AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Scratch that. It was definitely too much.
Too full of dark history and shadowy half-truths. Rumors that seem like they could be fact, and “facts” too absurd to be anything but hearsay.
Orenisthe best at his job. But that job isn’t to filter shit. He grabbed literally everything there was to grab—hidden or otherwise—on Kir, William, and my own family, and sent the whole steaming, towering pile of it my way.
Freya was the first victim when that pile crashed down. So that’s why I’m here: to sort through the rubble and uncoverthe truth.
It’s not even about me anymore. Or Kir, or William fucking Lindqvist. I don’t give a shit about any of that now.
I’m here forher. Because I know Freya. And I know the pain and hurt I saw in her eyes the other day, when her spirit that I love so much broke right in front of me.
I need the truth because without it, I’ll lose her forever. And that isn’t an option.
I rap my knuckles on the black door with the gold filagree.
“Come in,” a deep, English baritone rumbles.
I twist the knob and step into a sumptuous, dim, elegant office. A tall man with dark hair is standing by a fireplace, wearing an impeccable three-piece charcoal gray suit and holding a drink in his hand. He turns to let his stormy blue eyes lock with mine.
“Mal,” Adrian murmurs quietly, shaking his head. He walks toward me as I shut the door behind me, shaking my hand with a firmness I can appreciate. “I knew one of these days our paths would cross. Please, have a seat. Drink?”
I shake my head and skip the pleasantries. “I need to know about Kir Nikolayev, William Lindqvist, and my family.”
Adrian raises an eyebrow, his scotch halfway to his lips as he smirks. “Is that all?”
“Dealer’s choice on the order in which I get that information, but yes. I need to know how my uncle knew them both, and how they knew each other.”
“Straight to business, I see.” He chuckles to himself, shaking his head. “So very like your uncle.”
He nods to the deep forest green couch behind me. I take a seat on it as Adrian sits across from me in a kingly looking chair, leaning back and studying me for a moment before he speaks again.
“Lars was a good man, Mal. I respected him. He was one of my best friends.” He shakes his head, sighing. “What happened to your family was truly monstrous. I’m sorry.”
“He used to tell me stories about the Kings and Villains,” I growl. “I know it was a school social group, but was it also Mafia affiliated?”
Adrian smiles quietly, shaking his head. “No, m’lad. It really was just a ragtag collection of men from all walks of life and both sides of the coin. The linchpin was Thomas Ashford. Then there was me, Noel Ransom, Braddock McCreed, Kristoff Zima, Oliver Prince, Maddox Rook, and of course, your Uncle Lars.”
“Just a club,” I mutter skeptically.
I recognize most of the names he just spouted. Oliver Prince might have become more of a recluse in recent years, but the man was…probably stillis…one of the wealthiest, most shrewd businessmen in the entire UK. So is Noel Ransom. Kristoff Zima rings a bell as the number two for the Tsavakov Bratva family. Braddock McCreed is a formerMP, for fuck’s sake. And of course Adrian—head of one of the most powerful crime families in the world.
These areseriouslyheavy hitters. And they were drinking buddies together in fucking college?
Adrian shrugs. “Just a club, I promise you. Were we there for each other, of course, when we could be. But that’s it. No illuminati grand scheme of world domination.”
“Why call yourselves the Kings and Villains?”
“Because in each of us,” Adrian growls, “in all men, there is both king and villain. It’s up to the man to decide which he’ll be.”
“It’snotalways up to the man,” I mutter through clenched teeth. “Sometimes the world chooses for you.”
“Then you choose again, for yourself,” Adrian fires back. “No one is stopping you. Your uncle would have agreed with me there. But you’re not really here to talk about my college drinking friends, are you?”
I take a measured breath and look at him carefully.
“How did my family run so afoul of William Lindqvist? My uncle did business with him, but only infrequently. When he did, though, it was fruitful to both.”
It’s one of the things I’ve never been able to wrap my head around. Lars and William weren’tfriendsor anything. But they did business together, and both profited from it. Until the day William’s men stormed onto our property and started shooting.
