Page 120 of Villainous Kingpin

I shut the door behind me right as I heard her soft gasp.

CHAPTER47

Wynter

The man had lost his goddamn mind.

Yet, something deep inside me quivered at his gravelly threat. Warmth and fear collided as my heartbeat drummed in my ears and pulsed through my veins. Bas always made me feel safe. He told me he’d never touch me without my permission.

I believed him. In the past.

Now, I wasn’t so sure. His eyes reminded me too much of his father. He wasn’t the same man anymore. And I wasn’t that same woman any longer.

The dark sky outside matched the darkness in Basilio. Anxiety and ghosts ran through me, my heart hammered hard against my chest.

No, don’t think about it.

I squeezed my eyes closed, hoping it’d shut my mind. It didn’t.

The images and scent of his father, foul and frightening, were closing in. The way his cold, disgusting hands felt on me had terror crawling up my spine. His stale breath touched me and I fought the desperation to drag a deep breath into my lungs.

Fear wrapped around my throat.

We planned this. You are our ticket to the Pakhan and the Russians.

I couldn’t be around his father again. I refused to let Basilio use me again.

And still there were so many days I wished there was just him and I, nothing else. No ghosts of our parents and our families. No deals to be made.

But power and money ruled the underworld. Money and power ruled Bas.

Even knowing all that, I craved the feel of his hands on my skin. It required steeling myself to accept Derek’s hands on me while we skated. Yet, Bas wrapped his hand around my neck and my body shifted towards him, the same languid heat and desire flared in the pit of my belly.

Shifting to my side, I stared out the large French window as the stars glittered over the dark desert. I focused on my breathing and memories of Bas down on his knee like my own Prince Charming.

It was that image that kept me sane over the last nine months. The man that acted like a monster with everyone but me.

Not anymore. Now he’d become my monster too.

* * *

My eyes peeled open and the first thing I registered was Bas, sitting in the loveseat and his eyes shut. Asleep, his breathing strong and even. Laying on my side, I watched the lines on his face. Even in sleep, he seemed tense. His expression was harsh and his brows furrowed, as if he contemplated the next move in his sleep. He breathed darkness with every inhale; with every heartbeat of his. I felt it on my skin and in my soul.

Basilio DiLustro was my beginning. And I feared he’d be my end too. No matter how much I fought it. Oceans and continents apart would never be enough to forget him.

My eyes flickered to the window. It was still dark outside, not surprising. Winter nights were long. The full moon threw a glow over the desert. It made it appear beautiful, in a deadly kind of way.

Kind of like this man, I thought silently.

“Contemplating jumping out the window?” Bas’ voice rang with something dark and taunting.

My eyes flashed to him. He shifted slightly and his face lingered in the shadows.

“It’s creepy to watch people while they sleep,” I breathed. My heart raced in my chest as I watched his familiar but somehow older, more exhausted face.

Did I do that to him, I wondered with a sharp piercing in my heart.

“You had a nightmare,” he answered, running his hand across his face tiredly. “You were screaming.”