Dirty Little Secrets (Kings of Bolten 1)

We followed his gaze to see Dominic standing in front of Bianca, his arms crossed, his face pinched in irritation. He said something to her that must have pissed her off because she snapped back at him, her face twisted in fury.

I slid off the table I was sitting on as he snatched her by the arm and hauled her to him.

Be cool. Don’t bring attention to yourself.

She yanked her arm away from him. The move only seemed to piss him off more because he grabbed her arm again before leaning in. She stiffened against him. When he pulled away, he pointed to the ground.

“Think he’ll make her suck his dick in front of everyone?” Drake asked, his eyes glued to the interaction.

“I bet she punches him in the dick,” Tate added.

“I fucking hope they kill one another,” Hail snarled, glaring at them. “But then again, I hope they don’t, so I’ll have the pleasure of doing it myself.”

I said nothing as I watched Bianca drop to her knees in front of him. He loomed over her, scowling.

“Gotta admit, De Santis has style. You never got her on her knees in front of people,” Tate commented.

“Fuck you. I preferred to dominate her in private. She’ll wear my burns forever. The worst De Santis does is humiliate her. She can heal from that. She can’t heal from what I’ve done. Or what I’m going to do.”

I clenched my lips together but remained silent. The fact he’d burned her with a cigarette pissed me off. When Tate had come back bragging about that evening, I’d nearly punched him in the face. Of course, on the other side of that was me being a shady prick with a job to do.

Dominic sat down at a table while Bianca remained on her knees. I hated seeing her submit like that. Bianca D’Angelou wasn’t that sort of girl. She deserved a crown on her head and men at her feet. She was fucking perfect in every sense of the word. Maybe I related to her too closely, and it altered the way I saw her, but fuck it. I liked what I saw. I fucking loved what I felt when I was buried deep inside her tight body.

I’d said I’d help her. And I wasn’t a damn liar. Or maybe I was. My sister’s life was on the line. She’d been in De Santis’s clutches for too long, being forced to do God only knew what. The anger burned my guts as I pictured Natalia pleading for help. Everyone else thought she was dead. That’s one of the reasons why Stefan was killed. Retribution. Ah, but what a fucked-up web we wove. I hadn’t gone to my father with the information. He would’ve never believed me. I wasn’t exactly his favorite. That had always been Natty.

I clenched my hands into fists and hauled in a deep breath to calm myself. This whole situation was fucked.

“I heard her old man came up missing,” I said, letting go of the breath.

Maybe I could give Bianca some answers before her death. She could go in peace, at least. All I knew was as much as I cared about Bianca, I had to save my sister. Even if it meant losing someone I felt something for.

Fuck. When did my life get so screwed up? But in this life, loss was a natural part of it. My own mother told me to never fall in love. Fuck, she’d been right. Her own husband had killed her in a fit of rage.

Hail snorted. “Yeah. Guess he did.”

I glanced at him, trying to push the ugly thoughts out of my head. “Do you know what happened?”

“He was in deep with the De Santis clan. Gambling debts. They offed him.” A wicked smile curved his lips. “Or at least that’s the story.”

“Sounds to me like there’s another story,” I said.

Hail nodded. “Might be.”

He didn’t elaborate, and I didn’t push. All in good time. I could at least make good on one promise. I looked back to see Vincent had joined Dominic. Vincent was patting Bianca on the head like she was a dog.

“The bitch is getting a taste of what she deserves. When we strike, they’ll never see it coming. Come on.” Hail got up and nodded for us to follow him.

We did, but not before I glanced back to see Bianca shining De Santis’s shoes while he stared right at me.

I waited in the dark alley between buildings for Bianca to pass by. I was hoping she’d be alone. But all day long, one of the kings had been trailing her, so I hadn’t even been able to talk to her. I watched around the corner as she approached with Levin behind her. My jaw hurt from clenching it so hard. A breath past over my lips as she walked by, her head down.

Damnit.

I needed to see her. To talk to her. To touch her. To tell her I was sorry for being me.

Fuck. I hated this.

Defeated, I waited a few minutes and then stalked across campus to Hail’s room. Everyone else was already lounging around when I strode in. Silently, I took a seat and tried to pay attention to what Hail was saying.