Sevastyan’s hands moved to her hips, her waist forcing her to look at him. He dropped his head to peer at the gun once before giving a resigned sigh. “Stop lying to yourself, milaya moya. You can’t fight what’s between us any more than we can.”
She shook her head. “How can you still call meyours and look at me like you would die for me when I’m holding a gun to your chest? When I lied to you about who I am? You know that I’m not staying here, right? I’ve failed and now I have to go back to my family empty-handed.” Tears spilled down her cheeks to mix with the misting rain.
Cupping her face and forcing her to look into his eyes, Sevastyan said the one thing that had her heart stopping mid-beat. “Rhia Crowne, I hate to disappoint you, but each of us would give our last breath to keep you safe. And you’re not going anywhere, but with us.”
With her Glock leveled center mass, he said her name again, the one she’d been given at birth, and it rolled off his lips with a flourish. He made it sound beautiful. The soft “a” lending an exotic flair to an otherwise mundane name.
“Our beautiful, Rhia. Our queen.” Up until then, Lucian had remained quiet, reserved. Holding her eyes with his he lowered his lips to hers. Brushed them gently. Always the sweet one. “Look into our eyes and know that we are all telling you the truth. We’ve never lied to you.”
She brushed away her tears. “Queen?” She rolled the word around on her tongue, tasting the heaviness of it. “What does that mean?”
“We might want to leave that for later. We need to leave.” Lucian clicked the safety on his gun and tucked it close to his chest.
That’s when she noticed they were all carrying. Her gaze raked over the armed, muscled kings. “Lucian’s right,” Sevastyan spoke low and firm. “We’re too exposed out here. We need to move and fast. One neighbor or another had to have called the cops by now.”
She lowered her gun but didn’t give it over when Lucian held out his hand. “Not happening.”
He looked like he was going to argue the point before smiling. “That’s my girl. Who taught you to use that thing?”
She huffed. “My brothers.”
Lucian nodded.
“Enough. Let’s go,” Sevastyan commanded.
She leveled her eyes on the spot of his shoulder bleeding. “You need medical attention.
“I’ll live. Remind me to thank your brothers. A little more to the left and I might be knocking on St. Peter’s gate.” He shrugged his injured shoulder to prove his point.
“Next time I need to point my gun in your direction I won’t hesitate.”
His dark eyes shimmered with what looked like appreciation and respect. “Point taken.”
She arched a brow as she tucked the gun into her waistband. “Now you know where I stand. We need to talk.”
“Yes, we do, but not here. Cops are on their way.” Before Sevastyan could wrap an arm around her, she stepped past him and joined Roman on the stairs. A faint growl hit her ears, but she paid no mind.
“You knew too? About me?” she accused Roman with a side-eye as they ascended to her apartment.
He nodded once and walked with her up the stairs.
“Apparently we’re all good at keeping secrets.”
“It seems that way.” He placed an arm around her before they stepped back into what was left of her apartment, lights, and sirens going off in the short distance. Roman leaned in. “Go easy on him. You have to trust someone and it might as well be us. At least we weren’t shooting at you, only in you.” He winked at her and any other day she would have laughed at his joke.
Glass and cement crunched underfoot as Roman stood aside to let her pass to her bedroom.
“No, cariña.” Warm fingers wrapped around her upper arm. Matteo. She caught the death glare he shot Roman. “She doesn’t need to go in there.”
“Maya’s in there. I need to see. Maya, are you okay,” she called out only to hear nothing.
She yanked her arm free, darting past Roman. She rushed into her room to find Maya in a heap on the floor. Blood stained the small carpet covering the area beside her bed. Her skin looked ashen and chilled but that didn’t mean she was gone. She reached out and pressed two fingers on her friend’s neck.
She felt her four men come up behind her.
“Maya, please, can you hear me?” There were so many tiny nicks and slashes from the debris flying through the air. But what really had her attention was the gunshot. “She’s been shot in the chest. Oh, God. Please, help me. Someone.” Rhia grabbed for the scarf hanging off the side of her dresser and pressed it over the wound.
“Rhia,” Lucian urged, coming to kneel beside her. He wrapped strong fingers around her arm and tried to pry her away from Maya.