Page 15 of Inked in Devotion

Yep, he was jealous, and I wanted to laugh, but held it in.

Lucy must have noticed my glee in carting off Chloe and her apparent reluctance for being at my mercy, so she warned, “You better deliver her straight to Trevor.”

My answer was to shoot her my best serial killer smile.

When Chloe and I were alone on the spiral staircase, I taunted, “I expected a warmer reception.”

“I have nothing to say to you.” She refused to look at me.

Well, I fucking did. I halted our progress down the steps and turned her to face me. “It’s good to see you, princess.”

“I don’t even know what to say to that,” she whispered. “Was I a job?”

Hmm…what to tell her. “You have nothing to fear from the bratva. And I don’t do contract killings.”

“That’s not a direct answer,” she snapped.

“Is everything all right here?” a voice said from the bottom of the staircase.

Fucking Trevor Hayes. His gaze bounced between me and Chloe. Suspicion etched on his face.

And just like that, it wasn’t simply an inkling, but I understood Kirill’s problem with this prick. With my limited exposure to him, I’d determined he was efficient, and he had a chivalrous air about him that clashed with the morally black cloud swirling around our bratva. It was as if Chloe walked from darkness into light when she rushed toward him.

“I’m fine now.” The relief and smile on her face made me want to chain her to my side. Did she really think I was going to hurt her? Not that my reputation didn’t precede me. Absolved of the Mistress Strangler killings, I still had my role as a weapon for the Russian mafia. I was certain the De Luccis had shared this knowledge with Chloe.

But Chloe Brown could wait. She was a fun distraction and the bratva came first, specifically to clean up the mess in the mansion. Hmm…maybe I could snoop around too and discover what other secrets the Kings kept.

Unfortunately, I found nothing useful that related to Jeremiah King’s secret life as the Mistress Strangler. No trove of souvenirs or pictures of his victims. So all we had on him was matching the profile and his Mercedes parked at the scene of his last victim.

Anya Davenport.

Anya betrayed the bratva by working with Jeremiah King, just so she could prevent a marriage between Kirill and Chloe. She betrayed Bruce Davenport, her husband, who was the executor of the anonymous trust that would secure the four percent shares for Chloe.

Yes, dear Anya set Chloe Brown in my sights, saying she was a threat to the bratva and I always investigated these threats.

I sighed. I hadn’t fucked a woman since Chloe. Partly because it was inconvenient to do a background check, but mostly because I was in jail and I preferred to fuck my fist thinking back to our filthy weekend together.

She looked prim and proper now, the mother of my child. But I knew beneath that emerald green tailored suit she wore for her meeting this morning hid glorious tits I had squeezed and nipples I’d sucked and nipped. Her ass filled my palms perfectly and seemed to have grown rounder because I fucked my kid inside her.

I did that.

She was forever altered because of me.

I wasn’t done with Chloe Brown.

We were far from done.

Chapter

Four

Chloe

I hadn’t seen or heard from Kolya in six days. On the advice of Theo and his legal team, it would be better if we communicated through our lawyers. After Kolya’s visit, I called Theo in a panic. I was surprised that he canceled all his meetings to come to me. At first, I felt like I had overreacted, but Theo assured me I could call him anytime and he’d left instructions to his staff to always put me through.

I didn’t know how I felt about that. It felt good, I suppose, but it was hard to embrace the feeling fully when I’d grown up always second best.

When I confessed to Theo that Kolya was Sebastian’s father, he thought I was joking.