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

My eyes roamed the room frantically, watching as my sister fought off another man. Disgust and despair clogged my throat.

“Stop fighting,” he rasped. I could feel my energy waning, but I couldn’t give up. Not now. Not ever.

Suddenly, his dead weight slumped onto me, suffocating me. Blood splattered my face and neck, coating me in crimson. My pulse roared in my ears, disorientation and confusion thick in the air as I blinked repeatedly.

I looked up to find my vengeful ghost looming over me.

“I’m sorry I’m late, sunshine,” he said, extending his hand to me, his other already offered to my sister, who looked just as gruesome as I did. But his eyes remained on me, chasing my fears away and lending me his strength.

“I-it’s… okay.” My teeth clattered, but I almost melted with relief.

He kneeled for a brief moment, pulling a tooth out of each man’s mouth, then straightened up. I met his eyes, harder and darker than ever before, flickering with fury.

He still held his knives, blood dripping on the hardwood. One more atrocity added to his plate. When would I be the one to protect him?

“Where were you?” my twin cried, accusation clear in her voice.

“It’s almost time for another bracelet, sunshine,” he told me, ignoring my sister. He pocketed the teeth, watching me with an impenetrable mask.

Kingston—my protector—had been our bodyguard, keeping our virtues intact and protected, only for the highest bidder to buy it like we were a pair of prized horses. Except he was so much more than that.

He was everything to me.

My eyes fell to bruises on his neck and his busted knuckles, and I couldn’t help but wonder—how much did our virtue cost him?

My heart pounded in my chest. My ears rang. My vision dimmed.

I was too late to save her. I was too late to save him. A scream tore through the air. The world went pitch-black.

“KINGSTON!” I bellowed, my eyes snapping open. My damp hair plastered against my forehead, my chest tightening and making it hard to breathe.

Next to me, Kingston startled awake. “What’s the matter, sunshine?”

His fingers brushed my damp hair while I squeezed my eyes shut, the distorted and confusing memories about my twin and me flashing behind my closed lids. My temples pulsed, a throbbing ache piercing my skull.

I wrapped my arms around my stomach, rocking back and forth. Shivers racked through me, nightmares that I didn’t understand plaguing me.

Turning on my side, I rocked back and forth, soothing myself the only way I had for the past eight years. Kingston’s fingers traced my nape, circling around gently as if following invisible lines.

“W-what… are you… doing?” My teeth chattered, making it hard to speak.

“Tracing your tattoo.”

My eyes found his over my shoulder with knitted brows. “I… d-don’t have… a tattoo.”

“You do,” he assured me, his voice warm and soothing. “I’m touching it right now.”

Gasping for air and overcome with emotions, sobs took over. My gaps in memory alarmed me with each passing day. I should remember getting a tattoo. I should remember Kingston.

“What’s happening to me?” I croaked through sobs, images that made no sense flashing through my mind.