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“The words you spoke in Portuguese. What did they mean?”

His jaw ticks once as he clenches it tight, an almost pained expression fading into existence on his face as his eyes dart around anywhere but on me. When he finally looks at me, he swallows and places a soft and chase kiss on my mouth. “It means I’m not going anywhere,rainha.”

Two hours later, freshly showered and lying in bed facing each other, we’re laughing about something Keeley did earlier and talking about everything and anything. Harvey groans rolling to his back.

“You know, that really took it out of me. I could totally use a big juicy burger to replenish,”

I screw my face up and he chuckles.

“You really don’t like burgers? I don’t understand how people live so healthy all the time.”

A lurch in the pit of my stomach steals all my good humour and I look down at the faint floral pattern of my sheets.

“Hey, you okay?” he asks, rolling back to face me. “I was just teasing, I didn’t mean—”

“I know,” I sigh. “When my father was still around, he used to control what I ate. It was usually breakfast bars and not very often. He and his...friends, didn’t like me developing too much so they kept me small and frail. After he died, I went to get checked over by a doctor just for general health, and to make sure I didn’t have any other STIs. I was severely malnourished and low on everything. I guess since then, I’ve been a bit paranoid about keeping myself well fed and ensuring my body is nourished and strong.” I let out a puff of air through blown cheeks and look back at Harvey who looks too sad.

“Well, now I feel like a dick.”

I chuckle before getting serious again. “There’s also the smell.”

“What do you mean?”

“One of the guys he used to bring around always smelt of body odour and fried food. I couldn’t escape when he was...doing what he did, and now the smell of burgers and the like make me nauseous.” I pull the duvet up to my nose to inhale the spring meadow detergent Guinevere uses on my sheets. “Sometimeseven when I’m nowhere near food, I can still smell the fast food on him.”

I look into the molten chocolate eyes of my lover and see the anger shining back at me. Anger and something softer as he searches my face. He reaches up and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. “You know no one will ever hurt you again, right?”

I smile at that. “An impossible promise.”

He shrugs, unbothered. “I’ll kill anyone who tries.”

Leaning over, I kiss him gently. “That’s sweet, but I’ll put a bullet in them before they get close enough to try.”

He smiles against my mouth as I remain hovering over him. “I know you will, my queen.” Then his eyes turn analytical. “You killed your father, didn’t you?”

I lean back, snuggling back into my pillow but still facing him. “Yes. On the night before my sixteenth birthday. I couldn’t get married without my father signing to say he agreed. So with no father, I didn’t have to marry.”

Harvey nods thoughtfully. “And the guy you were meant to marry was Grigoriy Volkov’s brother?”

My body tenses, not because I don’t trust Harvey to know, it’s just it’s a well-kept secret. “Yes.”

“I figured as much from what Volkov said to you during the benefit. What happened to him?”

I shiver again at the memory of Volkov putting his disgusting hands on me. Sighing, I answer, “Officially, I don’t know.”

He raises his brows in question.

“I didn’t kill him, if that’s what you’re wondering. And I didn’t give orders for anyone else to do it either. If the head of The Kukris gets killed by The Talons, it’s all-out war and as I was laying low until I was eighteen and could officially take over, it wasn’t a risk I could take. But it just so happens, he was found floating by the docks about a week after my father’s demise.”

Harvey studies me, calculating and considering. “Stuart killed him.”

I sigh again because this conversation is making me more uncomfortable than I’d like. “I don’t know.”

He raises a single brow this time.

“We’ve never spoken about it. But I believe he did.”

“Good,” he says gently.