Reign of a Billionaire : A Dark Mafia Enemies-to-Lovers Romance

“Now why would I stalk you?” Emotion played across his face and his eyes—blazing, almost like he’d seen a ghost. Just as quickly as it appeared, his expression shuttered into one of polite interest.

“You tell me.” I licked my lips nervously. There was something about this man that was unsettling. I didn’t like it. “What do you want with me, Kingston Ashford?”

Surprise flared in his eyes, his scruffy jaw hiding some of his hard face. “So you know who I am.”

“I did my homework,” I breathed.

“So you did.”

A beat of silence followed, something about the tone of his voice not sitting well with me. His eyes lingered on my injured cheek, darkening. His jaw tightened, and he looked away. A shadow of something dangerous passed his expression, making my heart shudder and then speed up. For him.

“Why are you here?” I rasped. The darkness in his eyes unleashed something within me, chasing my rapid heartbeats and frying my nerves. I raised my eyebrows, tilting my head to the side and hiding this unusual reaction behind my stony facade.

“Morbid curiosity.”

“That can get you killed.”

Something flared sharply in his eyes before it was completely gone.

“Go for the jugular next time,” he drawled, giving me pause, but then I remembered the grotesque scene I’d created around me. Clearly, he wasn’t disturbed by it. “Slice him right here.” He demonstrated on himself, a spot right under his jaw. “He’ll bleed out like a pig. Then take his tooth. Didn’t your mama teach you that?”

I blinked at him. Kingston Ashford was a nut job—there was no other explanation. But then his words sunk in and realization dawned.

“You know her?” Mother partook in Ivan’s torture. Of course he would know her.

My breath caught in my throat as he pulled out a pistol and attached a silencer to its barrel. Before I could even blink, he pointed the gun at me and pulled the trigger.

My eyes closed, my mind silent for the first time in years.

Chapter 18Kingston

The body slumped to the floor with a satisfying thud.

Blood roared between my ears, muffling the noise of everything else.

The silencer still on, I shoved the pistol back in my holster and closed the distance to the dead body. I stared down at the unmoving corpse and blinked away the red fog that’d descended when I fired the bullet, then leaned over and pulled out a tooth with my pliers.

“What’re you doing?” Liana’s voice was distant, and I found her watching me with a blank mask.

The party was held for distinguished politicians, with its annual tradition of serving trafficked minors and women on a silver platter—one that went blissfully ignored. It was their way of gathering the evidence to hold against the honorable governors, senators, and others when they needed a favor.

The corruption was a wheel that never stopped turning.

“I need his tooth.”

Her brows pinched in confusion.

“Why?” My molars clenched. It was a damn habit that I couldn’t shake. It kept me sane. I needed to know how many lives I’d taken by the time this all was done. I’d known Liana since before her school years; she’d seen me collect teeth while I was Sofia’s prisoner. “Do you need dental work?”

My frustration bubbled, reaching a new high and preparing to explode. She said she did her homework and knew who I was, but she clearly didn’t remember me.

“No, I don’t need dental work,” I gritted, pondering why she didn’t remember me. If she did, there wouldn’t have been a need to do homework. Nico Morrelli gave me a heads-up—someone was poking and prodding around my identity. It had to be Liana.

I had so many questions of my own, but it was best I said nothing. For now.

Her lips parted, and that was when I cut her off, my anger reaching fever pitch. “Shouldn’t you be running before I blow your fucking brains out?” I snapped.

Truthfully, I was surprised she didn’t point her own gun at me. Instead, her arm remained hanging down her body, almost as if she were resolving herself to that fate and prepared to die. Her golden-hazel eyes searched mine, and I could see her mind working hard, leaving me to wonder who, in fact, this woman was.

She wasn’t the Liana Volkov I remembered.

This one stirred strange feelings in my chest that I hadn’t felt in years. The emotion spread to the rest of my body, and I hated her for it. I needed it gone. She was my enemy.

…Wasn’t she?

She scoffed, smirking. “You can try to kill me, but you’ll fail. Fair warning to your fragile male ego.”

I’d spent over a decade being her and Lou’s bodyguard. How could she not remember?

Unless shit happened to her after her twin died. I knew firsthand how vicious Sofia and Ivan could be when double-crossed. It could be that Liana was put through something so traumatic that her memory suffered. Or she felt Lou’s agony. It would make sense. When one twin hurt, so did the other. When one was sad, so was the other. The twins shared a connection despite being very different personality-wise. Liana was ice and fire where Lou was ocean and sunshine.