AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Uncle Vik? A nice guy?
“That hasn’t been my experience, so far.” Elena winced at the tinge of pain that followed when she spoke. She eyed the girl while thinking of a way to escape. She looked for socks, shoes, anything that could aid her in her escape, when another round of coughing had her hunched over.
Nope. She wasn’t getting out of here anytime soon. She couldn’t even get off the bed without wanting to cough her lungs out. Might as well make the best of it. Feeling miserable, she crawled back into the bed and sighed in defeat.
Cold water was placed at her lips and she opened her eyes.
“I’m Katya,” the girl introduced herself. “Take little sips. You’ve caught quite a cold.”
She didn’t “catch” anything; it was given to her. By her Uncle Vik. Elena swallowed the words. The girl didn’t seem to hate her like every other person she had encountered these past few days. She could use a friendly face right now.
“Thank you.” She sipped the water. A disgusting-smelling cough syrup was next.
“Uncle Vik is downstairs, entertaining our guests.” The girl pulled a face. “He’s entertaining one in particular; Annika. She’s a snooty piece of work, just like her big sister, and my uncle normally wouldn’t give her the time of day. But, they’re engaged, so he has to spend some time with her.”
A nasty ball of venom dropped into Elena’s stomach. Viking was engaged?
“Of course, Annika isn’t as horrible as her sister, Anastacia.” Katya drew out the name. “That one has been trying to get her claws into Kristoff forever. Who even calls their daughter that these days, anyway? Men are so dumb. They can’t see what’s right in front of them.”
The girl looked menacing and sounded possessive, reminding her of…well, herself. Elena decided she didn’t want to get on her bad side.
Katya fluffed up the pillows behind her. “Lay back. You’ll feel better soon. The syrup is supposed to help within twenty-four hours.”
“Thanks, that’s nice of you. It’s refreshing not be thought of as a backstabbing bitch,” Elena said.
“Oh, I never said I don’t think you’re a bitch. I just never bought the whole ‘church bells’ story.”
“Church bells?”
“An Etta James song,” Katya explained as if that was supposed to clarify it. “Though, I like Beyoncé’s version better.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Elena said carefully. She noticed the slur in her voice. The cough syrup must be working, making her drowsy.
Katya cocked a brow, looking surprised. “How can you not know? Everybody knows the story of how Viking saw you getting hitched to another man the day he was released from jail. And not to just any man, but his enemy. His heart turned into stone when he saw you leaving the church together. Ringing any church bells?” Katya winked.
Oh, God.
She didn’t know how to answer that. How to explain the darkest day of her life to this girl? Luckily, she didn’t have to because the drugs finally kicked in. All strength left her body, and she slumped back into the bed. Tired, she closed her eyes and drifted off into sweet oblivion.
CHAPTER 11
VIKING
Viking stared down at Elena. Her cheeks were flushed from fever. Sweat darkened her hair and plastered it to her skull. All in all, she looked pretty damn weak. And wasn’t that a pity? He was really looking forward to tearing her a new one.
He’d returned to Kristoff’s house an hour ago. After nearly being gunned down at the twins’ house, he didn’t have much choice. He’d gone for obscurity when taking his daughter there, considering no one would think of looking for her there. He’d been wrong. So, now he was going for tucking Vicky into Kristoff’s mansion, which was a fortress. Anyone crazy enough to launch an attack here would be overrun by dozens of Romanov soldiers. The entire block housed higher-ranking brigadiers and their crew. One word and the place would be swarming with a small army ready to defend this place, and effectively, Vicky.
Vicky, who was being targeted by the soon-to-be-dead Pedro Morelli. The shit stain he was going to torture before killing. Something was going on here he didn’t know of. Pedro had been the one to betray his brother. He’d single-handedly handed the keys to Lorenzo Morelli’s secret hideout to Viking himself. Viking knew greed and resentment when he saw it; the Morelli brothers held no love for each other, everyone knew that. Which was why it didn’t make sense that Pedro was gunning for his daughter.
And then there was Elena. She had some answering to do. And if he had to break her out of her fever to get answers, then that’s what he’d do.
“Leave us.”
Katya put down the washcloth and narrowed her eyes. “If I come back in and she’s hurt…”
“When have you ever seen me hurt a woman?” He’d gut a man who deserved it without any remorse, but never lift a hand to a woman. He was a bastard, but that piece of code had been ingrained into him from his dad.
She looked at the bed. “I’ve never seen you look this angry at one, either.”
