I think I’d known all along that this had to end in Cassio’s death, that seemed only fair to me, but Marco? He was guilty of a lot of things, being an idiot was one of them, but technically he’d not done anything wrong. I held no ill will against him, certainly not enough to wish for his death. But Nikolai on the other hand, he looked just about ready to kill Marco with his bare hands.
“We don’t have many options…” Nikolai answered my question, trailing off to leave my mind to fill in the blanks. No, there weren’t many options, but one came to mind - one that I was sure wouldn’t go over too smoothly with Nikolai.
“Let him go,” I demanded.
“Ana…” The deep timber of Nikolai’s voice growled dangerously. He gave me a what-the-fuck-are-you-doing look, that I ignored as I moved closer to them. I could feel Nikolai’s fury from across the room, it only seemed to intensify the closer I got. When Nikolai’s arm didn’t drop from Marco’s neck, I cut him a hard look.
“Secure the property, then wait for us in the car,” I told Finch and Zedd without taking my eyes away from Nik.
When we were finally alone in the room, Nikolai’s arm dropped. I watched closely as Marco gasped for breath. I hoped that in the future this wouldn’t come back to bite the King family in the ass but at least we knew that Marco was in fact as weak as he seemed. I shooed Nikolai away, and he surprised me by actually backing off a bit.
“I’m giving you a chance. One chance.” Marco finally met my eye as I spoke. I watched as he swallowed and took a sharp breath. He nodded his understanding. I could see the anger on his face, but he had no choice but to comply.
“You mess up or you come after us or you come after my parents, and we’ll be back here. You understand?” Again, he nodded.
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry you lost your father. He took me away from my family, and he rightfully paid for it with his life.” I turned, grabbing Nikolai’s hand and dragging him behind me as I exited the room.
I hoped that we wouldn’t have any more problems with Marco, but I meant what I said. We’d come back for him if we needed to.
