Page 47 of King of Obsession (Kings of the Underworld #1)

She jabs a finger at me. “The same goes for you. And if Luciana succeeds, make it two hundred thousand.”

Dahlia hops in a golf cart and drives to the delineation mark. From her hand, a necklace materializes with a round golden coin. Did these two plan this?

“Luciana,” I warn.

She looks me dead in the eyes. “I never miss. I hit whatever the fuck I aim at,” she says while I remain still, unmoving and thinking she wasn’t only talking about the bet.

On her way to the stand, resistance meets her in the form of Mika’s unmoving posture. He’s one and a half heads taller and has a hundred pounds of pure muscle over her.

“Don’t. I will kill you,” he says so coldly that I wonder if they will ever get a chance to have a relationship as siblings. It’s like their mutual dislike only grows with each passing day.

She arches an unimpressed brow. “Move out of my way before I make you.”

I scrub a hand down my face, too fucking exhausted to play referee between them. “Mika, enough.”

The hard glare he casts my way is anything but friendly. No one will touch her or tell her what to do. Brother or no brother, she’s my hard limit. Cross that and you cross me.

He curls and uncurls his hands at his sides before he snatches his keys and drives over to my sister while I ask for binoculars. I can’t believe I trust Luciana like this, or my sister, who has let no one else near her in years.

“Luciana,” I say quietly so only she can hear me as she gets ready for the shot.

“I don’t kill the people I love. I don’t hurt them either.”

I think she shot me again while having the audacity to tell me that.

The bullet erupts, deafening as it cuts through the air and hits the coin dangling from the necklace my sister holds between her fingers. Dahlia doesn’t even flinch, grinning from ear to ear, looking at the caved in coin. What the fuck is happening to my sister?

Luciana stands up and brushes the grass from her clothes while my men glance from her to me with awed looks and respect.

My sister returns with a furious Mika, and she jumps out of the cart with him on her heels. The women clash together in a hug, giggling.

“Get to signing that check. We have shopping to do,” Luciana sasses him.

Mika takes out a check and signs it, then slaps it in her hand, muttering something to her. She huffs, nodding before taking off.

As Mika and I watch them leave, he says, “You invited the devil to the table, but she wanted the fucking kingdom. Something tells me what she wants, she’ll get.”

I know. I fucking know.

I am screwed, because I’ll stand by her side watching her take it. It’s her destiny to rule.

I send some of my men to guard them as Mika and I go back to my house. We’re quiet as I move to the bar, grab two glasses, and pour vodka in his and whiskey in mine. I hand him the glass and he tosses it back in one go.

“You’re my best friend, my partner, but if that bullet had grazed Dahlia…” He lets the threat dangle in the air.

“I know what she can do. I trust her ability. So don’t threaten her, brother. I’ll spill the blood of everyone who dares to come after her, even yours. I don’t care about the consequences.”

He gives me an unimpressed look, but the violence in his cold eyes is unmistaken. “The same goes for Dahlia. That was risky and with her, I don’t take risks. As her brother, neither should fucking you.”

I raise my glass to him. “I have you to fill in, don’t I?”

Mika pours himself some more and slumps on the sofa, drinking and sulking. “I can’t believe she’s that fucking good.”

He stares at my pendant with a deep frown. “With the show she put on, it’s obvious she never misses.” He points at my neck. “Do you think she knew what she was aiming at?”

This has crossed my mind whenever I’ve seen her hit dead center every time at the range. Her words from earlier have played on repeat in my mind.

If I let that small belief grow, it will take root in my chest, changing every fucking thing. Do I regret my actions? I am not one who regrets anything. But while I take and she gives, I haven’t offered her the one thing she wants, to be my woman.

I know that because she looks longingly whenever I write anything on her ass other than that, and she mumbled once, “Would it kill you to write ‘woman’ one fucking time?” I am pretty sure she wants that even more than finding out about her family, and that messes with my head.

Fuck, she made herself a home here, despite all the hardships and obstacles.

She’s sharing my bed, is my fucking shadow, has taken part at every meeting in and out of the city. While I wanted to show her what she missed as my partner in it all, the lines blurred once again.

The only way to keep up the sham of control has been to keep that one word away from her, that she’s indeed my woman. That’s what she is. I love her with every broken piece of my rotten heart.

I take a long gulp of whiskey, the taste burning my throat. Mika stands and places his empty glass down on the coffee table. He squeezes my shoulder. “Decide.”

“Will you stand by me?”

“Through fucking anything, brother,” he says, and my stomach knots.

I don’t deserve his loyalty. Soon I might lose everything I worked hard to get, but nothing will hurt more than having to live without her a second time.