I did hurry, though, unable to anger him further. I turned the water off, dried myself with the thick, plush towel I found on the rack, and pulled a silky soft robe around me.
I stepped out and looked him up and down, regaining a small sliver of my former arrogant confidence.
“What am I supposed to wear?” I asked haughtily.
He chuckled and nodded. “There’s that fire. There’s Ivan’s daughter. Go look in the wardrobe. There are many styles and many different sized there.”
I obeyed, opening the carved wooden doors to the antique cupboard, and grabbed a pair of jeans and a simple tee shirt. They were designer and probably cost more than a mortgage payment on the old house.
I pulled a bra and panty set out, dragged them on, and finished dressing. Maksim watched me with glittering eyes like a hawk, taking in my every move. I didn’t like being on display. It unsettled me and made it difficult to clasp my bra in the back.
“Let me help, little love,” Maksim said, flipping the switch back to a gentle, caring fiance. It was chilling how easy it was for him. It was terrifying.
His hands brushed against the flesh on my back, and he clipped the bra tight. He bent, and I felt his lips touch gently along my shoulder blade before he breathed out, “You really are a beautiful woman, my bride. I can’t wait until this belongs to me.”
I wanted to be snarky and come back with some cutting remark, but I didn’t have it in me. I was drained again and had lost all my brief fighting instinct.
I finished getting dressed and followed Maksim out the door, down the hall, and down two sets of curving staircases to the main floor of the villa.
My heart grew lighter with each pass, and each step, that brought me closer to the Kings. I fought the urge to tear away and run down to them, jump into their arms and find them again.
“Don’t worry. You’ll be reunited with your roommates soon enough,” Maksim said with a sneer. “You’re single-minded and obsessed, aren’t you? It’s fucking ridiculous, isn’t it?”
I didn’t reply. He would never understand.
Avery joined us just before we got into Ilya’s meeting room. My heart began to quicken as I thought about seeing my Kings again. It had been the last place I’d seen them, after all.
Iwassingle-minded, but it wasn’t ridiculous. In this world, I’d been abused and abandoned, hurt and nearly destroyed. I’d been treated badly by my family, kids at school, and even strangers in town.
My Kings had proven to me that there was good in the world. My Kingston had won my heart and come back to me to teach me about love. My Ryker had come into my life like a hurricane and had rearranged how I viewed history and our place in it. My Archer had come to bring me desire and a constant flow of attraction and energy that kept me feeling sexy and loved. And my Valen had come into my life to show me how tender a man could be, how much love one human heart could hold.
None of it mattered the moment we reached the door of Ilya’s meeting room. I could hear voices inside, hushed tones discussing something with great excitement in their voices. I tried to hear what they were saying, but they were too muffled, too careful to let any of their words spill out of the room to those of us out here.
Avery took a deep breath and straightened her back. She glanced over at me and gave me a quick smile of encouragement. At first, I was happy that she was seemingly human for a moment again, but then I saw the steely-eyed look on her face, and I got worried. She looked like she was bracing for impact, which meant the brunt of whatever was about to go down would hit me ten times harder.
I took a deep breath to match hers and tried to prepare myself for what I’d find on the other side of the door. Nothing could have, of course, because I was dealing with a mafia crime family that decided their logo wasgo big or fucking die.
Ilya’s room was filled with people, most of them gathered at the end closest to the door, all talking loudly or yelling and cheering for something. I looked across at Ilya, and he was now seated on an elevated chair, a throne, as if he was a king. He was dressed in a pure white linen suit and had a bright blue scarf at his neck. He was staring intently at us as we walked toward him. The room was filled with a pungent scent, like a stable, and I could hear the animal sounds of grunting and groaning coming from somewhere. I took another step, not breaking eye contact, and Maksim shot his arm out to stop my progression.
“Watch it, my bride, or you won’t make it to the wedding night,” he said. I looked down to where he was staring and cried out in surprise.
The marble floor of Ilya’s great room had been opened to expose a pit below. It was circular and had a dirt floor about fifteen feet down. It was also warmer than the room itself because steam rose off the bodies of the men who wrestled there.
“What is this?” I exclaimed. “What is going on?”
There were four men, all massive, muscled, scarred, and wearing only shorts with nothing else. Their bodies were slick with sweat, and they were engaged in arm-to-arm combat. I didn’t see any weapons, and they were brutally clawing and punching each other. Two were engaged in close-range wrestling, while the other two were circling each other slowly, carefully.
“This is our fight ring,” Maksim declared proudly. “And you almost fell into it. That would have been interesting, to say the least. These beasts would have devoured you.”
“They train them for months before letting them fight,” Avery said, watching the men in the pit. It was a savage spectacle that left a bitter taste in my mouth. Ilya and Maksim seemed hell-bent on dehumanizing anybody in their proximity. It was like a familial trait. “You won’t believe how some of them die, and it’s so brutal.”
“Remember that Czech fighter last year who tore the Turkish man’s face in half?” Maksim said in delight. “He got his fingers into the man’s mouth and just ripped. The blood, the gore, the screaming. Oh god, it was magnificent!”
I shuddered and winced at the image. Of course, I was no newbie to violence. I participated in enough on my own, but I was always selective in who was on the receiving end of it all. I only hurt people who deserved it, but I couldn’t imagine the Kostin clan being so careful in their selection process. This was already a free for all, with the crowd going wild over the brutal attacks below.
The crowd themselves reminded me of Dirty Kingdom. In fact, all of this did. There weren’t any students present, only wealthy watchers, but the atmosphere was the same. Pure pleasure at the destruction of other people’s lives.
I looked around at all the finely dressed wealthy people watching, and I hated each and every one of them. I longed to walk around, kicking people into the pit to watch their designer suits and silk dresses get shredded in the chaos.