Page 73 of Villainous Kingpin

“Don’t be stupid, Sasha.” The same woman’s voice retorted dryly. It sounded vaguely familiar. “Like Alexei or Vasili would let you fight him alone. You’re pulling us all into it and forcing us to fight against him.”

“You have to call Brennan.” A man’s voice argued. “At least tell him she’s with you and she’s okay. He just got his wife back and is preoccupied ensuring she’s okay, but he’ll be after Wynter. It is only a matter of hours.”

“Was she raped?” An unfamiliar female’s voice asked. My body shuddered and I opened my mouth to deny it. Except I couldn’t hear my voice. Did I tell them that I wasn’t?

“Jesus Christ. Brennan will lose his shit. He’ll fucking burn us all and take us to war, regardless if he can win it or not.” I wished I knew that voice. “Remember how bad it was when his sister was shot by DiLustro?” A sharp pain pierced through my chest. “He fucking burned their side of town. He hunted them and-”

My mind drifted away and a welcomed blackness filled my brain. And all the while voices stayed nearby.

CHAPTER29

Sasha

Ididn’t give a shit what Cassio, Alexei, or anyone said.

I wouldn’t break my promise to Wynter. Even after all these years, I remembered failing another woman. It resulted in her death. I’d stay with Wynter through it all, and if war with Brennan was needed to keep my promise, fuck it, I’d do it.

I had nothing better to do anyhow. I refused to fail this woman too.

The doctor examined her body and the sickness sat in the pit of my stomach with bruises and cuts all over her. She fought back whoever attacked her, there was no doubt of that. Her fists and knuckles proved it.

I refused to leave the room when the doctor went over her wounds and the nurse cleaned the blood from her body. There was so much of it. On her face, her hands, her thighs, her legs. She had been out for hours. Way too long. He couldn’t speculate concussion, at least not until she woke up.

I just wished she would wake up now.

I’d take her to my place afterwards and she could stay there until she was ready to go. Whenever and wherever that might be. The lights of the city glowed through the windows and reflected against her hair.

Even in her battered state, the girl looked vulnerable and angelic.

I reached out and touched her forehead. No fever.

“I think she’s just resting,” the nurse said, trying to comfort me. Fuck, I should have continued tailing her. She and her friends were a recipe for disaster, especially among ruthless men like us.

What was Brennan thinking when he sheltered the girls so much that they couldn’t distinguish reckless and dangerous from an adventure?

Tatiana, my sister, and Isabella, Vasili’s wife, did some adventurous and crazy stuff but never reckless. Never dangerous.

“Should we do a brain scan?” I asked the nurse. Wynter hadn’t woken up once.

The door opened behind me and I didn’t need to turn around to know who it was. Alexei was just as disturbed with this as I was. For a different reason. He lived through it.

“Anything?” I shook my head in answer. I wasn’t much for emotions, but fuck if they weren’t choking me right now. Certain ghosts were hard to forget.

Alexei’s hand came to my shoulder and rested there. He never fucking touched anyone except his wife, so I knew it shook him up to see Wynter like this.

“She’s strong,” he said in his monotone way.

I disagreed. She was weak. Too happy. Too careless. Too innocent.

I pulled up different footage of her and fuck, the girl indeed was a figure skater. A fucking good one. But she was too goddamn soft. She even hugged girls that got disqualified in her competitions to comfort them.

Who fucking did that? You crushed your opponents, not hugged them.

“If you want to keep her,” Alexei continued in his way, “I’ll help you.”

God, he sounded like I wanted to kidnap her and keep her as my pet.

“You two sound like idiots.” Aurora’s voice scolded us softly. She glanced at the nurse who got up and left the room. I guess the nurse wanted to ensure the girl was never alone with a man. “You can’t keep her. She’s a human being. I mean what in the hell runs in the Nikolaev veins.”