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

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.

“So bloodthirsty,” I remarked warily, recognizing that the once-harmless woman had been turned into a very capable killer.

She shot me a heated look from under her lashes, then murmured in a low, bedroom voice, “And I haven’t had my fill, so you might want to be careful, Mr. Ashford.”

“Ghost.” She blinked, confused.

“Excuse me?”

Jesus, did she remember fucking anything?

Ivan Petrov and Sofia Volkov had trained me into a lethal killer. And so much more. Those first two years in captivity were excruciating. Until I’d seen her—them. Life under Sofia and Ivan’s roof was fucking hell until Sofia made me her daughters’ bodyguard. The twins had been a beacon of hope for me at my most desperate hour. I strived to become the best killer, the best hitman, the best bodyguard.

Pushing it all out of my mind, I focused on the petite woman with an angelic face. Her eyes shone deceptively, full of innocence and lies that had cost her twin her life.

“I go by Ghost, not Mr. Ashford. Not Kingston.”

Something flickered in her eyes. “I’ve been searching up the mysterious ghost,” she said, her brows knitted. “So Ghost and Kingston Ashford are one and the same.”

“Yes.”

An eye roll followed. “I’ll call you whatever I like,” she shot back. “And it won’t be Ghost. Now stop annoying me, or I’ll kill you.”

“Go ahead,” I retorted.

Her lips thinned in displeasure, and our eyes locked, speaking in a language neither one of us could understand. Until she broke the silence.

“You know, I almost wish you’d try to kill me so I could slice your throat and end this annoying conversation.”

My muscles tensed at her words, suddenly recognizing her thirst for self-destruction.

“Trust me, ice princess, when I try to kill you, I’ll succeed.” Her gaze flashed with open defiance, noting my choice of words. When, not if. But for some reason, she chose not to focus on that.

“Why are you here? And what’s your connection to the Tijuana cartel?”

“I’m here to kill them.”

Her eyes flashed in delight. “Me too. Can we join forces for tonight?”

Knowing it would be easier to go along than argue, I nodded my assent. And not a moment too soon. Four goons appeared, their gazes darting to the dead body. Then the bullets started flying. I yanked Liana through the opposite door, and we both covered a side. She was gripping her gun as I held mine.

“You take the two on the left, and I’ll take the two on the right,” she mouthed.

Without delay, we leaned, aimed, and shot. Bang. Bang.

The bullets punched their way through the men’s necks, almost as if shot by the same person. Blood gushed and bodies fell to the ground.

My pistol still had a silencer, but Liana’s didn’t.

“Shit.”

It was what happened next that shocked me to my core. Knives replaced the gun, and she started killing the guards one at a time. Screams filled the air, blood spurted the floors and walls like geysers. I watched in amazement as she sliced their throats, one at a time.

She stood over the last corpse, savage and vengeful, her chest heaving as she watched the life fade from her latest victim.

Her head lifted, meeting my gaze, and her lips curled into a feral smile.

The silence pierced the air between us, louder than bullets. I didn’t move, and neither did she. Instead, she stared at me, her hands drenched with blood and her eyes distant. Blank. Somewhere along the way, this woman had been turned into an assassin.

And for the first time in forever, my dick was as hard as a rock. I’d never thought I could get turned on by a woman killing so savagely, but here I was, aching for this woman.

And I fucking hated her even more for it.

It was a betrayal to her sister. It was breaking a promise I’d made to myself. This lust ate at my flesh like poison, like a venomous snake, mocking my love for Lou.

Why the fuck did my dick ache when I looked at her?

This woman was only the echo of the one I’d once loved. There was too much history between us—granted she didn’t seem to remember any of it—but with the way our pasts intertwined, maybe it was natural that my dick and my emotions would become traitors.

Her resemblance to Lou was fucking with my mind and body. Being in her presence was a form of self-torture, yet I couldn’t help but crave it. Crave her. Those lips… that voice… those eyes that were so much like my Louisa’s.

It was heartbreak all over again. A reminder of what I’d lost.

She leaned in for a kiss but stopped short, her expression shattering.

“What is it, sunshine?”

I might be a prisoner in this fucked-up castle in Siberia, but when Louisa was around me, I was free. She was my own personal ray of sunshine that took me to paradise, and all she had to do was stand next to me. But it was when she smiled that every one of my thoughts slid away. Only she had the power to numb the pain.

