Page 56 of Monsters Wear Crowns (Crowned Monsters Duet #1)

But I couldn’t. There were no words that would fix this. No version of the truth that would undo what he’d seen. It was bad. I was bad. His chest was heaving, his knuckles bone-white, his jaw clenched so tightly it looked like it might snap. His control was breaking –right in front of me.

“After everything I’ve done to protect you,” he hissed, his voice trembling with barely caged fury. “After everything I’ve felt –”

“Stop it!” I snapped, my own fear flaring into anger. “You’re not thinking straight–”

“ Shut up! ” He was on me in an instant, crossing the space like a predator. His hands gripped my arms so hard I gasped.

“You’re hurting me,” I whispered. Something flickered across his face. Guilt? Pain? I wasn’t sure. But then it was gone, swallowed by the storm.

“I trusted you,” he said, voice cracked and hollow, and my heart split open. “I fucking trusted you.” His body trembled as if he were struggling to hold himself back. But then his hand moved, wrapping around my throat.

My breath lodged. His fingers were warm and rough against the most vulnerable part of me. My heart thundered so loud I swore he could feel it through his palm. Maybe he could. Maybe he even liked it.

“Let me go, Rafe,” I choked out, staring up at him.

“No.” His grip tightened just enough to make my throat constrict. I coughed. His eyes, once ice, now looked nearly black. Dilated. Deranged.

My mind was screaming, fear clawing its way through me. So when he finally turned away, that taut line of his back, muscles coiled like a predator about to strike, I reached into my purse, my fingers closing around the cold metal of my pistol.

“Rafe.”

He turned–and froze.

The gun was already leveled at his chest. For a second, there was nothing but silence. A simmering, unstable stillness.

“Put the gun down, Adela.” His voice was calm, but his eyes–those dark, dangerous eyes–burned.

“Not until you listen to me.” My hand didn’t shake. “I didn’t sleep with him. And I won’t be your fucking punching bag. I will not let you hurt–”

The room exploded into chaos. Rafe’s men surged forward, guns raised and pointing at me . My pulse roared in my ears. An abrupt shot rang out. The bullet slammed into the bookshelf inches from my head, splintering wood and sending shards flying. I flinched, heart lurching–

Then, another gunshot.

Louder. Closer.

The man who had first fired dropped instantly. Blood bloomed across his chest, soaking into the polished wood floor as he stilled. For a heartbeat, I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move.

And then I looked over to see Rafe still holding the gun, smoke curling from the barrel. My eyes widened, and my stomach dropped. It was him. He’d killed his own man…for me .

Rafe’s voice sliced through the thick silence.

“If any more of you go to hurt her, I will fucking kill you, too. ” The room fell still, but he didn’t look away from me.

His jaw was rigid, the muscle twitching.

His entire body was a live wire, rage humming just beneath the surface.

But when he spoke again, his voice was eerily calm. “Get out.”

One of the men hesitantly stepped forward, lowering his gun.“Boss–”

“ Now .”

Reluctantly, they backed off, their eyes flicking between us like they were waiting for someone else to bleed. The door shut behind them with a heavy, final thud, and then it was just the two of us.

“Is this what we’re doing now, Adela?” Rafe’s voice was low, but there was something almost…mocking in it. “Pointing guns at each other?”

“I wouldn’t have to if you just believed me,” I spat back. “I didn’t sleep with him. Nor did I want to. I got out of there really fast once he tried to come onto me. That is the truth, Rafe.”

“Believe you?” His mouth twisted. “There is a goddamn video of you.”

“You think I’d fuck you over after everything I–” My voice cracked, but I forced it steady. “I’m so sorry. He tracked me down. In that time, he told me about how this conflict between you started. He also told me I should leave you and work with him. But I demanded he take me home. And he did.”

“Did you do anything with him? Be fucking honest. Because he may send me another video.”

I gulped, my grip tightening on the gun. “He ran his fingers down my arm and up my thigh. But I stopped him before he could take it further.”

He took a step toward me, his body trembling violently.

“Don’t,” I warned, tightening my grip on the gun.

But he didn’t stop. “Do it, then,” he said roughly, pressing his chest against the barrel. “If you’re so sure I’m the enemy–if you really think I deserve it–pull the fucking trigger.”

My finger twitched, but I couldn’t. And he knew it. He saw the moment of hesitation, and he struck. He was on me before I could react, his hand closing around my wrist, wrenching the gun from my grip. In seconds, the weapon was gone and I was defenseless.

