Corrupt Kingdom

“By this point, the little boy was now a young man, and one day, he came home from school, and his sister was gone. He searched everywhere. Then he found his father.”

I pause. Ivy must realize this part is harder for me to say because she reaches her hand out and takes mine in hers. With a small squeeze, I continue.

“He was drunk, and when the boy asked him, he said to the boy, ‘You took my wife from me, so I took her from you.’ It turns out, the girl was sold to a vile man who made her his wife. There was nothing the little boy could do. No one could save her.”

“What happened?”

My eyes close. The memories assaulting me as I speak. “She was found dead. Shot in the head.” I look at her. “The woman was my sister.” She blinks, and that’s when one tear escapes her blue eyes. “But more importantly, she was a mother to me. She was my home. She showed me love. She was everything good in the world. Growing up, I knew there was more to life because of her. But her light faded and so did mine. I never saw sunlight until I saw you that day. I saved you because I couldn’t save her.”

When I stop talking, I wait for her to say something.

But she doesn’t.

Instead, I hear a small sniffle.

Pulling back, I see that she’s crying. My hand swipes against her face, catching her tears.

“Don’t cry for me,” I say, my voice gruff and tight from retaining my emotions.

“How could I not?” She lifts her hand and touches my jaw. “You were just a boy.”

“It made me a man.”

“What happened to your father?” she asks, but I know she probably already knows.

“He’s dead.”

The unspoken question is there. What kind of man grows up to kill his father?

I’m not sure if she’s ready to hear my words, but I tell them anyway. She should know the man she got in bed with. I am no hero. I’m a villain.

“I killed him, and then I took his business contacts and started my bank.”

“That’s what I don’t understand.”

“I vowed never to be him. Never to need money so badly that I would resort to that. So, I became the bank, and I don’t trade flesh.”

“Then why was The Butcher at your game?”

It’s a good question, but I’m not ready to tell her that part of the story. So instead, I lean forward and silence her with my mouth.

41

Ivy

He refuses to talk. Instead, he shuts me up with his mouth, but I push back, removing my mouth from his.

“Let me see all of you, Cyrus.” I lift my hand to touch his face, to run my fingers along his jaw down to the pulse on his neck. “Please.”

I can feel his heartbeat accelerate as it jumps under my skin. There is so much more to Cyrus Reed, and I want to see him, all of him. I know there are levels of depth he doesn’t show, but I want to see them. Need to see them.

“You have.” He tries to remove my hand, but I shake my head.

“No. I want to see the parts you don’t show anyone. The parts that you fear will scare me. I want to know all of you.”

“You won’t like what you see. The darkness you see.”

His deep brown, earnest eyes seek mine. They are dangerously ominous. Somber and full of emotions I can’t comprehend, but I want to. I move closer until our lips touch. “Let me be the judge of that.” Kiss. “What are you hiding from me?”

“I’m a bad man, Sun. I don’t deserve to bask in your light. My hands are dirty. They’re not clean enough to touch you.”

“Not true. You’re too blind to see what I see.” A sudden chill descends on my words and what he will say next.

“I killed to become the man I am.” There is a vulnerability to him when he admits this, and it makes me fall for him even more.

“I know,” I whisper back.

“I murdered men.”

My head tilts down in contemplation. “Did you murder children?”

“No.”

“Women?”

“Fuck no, but that doesn’t absolve me of my sin. In order to be powerful, I took the power.”

I take his hand in mine. “Why did you need the power?”

“For vengeance,” he responds, his face clouded with unease. “But I am no saint. I didn’t do it just for that. I now control the underworld. I’m the one who holds the coin for the most powerful men in the world, and in turn, I rule everyone.”

I shake my head and then kiss his fingers. “Say what you will, but you won’t convince me otherwise.”

“It started off as a way to have the power to save my sister,” he admits on a sigh, defeated.