She averted her eyes, her face heating to a bright red.

“I’ve never kissed anyone on the mouth,” she muttered, embarrassed. Then her shoulders slumped. “I’ve never kissed a boy.”

Her hair was disheveled, her cheeks red, but it was her eyes that always captured me. Golden and warm.

“I’ve never been kissed either,” I admitted.

Her eyes shot to me, shocked by my declaration. There was one subject we never broached—it’d break her. It broke me, too.

My cheek was hot and stinging. My ears rang. I didn’t want to think about any of that when I was with her.

“Let’s not talk about that.”

She nodded somberly, the sadness in her eyes gutting me more than any other horror I’d witnessed. This world wasn’t made for us, yet we found ourselves stuck in it, trying to survive and find light anywhere we could. It was taking a toll on all of us, but Lou the most.

Sofia called her weak. She wasn’t. Lou was compassionate and caring, her soft heart wanting everyone to be okay. Her twin, on the other hand, was tougher and only had a soft spot for her sister. Everyone else, she detested.

I brought my fingers to her soft strands, the scent of sunlight and warm honey seeping into my lungs.

“Do you want to kiss me, sunshine?” My fingers trembled as I brought her hair to my nose, inhaling deeply.

She let out a shuddering breath. “Not if you don’t want to.”

I wrapped the length of it around my wrist. “With you, I do.”

Her eyes and lips were so alluring when she smiled. It made my heart beat faster. “It’ll be my first kiss.”

“Our first kiss.”

Lifting onto her toes, she tilted her head toward mine, offering herself up so generously. I bent to brush my lips against hers, and my chest fluttered. It fucking fluttered for her.

She pressed herself against me, her arms coming around me to kiss me deeper, both of our moves unpracticed and messy, our teeth clashing.

Breaking the kiss, she pulled away, breathing heavily. My heartbeat raced in my chest. For her. It was all for her. I could die a happy man now.

I ran my fingers down the length of her golden hair, marveling at its softness and all these feelings that she brought up in me.

“Is it supposed to feel like this?” Her soft whisper brushed against my cheek.

“I don’t know, but it feels right.” She wrapped her arms around my neck and buried her face into my throat.

“It does,” she agreed, her lips moving against my skin. “I’m glad you’re my first kiss.”

I took her chin between my fingers. “Your first, your last, your only.”

Her eyes found mine, heartbreak in them gutting me alive. “Forever.” Her lips found mine for a whispered vow. “However long that may be.”

“It’ll be long,” I rasped into her mouth, loneliness in her eyes screaming and pleading to keep us together. “I’ll find a way out of here. For both of us.”

“Kingston, if I don’t make it⁠—”

I brought a finger to her lips. “Don’t say it.”

She grasped my hand in hers as her chest rattled with a shaky breath. “If I don’t make it, promise you’ll protect my sister.” She squeezed my hand with all her might. “She’s stronger than I am, but not as strong as everyone thinks. Promise me you’ll protect her.”

There was nothing I could refuse Louisa. Fucking nothing. If she asked me to walk into a burning building, I would. If she asked me to burn the world to the ground, I’d only ask when.

“You know I’ll do anything. So if that’s⁠—”

“There you are!” A voice, similar but so different, cut me off. I looked back over my shoulder, finding her twin fidgeting. “Mother wants to have dinner with us.”

Fuck, I hated their mother. Everything she stood for and everything she was. How in the fuck did someone so evil give birth to someone as good and gentle as Louisa?

Louisa pulled away, and my fists clenched, fighting the instinct to hold on. It was as if I were born with it. Everything about her sparked the protectiveness inside me tenfold.

As she walked away, I didn’t realize it would be the beginning of our destruction.

Her twin was the only thing left behind, a ghost of the woman I lost, but also a temptation. The urge to pretend for a moment—just one moment in this cursed life—that I had Lou back in my life was overwhelming.

I wanted Louisa; I was left with Liana. I vowed to protect Lou, but was left with the promise to protect Liana—even if just for this place in time, here at this fucked-up party.

Maybe Louisa knew all along what was coming? Her death. My lonely existence. The pull toward the wrong sister.

Whatever this was, I had to contain it before it spiraled out of control.