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

Chapter 50Liana

The skin on the back of my neck itched as the cries of torture traveled through the castle. I looked at my twin and reached for her hand, interlocking our fingers while my other hand gripped the bracelet. It gave me strength. It kept me safe.

He’d given me a new one for every birthday. My twin didn’t like it. She found the hard enamel and rugged dents gross, but she appreciated the strength I drew from it.

My twin squeezed once, then pulled away to rest her chin on her knees and wrap her arms around her legs, staring into the fire. Winter months in the Siberian manor were brutal, especially when Ivan Petrov was here. I shouldn’t complain, especially knowing that I wasn’t the only one suffering. Mother and Ivan’s prisoners had it worse—a lot worse.

My legs shook while my mind chanted over and over again, “Where is he?”

I pressed my eyelids together as “Born To Die” by Lana Del Rey played in my head on repeat. I’d started to wonder whether our finish line would be death. It would seem our entire lives had led us to this point. To die. Our road to freedom had been unending. It couldn’t fail us now… Could it?

I pushed at my temples with closed fists. Everything about the lyrics made me want to cry, and I knew there was no time for tears.

My palms pressed into my skin, my fear a white-hot current. He wouldn’t hurt us. Mother was here. She wouldn’t let him. But then where was she? Where was Kingston?

I hid my face in my lap to smother my cries. Please, please, please. I just wanted him. I wanted my⁠—

The door crept open, and my sister and I whipped our heads up. I tasted her fear like it was my own, just as I knew she could sense mine. We scooted back, pressing ourselves into the dark corner.

Liana’s breath fogged the space between us. Or maybe it was my own. I rocked, mouthing to myself, I’m not scared. I’m not scared. Eventually, I’d believe it.

The footsteps were getting closer. The hardwood creaked, piercing through my eardrums. Tears ran down my cold cheeks, searing a path down to my lips. My twin’s hands gripped me hard.

He was getting closer. He was…

I jumped when a hand touched me. My back slammed into the wall and pain shot into my shoulder.

A scream pierced the ice-cold air.

I launched up off the floor and jumped onto the broad back, ignoring the shaking fear that gripped every fiber of my being. In the next breath, I was thrown off effortlessly, my limbs coming down hard on the stone floor.

The world tilted. My vision blurred. Pain surged through my temples.

Even with my head buzzing with adrenaline and pain, I tried to move, but my body refused to listen.

But then reality filtered in through the horror.

My eyes widened. A large hand covered my mouth while the other roamed down my body, lower and lower, until it reached my crotch. I bucked and kicked, my screams muffled and the back of my head hitting the floor again. The stench of tobacco and cheap cologne assaulted my senses.

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.

My stomach churned with nausea. I brought my fingers to my temples, pressing them while shivers racked through me. I wheezed, trying to ground myself. I struggled to breathe. Inhale. Exhale. In and out.

“Louisa, look at me.” Kingston’s arms wrapped around me.

“It’s… It’s Liana,” I stuttered, unable to control my tremors. “I’m… Liana,” I wheezed. It all became too much. Or maybe I was losing my mind. Blood pounded between my ears, a shrill ringing sound growing with each heartbeat, making it impossible to grasp my thoughts. My eyes found his and I cried, “C-can’t you see it, Kingston? I’m Liana, not Louisa.”

His lips brushed against my temple, whispering words I couldn’t understand through my panic attack.

“Just breathe, sunshine.”

He pulled me into his lap, rocking me back and forth, and I buried my face in his neck, crying until sleep pulled me under.

Nothing made sense anymore. Or maybe it was that everything finally did.