The cold kiss of metal pressed against my throat. The sharp scent of gunpowder lingered in the air, blending with the coppery tang of blood from the body lying on the other side of the door.

My pulse pounded, a frantic, stuttering rhythm that seemed deafening in the silence. The world had narrowed to this moment, this breath, this choice.

“Tell me,” his voice was low, rough, laced with something dangerous, “Is this what you wanted?”

I met his eyes. A thousand unspoken things burned there–anger, lust, and something terrifyingly close to possession.

His lips curved, a cruel smile that promised I had already lost. The pressure against my throat eased, but his hand caught my chin in a rough, unforgiving grip as he tilted my face up to his.

“You wanted to play with monsters,” he murmured, his breath brushing my lips. “Now you’ll see how they break their fucking toys.”

The shot rang out.

And the world tilted.

He spun me around after firing his gun in anger, the bullet shattering his office window. “Did you think I wouldn’t find out? Did you think Moreau wouldn’t use this against you? Against me?”

I shook my head, tears slipping down my temples. “No, Rafe–”

“You’re mine .” His fingers curled into the desk, his knuckles still raw. “And he fucking knows it. ”

I was shaking. Every nerve in my body frayed to its limit. He didn’t give me a chance to speak. He shoved me down, bending me over the dark wood, and his breath was hot against my ear.

“You want to challenge me? Betray me?” His voice was a growl, thick with rage. “Then you’d better be ready for the fucking consequences, little doe.”

My pulse slammed against my ribs, but I refused to cower. “Let me go. I’ll sever our contract, and you’ll be fucking defenseless.”

His laugh was ice and venom, his breath hot against my cheek. “Now you threaten my empire.” His fingers bit into my wrists as he wrenched my arms behind my back, forcing me down, my cheek pressing hard against the cold surface of the desk. The air left my lungs in a sharp gasp.

“Rafe–”

His teeth scraped my jaw, a cruel drag that sent my body into a riot of terror. I thrashed hard, but his grip only tightened.

“No,” I spat, bucking against him, my skirt riding up as I fought.

But he was stronger. So much stronger. His fingers wrapped around the back of my throat and lifted me, then slammed me back down.

My heart was a wild drumbeat of panic. His hands yanked me back, forcing me flush against the brutal line of his body.

His knee wedged between my legs, pinning me in place.

A chill skated down my spine as fabric tore, the sharp sound slicing through the air.

Oh fuck.

Fuck.

Was he really about to–?

“Stop!” My scream was raw, my nails digging into his wrist.

He didn’t answer. The whisper of leather slipping through belt loops and the metal clink of his buckle was deafening.

“Rafe!” I flailed, desperate, my foot connecting with his shin. He barely flinched. I knew we weren’t playing a game right now, but I still had to try. “ Seriously! ”

His body pinned mine, his fury a wild animal that had finally broken its chains.

I gasped his name again, realizing with horror that he was ignoring the safeword. No one would save me. His men feared him. I feared him. And in that excruciating moment of vulnerability, I was...alone.

The cold barrel of the gun pressed against my cheek, stealing the breath from my lungs. My wild, frantic thoughts shattered into jagged pieces, leaving only the harsh reality of what he was about to do.

Slowly, I turned my body toward the gun, toward him, letting that unforgiving steel scrape against my skin. My lips curled into something that wasn’t quite a smile or a snarl.

“Is this really where we are now, Rafe?” My voice came out wrecked, a bitter, half-hysterical laugh spilling from my throat. “Pointing fucking guns at each other?”

His silence was a storm held tight, the eye of a hurricane moments before it made landfall and tore everything to ruin.

He was a predator, cold and methodical, a beast that wouldn’t be satisfied until he had finished me.

There was no pleading. No negotiating. The Rafe I came to know was fucking gone.

He no longer existed within the gaze of the man towering over me.

He was going to do this.

The barrel pressed harder against my skin, but I refused to flinch.

I met his eyes–those dark, merciless eyes that had always watched, consumed, and owned me.

And in them, I saw it. The fracture. The war inside him.

His breathing was ragged, his grip on the gun like a vice.

I swallowed the terror rising in my throat.

I let my body relax, hoping that doing so would make it hurt less.

My hand lifted until my fingers wrapped around the barrel of the gun. The metal was cold, a mirror of the man holding it. I guided it down, and Rafe didn’t move. He didn’t resist. His chest heaved, his fingers trembling almost imperceptibly around the trigger.

“Go on, then,” I whispered, my voice steady, lethal. “Pull the fucking trigger. Kill me, Rafe. End it .”