Page 137 of Cruel Juliet

I shouldn’t have gotten into the car with her. No—I shouldn’t have fucking trusted her. She hasn’t been kind to me a single day. Why the hell did I think she was suddenly going to change?

Finally, my brain kicks into gear. It was a trap, all of it. Her show of fragility yesterday and tonight. She was manipulating me, and I was so focused on making good with her that I didn’t let myself see it.

Fuck.

Two dark-colored sedans wait in the shadows ahead, lights off. Their outlines are barely visible until Kira kills our headlights, and the dim orange glow from a distant streetlamp hits their windshields.

“Kira,” I whisper, “what is this?”

“A surprise.” Finally, she smiles at me, but her eyes are cold. Empty. Like she’s finally done pretending.

My pulse jumps, but I force myself to stay calm. Panic won’t help. Kira clearly lied to me. Planned this from the start.

Every detail falls into place now.

That’s not Luka in the car behind us.I know it in my bones. And the fact that she insisted on going tonight, when Petyr wouldn’t be home—that feels staged, too.

I’ve been so fucking stupid.

I grip my seatbelt and try to think. I have to force myself to look composed while my mind races ahead. If I’ve got any chance of getting out of this alive, I need to keep my cool now. There’s no other way.

Then, finally, Kira opens the locks. “Come on,” she says as she kills the engine. “There’s someone here to see you. You wouldn’t want to keep him waiting, would you?”

Cold sweat breaks out at the back of my neck. Automatically, I reach for the handle and pull it.

Four men get out of the black sedans outside. It takes me a moment to recognize them.

But when I do, my blood runs cold.

“Kira,” I whisper, “what have you done?”

“Brought you back where you belong.” Her smile flashes. “Now, why don’t you go say hello to your daddy?”

53

SIMA

For a moment, I can’t move. My mind blanks out, but my body knows before I do. Suddenly, I’m shaking. The world narrows to the crunch of gravel under their boots. My pulse pounds so hard I can feel it behind my eyes.

Then I turn to Kira, my voice brittle. “Why?”

She doesn’t look at me. Her hands stay on the steering wheel, knuckles white, tendons visible under her skin. “Is that really a question?” She laughs, cold and sharp. “You don’t belong with us, Sima.That’syour family.”

“Family?” I choke out, voice breaking. “No. That’s not right.”

“Yes, it is. You can go back to your daddy now. Isn’t that great?” She flashes me a cruel grin. “Don’t worry—you don’t need to thank me. It was my pleasure.”

I bet it was. Ever since the day she saw me, Kira has been planning my exit.

But fear overrides anger. Right now, all I can think about is those men, what they’ll do to me. Where they’ll bring me if I go with them.

“You can’t do this.” I’m pleading with her, I know, but dignity is far at the bottom of the list of my priorities. “My dad— You don’t know what he’ll?—”

“And I don’t give a shit, do I?” Kira finally turns toward me. Her face looks different now, stripped of all the warmth she used to fake. “You’ll be fine,” she scoffs. “Your father just wants you home. Whatever teen drama you fought about, you can fix it once you’re out of my hair. Like I said, I really don’t give a shit.”

I shake my head. “If you do this, Petyr will kill you.”

If Petyr ever finds out what happened here tonight—and he will—there will be no stopping him. Kira may be Dimitri’s wife, but she just turned traitor. I doubt Dimitri himself would stand for it.