Page 44 of Daddy's Reluctant Queen

I get up and start pacing the floor. My brother has always been impulsive, but he could be just as calculating as I am. If I could get to him and talk to him, then maybe…

I don’t know. Titus had a real hard-on for wiping out my family. Convincing him to back off isn’t going to be easy.

But I’ve got to try. I’ve at least got to try.

I walk over to my door and turn the knob. To my surprise, it’s open. An oversight by Titus. Lucky for me.

I walk down the hall and immediately smell the heavy scent of cologne. It’s not Titus’s. I slow down as I approach the landing to the stairs and very slowly, I can hear muffled talking around where his office is.

He’s taking a meeting. I should go back upstairs and wait for him to finish. He usually pays me a visit sometime after lunch. We can talk then.

Funny. My feet aren’t moving. I stand on the landing, listening to the muffled voices echoing down the hallway. One thought comes to mind.

What if I’m too late?

I will myself to move forward, following the sound down the stairs and down the adjacent hallway to his office. I’m barefoot, but I still do my best to step lightly on the cool marble floor. I don’t need him to find me outside my room at this particular moment.

I get to the door. It’s closed. I lean against it and listen.

“Sir?” The voice is vaguely familiar. One of his men that I’ve heard him talking to thought the vents and through closed doors… but not Ignat. Someone else.

There’s a pause, then Titus says, “You said he looks different. You’re certain it’s him?”

The man he’s speaking to scoffs. “Of course it is. It’s only his hair color that’s changed.”

Oh… oh, no.

“Tell me again how you found him?” Titus sounds like he doesn’t believe his man, or rather, he doesn’t exactly believe his story.

The other man sighs. “I was walking out of Bellanos when the black SUV pulled up next to an identical black SUV. Two Feds got out, pulled Aristov out of one car, and put him in another.”

My stomach tightens up into a ball. There goes any hope of them never finding out that my brother is a rat.

There’s another long pause and the other man says, “If I had let him go, then it would have made it substantially harder to find him.”

“Not impossible, though. Instead, you chased the SUV down and robbed them like you were in a Western. You know your little cowboy act could send them right to our door.”

“Maybe if I’d left any of them alive.”

The tight ball in my stomach drops into my shoes. Son of a bitch…

I stalk away from the office to the kitchen. I still have that knife I stole in my room, but at this moment, the kitchen is closer and I’m not about to let that piece of shit walk out of here.

There’s no one in the kitchen at the moment. No one to stop me from grabbing a butcher knife from the block on the counter by the sink. All I can think about, all I can see in my mind is one of Titus’s men following the SUV, speeding up and blocking them in, getting out, shooting the drivers, pulling my brother out and…

Adam, how could you do something so fucking stupid?My eyes start to sting with tears as I turn and stalk back to the office.

I’m halfway down the hall when the door opens and Titus’s man walks out. Bald head, bruised face… Same bastard who dragged me into this fucking mess in the first place. I’m going to take great pleasure in beating the shit out of him again.

“I’ll call you once I’m there—” is all he gets out when I lunge at him, the knife in my hand already on its arc to slice his throat. He turns his head a split second before I reach him and in one unconscious movement steps backward. The edge of the blade misses its mark, slicing his cheek instead.

He stumbles back, hand on his face. “Fuck!” he says the moment he sees the blood on his fingers. He looks up at me and his eyes widen.

I don’t give him time to react. I come at him again, jabbing the knife for his chest. He dodges me with a sidestep, grabbing my arm. He pulls me in and twists it around my back and I lose my grip on the knife. It clangs against the marble floor loudly.

Titus suddenly appears from his office. His face is a mix of surprise and rage. “Sofia?—”

“Fucking bitch—” he growls. I lean back and bring my leg up in a high kick. The ball of my foot catches him in the nose and he releases me. I whirl around and hit him across the jaw with theback of my fist. He yelps as it connects and sends him stumbling sideways.