katya to marry you? Like your bestie Sokolov didn’t enter your home to take her away so he could put a bullet in her brain before her father’s eyes?”
“Not to mention the fact that I’ve shot you,” I added, unsurprised that he hadn’t mentioned that tidbit.
He shrugged. “I can take it. Elena might think differently though. If she calls you for Sunday dinner, I’d decline. She’ll probably be inviting you over to poison you.”
I was aware of his wife’s temper, and how territorial she was. She wouldn’t take kindly to the fact that I’d shot her husband.
“I’d really hoped Katya would marry me if I threatened to shoot you.” Guess the joke was on me. Or actually, my second-in-command.
Viking scoffed. “Katya isn’t the type to knuckle under pressure. Not unless she believes you would make good on your word. You should know that by now. Our girl is tough.”
Oh, she was tough all right. A worthy queen to my empire, though she had never wanted to be one.
I raked my fingers through my hair. “I had to make her marry me.”
“I know. Once she’s calmed down, she’ll understand that.”
