Dirty Little Secrets (Kings of Bolten 1)

“He doesn’t. He doesn’t. He’s trying to save me. Don’t kill him!” I managed to spin in Vincent’s arms to face him

“Please,” I pleaded, taking Vincent’s face in my hands. “Don’t do this.”

“You’re hurt,” Vincent murmured, his brows crinkled.

I felt the blood trickling down the side of my face and the aches of my body. I wasn’t going to die in that instant, but Fallon might.

“Did you ever love me?” Vincent asked quietly.

“What?”

“Did you ever love me? Us?” he repeated. Torment blanketed his features.

“Of course, I did. I still do. You mean everything to me.”

“Then why’d you do it, B? Why a lord? And why’d you run?”

“Because I love him too,” I whispered, tears trickling from my eyes. “So please, don’t hurt him.”

Fallon cried out and grunted as he was struck again.

“Why’d you run?”

“Levin told me to. He-he said all these terrible things about you all—”

Vincent nodded and turned me in his arms so I could see Fallon on his stomach, Levin and Dom circling him like vultures.

“I don’t like when people die, B. I don’t. But I can’t control any of this. Just know that I hurt too. I hurt for what’s to come.”

My heart cracked at his words.

They stopped striking Fallon. Dom turned to me as Levin lifted Fallon to his knees. Fallon’s face was beaten so badly his eyes were nearly swollen shut.

“On your knees,” Dom snarled at me.

Vincent released me.

“Fuck you, Dominic.” My chest heaved as I glared at him.

“Fuck me?” He rushed at me and gripped my face.

I took a stumbling step back.

“Fuck you, wasp. You lied to me. You betrayed us. Remember what I said? Remember my promise?”

I shook in his hold, remembering his promise to kill me and the person I’d been with. “You lied to me too,” I whispered.

He’d promised no other girls. He’d promised not to hurt me. His promises were shit. Except the one to kill me apparently.

“Now get on your fucking knees.”

I focused on Fallon who was staring at me through his swollen, purple eyelids, his face covered in blood. Levin had a gun pointed at his head, his aim steady.

Defeated, I sank to my knees, knowing there wasn’t a way out.

Check and mate.

Fifty-One