Page 11 of Scandalous Kingpin

“I’ll put you in touch with someone, and the Cullens will be dealt with.”

Athair stiffened. “Fuck you will. They’re young parents. Aiden Cullen is just sticking to the code—you know how everyone feels about human trafficking.”

“He’s weak and this stupid code is makingmeweak.” My brow furrowed. Nothing they said was making any sense. “The only way to protect the twins is for me to take the power that is rightfully mine,” Sofia said. “You know that as well as I do.”

“But trafficking these kids?—”

“I was sold like cattle and survived.”

Athair snorted. “If you call this survival, you’ve lost your fucking mind, Sofia.”

“I couldn’t protect my firstborn and her daughter; I will protect my twins. You should want to do the same. They’re yours as much as little Ivy is, after all.” Shocked, I tipped my head back to look at Athair, but he kept his eyes on the woman. “So you will help me with this. We’ll rule the world at any and all costs.”

“You meanyouwill rule the world,” he spat.

My gaze bounced between them, following their exchange, but I only had more questions. Who were these twins? Why would Athair have more daughters? He said I was his only princess.

“Athair, will you and Mama be di—vo—r—ced?” I asked. I heard the word spoken by our cook who left her husband. I didn’t quite understand it, but Mama said it means two people no longer loved each other. Surely, if he was here with this mean woman, he didn’t love Mama anymore.

“Absolutely not. We shall go back home to Mama and your brothers. The six of us together, forever.”

His assurance made me feel better, but still left me confused.

Chapter Five

The best way to prevent betrayal was to never let anyone get too close.

In my twenty-seven years, I’d been betrayed enough by the people closest to me to last me a lifetime. And despite my papà’s betrayal being unintentional, he’d failed in keeping his wife and her wrath away from Dante and me. I’d forgiven him for the most part, but I didn’t think I could ever forget.

So now I lived my life refusing to give anyone a chance to fuck me over—family or not.

I’d seen what caring too much did to people. First with Basilio, then with Dante. Even Emory was teetering on the edge, playing with fire when it came to Killian Brennan.

I vowed to never fall victim to those circumstances.

Yet there was one person who kept getting under my skin, determined to see the filth beneath my carefully curated facade.

I’d be willing to bet everything I owned that she’d change her mind real quick if she saw me now, standing in a pool of blood. I wondered if this would be enough to prove that I was beyond redemption.

The frail arms I had tied to a chair in the basement of this abandoned warehouse, knuckles stained red, belonged to the only witness of my deprived bloodthirst.

“Should have really cleaned yourself up,” I sneered, looking at the one person I despised beyond all else.

“You can’t keep me in this filth forever.”

The face that still came to me in my nightmares was almost unrecognizable. A monster, no less.

“It’s the only thing suitable for someone like you,” I drawled, reaching for a cigarette. I shoved it between my lips and lit it. I only smoked when surrounded by the ghosts of my past, and I worried this half-empty pack wouldn’t get me through the night.

“How much longer do you plan on keeping me here?”

“You know the answer to that stupid question.”

“Tell me.” The scream echoed, bouncing against the sharp stone walls.Do it. Shout until your lungs give out; there isn’t a soul around for a hundred miles.

“Until your dying breath,” I said simply. “So you better get used to it.”

My prisoner stared at me with bulging eyes while silence enveloped us. How many times had the roles been reversed? How many times had I stared this monster in the eye and prayed that I’d be saved?