Though I left the club when they did, I beat them to my queen’s home. It was 4 AM when the “friend” Megan dropped Sloane off in front of her place—and didn’t even bother to stay to see if she would make it inside.
I shook my head, bemused.
She wouldn’t.
I wondered if her friend would look back at this moment later and wonder if things would have been different if she’d just cared enough to wait.
It wouldn’t have changed anything, but Megan wouldn’t know that.
I watched from the shadows as mymalishkastumbled toward her front door. Then, as if to make my job easier, Sloane dropped her keys on the step.
Hold them like they’re weapons. You never know when you’ll need to use them as such.
That was the first lesson my father had taught me when I was a young boy. Right before he stabbed me in the knee. A different lesson. I never forgot either.
When she bent over to pick them up, I rushed behind her and plunged the needle into the side of her neck. She whimpered before falling into my arms. Her eyes fluttered closed, and her breathing slowed.
I carried her away into the night, opened my trunk, and put her inside like she was the most precious treasure.
She was.
It was a good thing that I was taking her. If not me, it would have been another—likely those assholes that apparently had something over Sloane. That was a problem I would be dealing with shortly—after I got my queen secured in her gilded cage. And when she woke up, we had much to discuss.
Just to be safe, I taped her hands and feet, then covered her eyes. While I was sure the drug would keep her under, there was no reason to take chances. What if I were delayed in getting her home?
I got back into my car and drove off, only removing my mask when I was far enough away to not worry about being identified. Once I got back home, I would have the car cleaned and disposed of immediately. My men knew what to do.
It wouldn’t have changed my plans but finding out that Sloane had no real friends or family in her life was a nice bonus. Then I wouldn’t have to hear her cry about them. Apparently, all she seemingly had in her life were the fuckers intent on robbing and abusing her.
I breathed through the fury as I remembered that fuck from earlier—Josh, she’d called him. Earlier, it had taken everything in me not to walk out and shoot that motherfucker who had dared touch her. Not only had he shaken her down, but he had the balls to lay his filthy hands on her.
As for his employers, I almost couldn’t wait to rain my vengeance upon the whole organization that terrorized my queen. Roman had proved useful in this, getting the dark and abysmal history of my future son’s mother. I figured it was fate that had sent me into Sloane’s life. Hell, perhaps her father—a man very much like myself—had reached out from the afterlife to make sure we would meet so I could avenge him and his daughter.
Because I could not act on my impulse to kill the man who’d assaulted her earlier, I instead left to arrange for my queen’s early arrival. I hated that I had to move up my timeline. I had been having fun getting to know her, meeting with her in the passionate dreams I carefully crafted from the waking world, but it was obviously unsafe for Sloane to be on her own any longer.
I won’t deny the rage I felt when I had returned to her apartment a little later to find my queen hopping into the car with the very slut whose boyfriend had hurt my queen.
And wearing that fucking dress.
But I had good reason to be upset. I had purposely left those club tickets in the mailbox for those two fuckers so I could deal with that. Instead, the plan had not gone as smoothly as I hoped. They would live another day.
My littlemalishka’s adventure to Temptress was still fresh on my mind. How dare she leave her body on display? There were perverts out there. Watching as she gracefully writhed on the dance floor. I was jealous. I couldn’t help that fact. She was beautiful. It was a good thing I had followed them to the club and made sure she was all right. Who knew what kind of deviant would try and accost her on the dance floor?
After our amazing tryst, when my queen gloriously came all over my fingers, my walking away had been the hardest thing I’d ever done. But Megan was coming back with the drinks, and I couldn’t be seen. Not yet.
When I was out of her line of sight, I watched her from afar. No way was I leaving her unattended.
Would she have allowed any male bold enough to do so to touch her like that?
The possibility enraged me.
And I would punish her for it.
Now I would keep her in a cage making her take my cock until I had no more use for her. Our child would bathe in her blood. Just as tradition mandated. I’d done it, and my father before me, and my grandfather before him, and all the way down our line.
For once, my cock wasn’t excited about the bloody mess we’d create. I couldn’t get hard at the thought of her demise. I wouldn’t hold the gun to her head, but our child would. After it was all said and done, I’d have my kingdom once more. Ruling with an iron fist and leaving a legacy that Sloane would be proud of as she looked down on us from her resting place above.
SLOANE