Fallen Royal (Mafia Royals 4)

I was too shocked to react as his tongue darted and swept. My body shook as he punished me.

I came apart within seconds.

He pulled back and wiped his face on the comforter, and yelled at Ash. “Don’t worry, man, I won’t be late. I already had breakfast.”

“Huh?” Ash knocked again. “You on that whole protein bar kick again?”

“Yeah…” Maksim didn’t look away from me as I tried to recover from his attack. My lungs tried to inhale more air but were struggling to accomplish it. “I just got a new flavor; wanted to try it out.”

“Whatever, you have five minutes before I kick your ass.”

“Can’t wait.” Maksim winked again.

He left me more confused than ever.

More turned on than I should be.

Was he serious this time, though?

Did he mean it?

Or was I just comfortable?

Sometimes I felt like the default screw. The untouchable girl he screwed and fell for, the one that’s always going to stand by his side even when he does the unthinkable.

I fell back against the bed, feeling ashamed of myself. I mean, how easy was it for him to give me an orgasm? How easy was it for me to ignore every single sign that said it was a bad idea?

And was I just… available?

To the boy I’d given my heart to.

And the man who refused to give it back.

I heard Maksim curse and stumble around in his room next door, and then, “Hey jackass, you waited.”

More cursing, my brother, more hitting, probably Maksim.

I stared up at the ceiling. Maybe it would be best if I just took one day at a time. It’s not like we didn’t have time to figure things out.

Maksim was still young; so was I. It was okay to be patient.

I nodded my head like I’d just had a conversation with myself and agreed with myself in the same breath.

Time. We both just needed time.

I could do that.

I could wait.

Chapter Nine

“I slept after the prostration of the day, with a stringent and profound slumber which not even the nightmares that wrung me could avail to break.” —Robert Louis Stevenson

Maksim

“Son of a bitch!” I take another hit to my left cheek, then duck as Ash comes for me. “Bro, you’ve known for like the last year! No need to go all Jake Paul on me!”

“You bring that up?” He dives for my legs, I dodge to the left. “You know I lost money on that fight!”

“Everyone lost money on that fight!” I yell back, jumping on my feet as he tries to do a roundhouse kick to my head.

I’m in good shape.

But I know the medicine has been taking a toll on my agility. I feel invincible sometimes, only to feel like shit an hour later when the sickness comes back when the medicine does a shit job at keeping it at bay.

“You’re sweating an awful lot,” King says with laughter from the side of the ring.

“Fuck you,” I yell back. “Ash really needs to work on using his words instead of his fists.”

He swings at me again.

I duck, but he catches the side of my face.

To be honest, I don’t want to fight, and he deserves the chance to beat the shit out of me for eating the shit out of his sister, not that I’d admit it.

But come the hell on! If he was dying, would he really be sitting in his room alone pondering deep thoughts?

No. That would be no.

Junior and King go into the other ring in our workout room and start to spar. Out of the corner of my eye, I see King get in a few solid shots.

Good.

It makes me proud.

He’ll need to beat everyone to a pulp before proving that he can take over as the Capo of all the families.

A sudden surge of sadness fills me when I realize I won’t be alive to see him put that ring on, the one that represents power, respect, loyalty, honor.

I don’t see Ash’s right hook and feel nothing but throbbing pain in my cheek as I fall to the ground and slam onto my back with a huff.

“Daydreaming about my sister?” Ash hovers over me, still pissed. Shocker. “Or are you just incapable of protecting her and slow as shit?”

“Does either answer help me?” I wonder out loud. “Can I pick C?”

“There was no C.”

“Course there was, I made it up in my head. C is letting your best friend beat the shit out of you, so he feels better about his sister being naked and—”

Ash growls.

“Stop talking,” Serena says from outside the ring. She and Annie are working on Jiu-Jitsu moves with Tank and Kartini.

I love that everyone came over to work out with me.

It feels like home whenever we’re drawing blood.

I’ll miss it.

I shake my head.

I hate the thoughts.

I hate them.

“Slow little shits,” Sergio says as he drops his bag on the floor and approaches. His dark hair is pulled into a high man bun, and he’s already shirtless, showing off all the lovely tally marks on his body, revealing his kills.