Empire of Sin (Empire #2) by Rina Kent

“I lied to you,” she murmurs, her voice barely audible.

I pull back but don’t let her go. “About what?”

“About who I am. Where I come from. My family. All of it.”

“You didn’t lie. You just hid it. I knew all along there was more to the birth of Jane’s identity.”

“It’s because…I’m…I’m…”

“The daughter of the New York Bratva’s Pakhan. I know.”

“And you still came?” She stares incredulously, some of her earlier fear slipping back into her eyes. “What is wrong with you?”

“You.” I breathe out the word, leaning my forehead against hers. “You are everything that’s wrong with me, beautiful. You took something of mine and I need it back.”

“Stop saying things like that…Knox…please, listen to me, you have to go. If Papa or any of the others see you—”

“I’m not scared of them.”

She pushes at my chest with her fists, but there’s no energy behind it, as if she doesn’t want to be doing it. “Any person in their right mind would be. They kill in the blink of an eye and without any remorse. You’ll just be another nameless person on their list.”

“I’m not in my right fucking mind, Anastasia. I told you just now, you took something of mine. My fucking sanity included.”

She clutches my hand, her grip clammy and still shaking, then guides me in from the balcony, her gaze watching every nook and cranny like a hawk.

“Where are you taking me, beautiful?”

“Shh.” She shakes her head at me, then leads me to some stairs that are hidden from the main staircase.

I’ve been in mafia leaders’ houses before when I was either investigating something or on a case. But the Russian Bratva’s compound, aka Sergei Sokolov’s mansion, is more like a billionaire’s home that you could easily get lost in.

That’s Anastasia’s real last name. Sokolov. I finally have a full profile of the mysterious girl with the bright eyes and soft smile.

She basically drags me up the stairs, down a hall, and then pushes me into a room. The moment she closes the door, she releases a breath, but she doesn’t relax her hold on my hand.

I throw a quick glance at the room and it doesn’t take me long to realize it’s hers.

There’s a giant desk on the corner with three monitors, but the rest of it is girly. The bedsheets have a butterfly motif and the creamy wallpaper has flowers on it.

She’s always been a conundrum of opposing things, but they still fit her character so well.

They still speak so much of her and who she is.

A soft woman with a secret wild side.

“So this is where you lived all this time.”

She gives me the stink eye. “That’s not what should be important right now.”

“Then what is?” I step to her and she visibly swallows. “I think it’s hot to see where you sleep every night in nothing but shorts. Maybe even naked?”

“S-stop it.” Her voice is breathy, but arousal coats it.

My hand reaches forward and I wrap it around her throat, squeezing the sides a little. She briefly closes her eyes, releasing a chopped exhale, and I tighten my hold. I need to feel her, to be able to breathe again, but the fact that she’s relieved as well? That when she opens her eyes, they’re filled with a wave of longing that’s as strong as mine? Those facts nearly make me go crazy.

And I have to grip her harder, to sink my fingers into her flesh and make sure she’s here.

She’s right here.

“Knox…I…”

“Shhh.” I place a finger to her mouth and push her back with my hold on her throat.

A yelp echoes in the air as she trips on the edge of the bed and falls on her back. I follow with her, my free hand gripping her hip.

She slams her hands on my chest. “D-don’t.”

“Don’t?”

“Don’t turn me onto my stomach. I want to look at you,” she whispers, her tone as vulnerable as the look on her face.

My fingers dig into her hips and I’m about to refuse that, I’m about to do as I’m used to, but something stops me.

The pleading in her eyes, the vulnerability in them.

Also, a part of me is fighting it, too. It’s the same part that couldn’t survive without her and has turned my life into a living hell since she’s been gone.

Her palms flatten on my chest and she softens her voice. “I know, Knox…I know about your past and why you find it hard to get close and I understand, I—”

“Stop talking.” The rage from earlier resurfaces again and this time, it’s for entirely different reasons.

The shadows swirl around my head in a thick fog with the need to hurt her.

To shut up the woman who shouldn’t have seen them in the first place.

But I clamp that need down, my fingers flexing so I don’t hurt her. “How the fuck do you know?”

“P-Papa…he can find out everything about anyone.”

“Fuck.” My fist clenches and I realize it’s on her throat. She’s wheezing, her face reddening from the lack of air, and I release her with a jerk and start to sit up, but she grabs my cheeks, pulling me back down.

I use my arms to keep from crushing her with my weight, but Anastasia doesn’t stop there, she doesn’t stop with her fingers stroking my face or when her tits are inches from my heaving chest.