Page 1 of King

ChapterOne

Harrison

Fire Island, New York State

I watch Natalia sleep.

Her face is calm, almost a smile on her lips, and it makes me want to lean down and kiss her, but I don’t.I decide to let her sleep longer.We have a very busy day and week, and both of us need a break.But if I could, I would wake her with a kiss and more.

I can’t get enough of her.

Since we’ve been together, I’ve never been happier.Every day is a delight, and I think that, hopefully, our marriage will be real one day, and not just a ruse to get us both out of trouble with the FBI.

We’re staying at a cottage on Fire Island for a week to get away from it all.Our week is up today, and I’ll really miss this place with its view of the ocean and the sound of the waves rolling in just a few hundred feet from our doors.On my part, I have to go back to my father’s kingdom and try to set it right.

I don’t know for sure that I’ll be able to, but I’m going to do my best to get my family’s business out of trouble with the mafia and in the good graces of law enforcement, especially the FBI.

I turn over in bed and look at my clock on the bedside table.It’s almost seven in the morning.If I get up and have a quick run along the beach, I can have a shower and be ready to pack up by nine o’clock.We’ll hand off our keys to the rental office and then make our way into Manhattan to face the day and week ahead.

I stretch and yawn, and then I turn over and look at Natalia once more.Her shapely form is revealed under her thin silk nightgown, and I feel a surge of desire for her.But I put it off.I’ll let her decide when we next make love.That way, I’ll always know that it’s me she wants and that she isn’t just trying to please me and play a part.

Once upon a time, the women I was with regularly pleased me because that was part of the mutual agreement.But with Natalia, I want it to be different.I want her tochooseme.

To chooseme.

I want to know for certain that it’s me she desires; it isn’t just being a good fake wife.Even though we’re truly married, there’s still just a smidgen of doubt that she’s doing it to get the revenge she wants, and not that she truly wants me.I have to push that smidgen out of my mind, but having her choose me makes me feel better.

One day, I hope there will be no doubt at all.

I get up from bed,and after a quick trip to the washroom, I pull on some sweats, tie my running shoes and then grab some EarPods for my run.I select an audiobook and listen to it as I run along the beach, wanting to be as multitasking as I can.The sky is still gray with only brief flashes of sun through the clouds on the horizon.The darkness of winter is fast approaching, and with it will come cold weather.For now, we have to put up with rainy days, but they are better than snowy days.

As I run along the beach, I think about Liam.He’s the reason I’m here, and the reason Natalia and I are together.

Liam.How I miss him.I feel like he’s my responsibility, his death is my responsibility, and I can’t escape it; I’m filled with guilt.If I’d been closer to him, if I hadn’t focused so much on my business, and instead had spent more time with him, he wouldn’t have become trapped in my father’s life, and that means the Russians.

And Ethan is gone, too.My father’s dead; my brothers are dead.All the men who were important in my life are gone.I must take over my father’s empire and lead it, even if I would rather do something else and be someone else.Because of what happened, I’m now in the grip of the FBI, and have no other choice but to cooperate.

Yes, I want revenge.I want to avenge both my brother’s deaths.They’re dead because of me.Because I wasn’t there, or I didn’t do a good enough job to protect them.Most of all, I worry about what it will do to me.I’ve always been proud of my time in the military.I don’t want that proud history to be destroyed by a reckless act of revenge.I hope my work with the FBI and against the mafia will preserve that history.

I stop and stare at the incoming waves.Before Liam’s death, I thought I had it all figured out.I was my own man, free of my father’s empire.I was a businessman and a former Army Ranger.Now, I’m everything that I don’t respect.

The head of an Irish mafia family.

I trust that working for the FBI to clandestinely bring down a Russian organization involved in gun running will save my skin.Before my father got involved with the Russians, his business was legit.The building trade was very lucrative in Manhattan and the surrounding districts.My father never had to become involved with the mafia.He could have stayed legit, but someone found their way into his life and convinced him this was the best way.

It’s never the best way.

He told me once that he needed money for a debt he owed, and that’s why he became involved.“Once you’re in,” he said, “they never let you out except through death.”

Well, I was going to break free of the mafia, both Irish and Russian.As soon as I possibly could, I would break all ties and all alliances.I knew it would be hard because so much of my father’s business was wrapped up in theirs, but if we could take them down one by one, there would be no one left to hold anything over us.

Then I could be free.

We could be free, Natalia and I both.

I finishmy run and come back to the house.When I open the door, Natalia’s standing in her little nightgown, and she looks so desirable that I can’t help but feel a surge in my groin.“You’re up,” I say, smiling.

She puts her hands on her hips and tilts her head to the side.“Why didn’t you wake me?”