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

Chapter 55Kingston

My obsession with Louisa became oxygen and water. It was born out of emotions that the world had almost erased.

I couldn’t pinpoint when I fell in love with Louisa. It just happened—like a breeze becoming wind and then turning into a hurricane. It grew with each touch and kiss, each stolen moment.

My heart bled and ached during the years when I believed she was gone. I was a dead man walking, as cliché as it sounded. And then fate brought her back into my life. It was our second chance, and I wouldn’t waste it. I’d hunt down every threat and eliminate it.

Starting with Sofia Volkov.

Something had bothered me about this whole situation. It lacked any logic. Why would Sofia have orchestrated this whole thing?

And now, this random girl turned up beaten and confused, claiming her name was Louisa.

It was all connected. The question of how remained.

When we got back to the house, I barely spared Dr. Freud a glance when I said, “Your ride home’s waiting. Send me the bill.”

I lifted Louisa by the hips and sat down with her on my lap as Dr. Freud hightailed it out of there. She turned out to be very useful, although I wished she’d been able to offer me a way to spare Lou from it all. She kept staring at me as if she’d seen a ghost.

“Tell me how I can help,” I murmured, brushing my nose against hers.

“I’m Louisa?” She was still shellshocked, her eyes twitching and her mouth turned down in a frown. “You’re not going to break my wrist?”

I clenched my jaw so hard my molars almost shattered. That bitch must have forced all Lou’s old habits out of her.

Inhaling a calming breath, I forced a smile on before I said, “No. Nobody will ever hurt you again.” Her forehead came to rest against mine, her breathing shallow. “Take your time. Breathe. Everything else will come.”

“How could I forget?” she whispered. “How could I forget you?” She swallowed hard. “Me? Us?”

I stayed silent for a moment, thinking of the best way to answer. Maybe I should have kept Dr. Freud on for a bit longer, but now that Lou was back, I didn’t want any witnesses to our reunion.

“It was probably a combination of Sofia’s torture and your mind’s coping mechanisms.”

“Am I crazy?” Her voice trembled.

“No, sunshine. You’re not crazy.” My grip around her waist tightened. “You’re a survivor. You’re the strongest woman I know. Hell, one of the strongest human beings period.”

“I feel like I’m losing it,” she whispered. “I don’t know what’s true and what isn’t. It’s insanity.”

“Then you ask me, and we’ll figure it out together.”

“Together,” she repeated softly, as if tasting the word on her lips.

“Yes, together.”

She shifted, her golden-brown eyes on me. “How did you survive?” She blinked several times. “I remember… the torture. Yours. Mine. I thought you died, and I wanted to die too.”

“Alexei saved me.” I took her chin between my fingers. “I thought you died. I touched you and…” Fuck, my voice cracked. “I passed out, and when I woke up, you were gone.”

“Sofia played us.”

My jaw clenched.

“She did.” She shuddered, goosebumps visible on her skin. I ran a hand down her arm, then wrapped her in a hug. “But she’ll never get to you again,” I vowed.

“You… We always wanted this, didn’t we?” Her voice was muffled against my neck. “The beach and the sun… just the two of us. True?”

I rubbed my hand over her back soothingly.

“True.”

“Did… did we… You were my first and I was yours?” A light blush crept up her cheek. Her fair skin always betrayed her, and those eyes… Fuck, I should have known. Lou’s eyes were always the windows to her soul.

This time, when a memory came, I welcomed it. I watched it happen and let myself remember it with everything I had. It was eight years ago, when we’d been able to sneak away after trying for so many months. She stood there in the abandoned hallway, under the blanket of darkness, her golden locks lighting my world.

Leaning against the stone wall, my arms folded over my chest and my breaths fogging the air, I watched as she danced across the floor, lost in her own little world. It terrified me that one day one of Ivan’s men would sneak up on her and hurt her, so I’d made it my mission to train her to be vigilant.

Lou was sometimes too focused on one thing, oblivious to her surroundings, but we’d been working on it. She was getting better each day.

The oil lamp flickered, throwing shadows over me, and she finally spotted me.

My chest stirred, the same way it did every time I saw her. The girl had me wrapped around her little finger.

