Ruthless Creatures (Queens & Monsters, #1)(98)

David’s mouth drops open. He looks like he’s about to throw up.

“I know. I’m an idiot. Apparently, I have a very specific type: mafia men who lie through their teeth to get into my pants, but have no intention of staying with me. Or keeping me alive. Anyway, fast forward five months, and Mogdonovich discovers Kage hasn’t murdered me yet. He’s still fooling around with the big dumbass he was supposed to kill. Like a cat with a mouse. You know how cats will bat mice around for a while, enjoying the hunting and maiming phase before they finally get down to business and bite the head off? That was Kage with me. But I digress—so Mogdonovich gets pissed I’m not dead and sends Viktor.”

David makes a choking sound.

“Oh, you know Viktor? Old blue eyes? Such a charmer. At least he didn’t try to make me fall in love with him. He was all business, that one. Except the joke’s on him, because he got his head blown off with a shotgun.”

David wheezes in horror. I keep talking.

“I figured out about the money and the clue in the letter because of Viktor, by the way. If he hadn’t shown up, I’d still be blissfully unaware that you were alive and Kage was playing me like a violin.”

I stop to draw a breath, but can’t. My lungs are frozen. This is when I realize my face is screwed up and my cheeks are wet.

I’m crying.

Then a deep voice from behind me says, “I was never playing you, baby. I loved you from day one.”

I whirl around. David leaps to his feet.

Both of us stare in horror at Kage, emerging from the shadows of a doorway.

His expression is stone cold, he’s got a lethal look in his eyes, and he’s holding a gun.

It’s pointed at David.





42





Nat





My stomach plummets. My hands start to shake. For a long, awful moment, silence reigns. I stare at Kage, so dangerous and beautiful, and my heart breaks all over again.

I love him.

And I hate myself for loving him, this man who makes my body burn and tells the sweetest lies.

“How did you find me?” I say quietly, a tremor in my voice.

Kage keeps his deadly gaze on David when he answers. “There’s nowhere on earth you could hide from me.”

David says, “You were always good at finding people, Kazimir. I suppose you still have contacts inside the Federal Aviation Administration who you can bribe to give you access to flight logs and passenger lists?”

He sounds shaken to his core, but trying to be brave. Kage ignores that and growls, “I should kill you for what you’ve put her through.”

I whisper, “Kage, no. Don’t hurt him. Please.”

When he glances at me, his gaze softens. “I won’t, baby. I promise. But only because you don’t want me to.”

He looks back at David, and all the softness turns to ice. “For the record, we had no idea you’d gone to Tahoe until last year. We didn’t have a man inside the bureau until then. So either your WITSEC contact was lying about us closing in five years ago or you are. My money’s on you. You always were full of shit.”

I want to turn to see David’s expression, but I can’t. My gaze is glued to Kage’s face, while my befuddled brain runs on a hamster wheel, spinning wildly with questions.

If he’s not going to kill David, why did he follow me here?

Why is he still calling me “baby” when he knows I know his game?

And why would he risk his own life just to sleep with me?

He must’ve known his boss wouldn’t tolerate disobedience. He’d have known his head would be jammed on a spike if that asshole Maxim discovered he didn’t kill me right away, but instead played around for months without getting any information from me about David…

Or maybe that phone call from Maxim was all part of an elaborate plan to scare me into desperate action? They hadn’t gotten anything from me yet, so they staged a big dramatic confrontation that would definitely make me talk if I knew anything?

But then why would Kage have shot Viktor? Was that part of the plan, too?

I don’t know. I don’t know! Gah!

He’s still a liar, no matter what. He never told me he knew David. He knew David was in the mafia, married, stole money, ran away and went into hiding, and all the rest. He knew all of that while he fucked me senseless.

But was that really lying or was it something else?

Something like…keeping secrets.

Which I 100% agreed to.

Oh god.

Startling me out of my thought blizzard, David says, “You’ll want the money. I can return all of what I took from Max—”

“I don’t want your fucking money, Damon.”

David’s gulp is audible. “What do you want, then?”

Kage looks at me again, and now his eyes are burning. Two burning dark coals of love.

“My girl.”

We’re silent again. I feel David staring at my back, but I can’t turn to look at him. I’m falling too deep into Kage’s eyes.

Finally, David says, “If Max knows you disobeyed him and you don’t return the money—”

“I’m dead. I know.” Kage’s tone indicates he gives zero fucks.

“You’re both dead.”