Kai outsmarted me. She used my horny cock against me. And then used handcuffs, meant to keep her safe, on me.
I stare unblinking at her as I pour all the words I can never tell her into her body.
You won round one. But you won’t win this round. This round is mine.
PS—I love you.
God, I’m in so much trouble. I no longer want to save Kai because I made some twisted promise to her. I want to save her because I’m selfish—because I love her.
“Nah, I think she is going to stay. You both are,” Milo says.
My head snaps in his direction. Milo Wallace sits alone. He doesn’t have any other men with him, but he had his guard pat me down when I entered. His man found and took my gun, but none of my knives. I could attack now and kill Milo before any of his men got here. But that would put Kai at risk and wouldn’t really solve any problems.
Milo’s successor would take over his empire. Milo’s allies he’s gathered would attack. And we would fight a battle we aren’t prepared for. When we fight, we need the strength of our allies on our side. We need to understand everything about Milo and his organization. And Kai needs to be somewhere safe, so what happened with Zeke won’t happen again.
It takes everything in me not to charge Milo. If it were just me, I would have already attacked. I would have avenged Zeke’s death. I would have risked everything, but I won’t risk Kai—not now.
I block out the emotions Kai is screaming out without saying a word to me. Jesus, I can feel every fucking emotion she feels. I can hear her silent screams for me to tu
rn around and run in the other direction. And I can feel every bit of the torment circling her heart.
Instead, I walk over to her couch and take a seat. I kick my leg up onto my knee and lean back, resting my arms on the back of the couch. I act like I’m sitting down to watch a football game instead of to negotiate with a man I plan on killing as soon as I find a way to keep Kai safe.
Milo chuckles, glancing back and forth between the two of us. “You both are pathetic.”
I narrow my eyes. I don’t care if he calls me pathetic, but don’t push it when it comes to Kai. She is the beauty of the world. She is everything magical, sparkling like the only diamond in a world of coal.
“You are fools, and soon I’m going to show the world just how weak the Black name is. When I take your empire from you, I won’t just rule it; I will watch as it crumples until no one remembers how great the Black empire used to be. You used to have the largest domain, with the most employees, most riches, and best technology. You ruled with fear, but now, no one will cower before you.”
“Ruling with fear didn’t make the Black empire great; it made it weak. Ruling fair with compassion, like Enzo has done, actually earns the respect of the men you rule over. They are loyal to him to a fault. No one would ever turn on him. No one would ever follow you, no matter if you took the empire or not. They would all rebel,” Kai says.
But it just makes Milo happier to see her defending me.
“I guess we will see. But first, I must decide how. Which should I choose?” Milo looks back and forth between the two of us, acting like he hasn’t already chosen who he is going to pick. He has. And he will pick me.
I’ve never been so sure of something in my life. Milo likes pussy. He likes fucking. He likes raping and mutilating and hurting women. But he can get that easily. He will take me because it gives him the best chance of the empire. And then, once he has me and my empire, he will try to take Kai. Too bad he’ll be long dead before it comes to that.
“I want the strongest, of course, the one most likely to win your silly game to become the heir,” Milo says.
“That’s me,” Kai and I both say at the same time. Not because either of us thinks we are stronger than the other, but because neither of us wants the other to get hurt.
Milo laughs. “You two are both so eager to die to save the other.”
I watch the wheels turn in his sick, twisted mind.
“Let’s make this more interesting. Let’s play some games. The winner gets a one-way ticket to my home,” Milo says, his dark stare deepening. “I want the strongest, and the only way to determine the strongest is by competing. Best of five rounds wins.”
I like games—at least, I like Kai and I’s truth or lies game. But after having to compete with Kai in the most fucked up game of all that our fathers created, I don’t want to play another game again, especially not one created by a monster like Milo.
“Fine,” I say agreeing. I won’t show weakness to Milo.
Kai’s eyes grow determined as she looks at me. She’s going to give this game everything she has.
“Excellent,” Milo says, standing up and walking over to Kai. “Now, for quite a while, I thought you were the strongest, my beautiful Kai.” Milo extends his hand to her, waiting and taunting her to take it.
I stiffen, forcing myself not to react and make this worse for Kai. But I can’t.
I growl and launch myself over, swatting Milo’s hand away. “Don’t. Touch. Her.”