“Happy birthday, sunshine.” Her smile lit up the dark and cold hallway. “Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

She ran the rest of the way, her dainty feet soundless against the marble floor. My pulse rocketed, achingly beating only for her. She single-handedly made my time here bearable. If it wasn’t for her, I would have attempted to run—and likely gotten killed—years ago.

I opened my arms and she fell into them, burying her face into my chest as I lifted her.

“How does it feel to be eighteen?”

She looked up, her smile somewhat sad. “The same. Except that now we’re legal adults, we should have the freedom to live our lives freely.”

I nodded, wishing I could take us far away from here, where she’d be protected from all the ugliness she was forced to witness. I worried about the toll it was taking on her soft heart. Her sister was the tougher one of the two.

“How does Liana feel about turning eighteen?”

She shrugged.

“Pretty much the same. She’s still mad Mother forbid her to go to MIT.” It was always a far-fetched dream. Sofia was far too controlling to allow her daughters out of her sight. “Anyhow, I kissed Lia, wishing her a happy birthday at midnight, then headed here.” Her voice was breathy and excited. She never hid her emotions around me, which was so damn refreshing. “You’re home to me, and even though we’re both here, it means something.”

“I want to give you a real home.”

“Soon,” she murmured.

“Soon,” I vowed.

Sliding her down my body, she hit the ground and brought her arms around my neck.

“Were you waiting for me?” she asked, her lips brushing against mine. She always tasted sweet. It’d become my favorite taste. Fuck chocolate. Fuck strawberries. Give me vanilla any time of day or night.

“Yes.” There was no sense in pretending that I wasn’t. If there was anything we learned living under this roof, it was that tomorrow might never come. “I have your birthday present.”

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a bracelet.

“You don’t need to make me gifts, Kingston. You’re all I need.” Her hand came down from my neck, her fingers trembling as she traced the bracelet with the pad of her thumb. “So many men you had to kill for me.”

Brushing my mouth against her forehead, I murmured, “I’d kill them all again for you, sunshine.”

She released a shuddering breath. “I need to protect you, Kingston.”

“Shhh.” I breathed hard, my fingers shaking as they stroked the side of her face. “I’ve got you. I’ll always have you.”

Something clogged in my chest, knowing how little I could offer her. Her life hung in the balance between her mother’s and Ivan’s threats, but I would always be here to protect her. Until we ran.

Lou was a sacrifice worth making.

“Kingston?”

“Yes?”

“I’m eighteen now, and I know you think I’m too young and immature⁠—”

I cupped her cheeks. “You’re not too immature,” I corrected her. “You’ve seen shit most men have never seen. You survived them too.”

“But I am young.” I nodded. “Even though I feel like we age a decade for each year that goes by in this prison.”

I chuckled softly. “So what does that make us?”

“Like… one hundred and eighty?” We laughed, but it wasn’t exactly a happy laugh.

“I love you, Kingston.” Her whisper echoed against the hallway. “Don’t make me wait anymore. We could die tomorrow. At least don’t let me die a virgin.”

My chest tightened. I wanted better for her.

“I’m too tainted for you.” The anguish in my voice was hard to miss.

Lifting her hands, she cupped my cheeks.

“No, Kingston. You’re perfect for me.” She’d brushed her lips against mine then, stealing my breath and my heart. “You deserve the world. And if we have to lie, steal, and cheat, we’ll get our happy ending. Because we fucking deserve it.”

The same unflinching determination I now recognized in the woman before me had danced across her face that night, and just the thought of it had my chest shattering from how much time we’d lost.

“Is it true we were each other’s firsts?” she repeated, yanking me back to the present.

“True.” Her shoulders tensed, and I suspected the reason. Lou had never been the sharing type. It was what I loved about her. “There hasn’t been anyone since, sunshine. I thought you were dead, but I couldn’t handle anyone else’s touch. I decided I’d wait for you in hopes that we’d at least get an afterlife together.” A choked sob sounded against me, and my heart cracked a fraction more. “Then I saw you again, thinking you were Liana. I hated you—her. You were so familiar yet not.”

“Me too. All of it,” she whispered her admission, so soft I could have missed it. “I didn’t understand why I never bothered with any men until we crossed paths.”

I smirked down at her, satisfaction filling me. I wouldn’t have held it against her if she’d been in a relationship—it had been over eight years after all—but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t please me.

“Maybe our hearts were smarter than our minds,” she mused.

“I think you’re right,” I agreed.