Page 167 of Sinful Lord

There’s no relief. My pumping heart aches. But I don’t stop to pay tribute. A sneer twists my lips as I look into the bedroom.

I already know what to expect, but it still hurts.

“Melina?” I call out. Stepping over Yasha’s body, I charge inside.

It’s empty.

Krol’s been here.

Fuck.

FUCK.

Despite my certainty, I still search every inch of the bedroom, desperation pushing me closer and closer to the brink.

“Who the hell is this?”

Gabriel is the first to arrive. He’s standing in the doorway, looking over Yasha’s body when I burst from the empty bathroom.

“The owner of this lake house,” I growl. “She must have shown him how to get in here…”

“Shown who?”

My fists shake with rage. My heart withers with dread.

“Krol.”

The name leaves my lips just as Roz shows up.

“Thank god,” she gasps, clearly relived that the body isn’t who she thought it was.

But when her eyes meet mine, she understands that worst is yet to come.

“This is his work, isn’t it?” she snarls.

“Fuck,” I roar. Without thinking, I turn and send my trembling fist through the drywall. My knuckles come out the other side. “I should have dealt with her when I had the chance. There must be some secret entrance. Some way in I didn’t know about. Krol found her, and she led him straight to—”

“Hey, hey, hey. It’s okay. It’s not her!”

When I look over my shoulder, I see Roz disappear down the hallway. Immediately, I know she’s trying to calm Rian down.

Her effort is only momentarily rewarded.

“Where is she then?” he bellows. Gabriel steps aside and the young king bursts into the bedroom.

Those wild blue eyes have lost all sense. He knows his sister isn’t here, and he wants answers. They’re answers I desperately want as well.

But they’re answers I don’t have.

“I’ll find out,” I promise. But the oath is more to myself than to him.

“You had my sister, and you fucking lost her?” Rian rages.

Even Rozalia is barely able to hold him back as I retreat into myself.

Where would Krol take Melina?

I need to figure it out. There’s no other option.