Page 105 of Reign of a Billionaire

I hid my face in my lap to smother my cries. Please, please, please. I just wanted him. I wanted my?—

The door crept open, and my sister and I whipped our heads up. I tasted her fear like it was my own, just as I knew she could sense mine. We scooted back, pressing ourselves into the dark corner.

Liana’s breath fogged the space between us. Or maybe it was my own. I rocked, mouthing to myself,I’m not scared. I’m not scared.Eventually, I’d believe it.

The footsteps were getting closer. The hardwood creaked, piercing through my eardrums. Tears ran down my cold cheeks, searing a path down to my lips. My twin’s hands gripped me hard.

He was getting closer. He was…

I jumped when a hand touched me. My back slammed into the wall and pain shot into my shoulder.

A scream pierced the ice-cold air.

I launched up off the floor and jumped onto the broad back, ignoring the shaking fear that gripped every fiber of my being. In the next breath, I was thrown off effortlessly, my limbs coming down hard on the stone floor.

The world tilted. My vision blurred. Pain surged through my temples.

Even with my head buzzing with adrenaline and pain, I tried to move, but my body refused to listen.

But then reality filtered in through the horror.

My eyes widened. A large hand covered my mouth while the other roamed down my body, lower and lower, until it reached my crotch. I bucked and kicked, my screams muffled and the back of my head hitting the floor again. The stench of tobacco and cheap cologne assaulted my senses.

My eyes roamed the room frantically, watching as my sister fought off another man. Disgust and despair clogged my throat.

“Stop fighting,” he rasped. I could feel my energy waning, but I couldn’t give up. Not now. Not ever.

Suddenly, his dead weight slumped onto me, suffocating me. Blood splattered my face and neck, coating me in crimson. My pulse roared in my ears, disorientation and confusion thick in the air as I blinked repeatedly.

I looked up to find my vengeful ghost looming over me.

“I’m sorry I’m late, sunshine,” he said, extending his hand to me, his other already offered to my sister, who looked just as gruesome as I did. But his eyes remained on me, chasing my fears away and lending me his strength.

“I-it’s… okay.” My teeth clattered, but I almost melted with relief.

He kneeled for a brief moment, pulling a tooth out of each man’s mouth, then straightened up. I met his eyes, harder and darker than ever before, flickering with fury.

He still held his knives, blood dripping on the hardwood. One more atrocity added to his plate. When would I be the one to protect him?

“Where were you?” my twin cried, accusation clear in her voice.

“It’s almost time for another bracelet, sunshine,” he told me, ignoring my sister. He pocketed the teeth, watching me with an impenetrable mask.

Kingston—my protector—had been our bodyguard, keeping our virtues intact and protected, only for the highest bidder to buy it like we were a pair of prized horses. Except he was so much more than that.

He was everything to me.

My eyes fell to bruises on his neck and his busted knuckles, and I couldn’t help but wonder—how much did our virtue cost him?

My heart pounded in my chest. My ears rang. My vision dimmed.

I was too late to save her. I was too late to save him. A scream tore through the air. The world went pitch-black.

“KINGSTON!” I bellowed, my eyes snapping open. My damp hair plastered against my forehead, my chest tightening and making it hard to breathe.

Next to me, Kingston startled awake. “What’s the matter, sunshine?”

His fingers brushed my damp hair while I squeezed my eyes shut, the distorted and confusing memories about my twin and me flashing behind my closed lids. My temples pulsed, a throbbing ache piercing my skull.