Deadly Oath

30. Sabrina

30

SAbrINA

“ T he truth?” I squeak, my heart jolting into my throat. I take a step back, feeling myself start to tremble, panic clawing at me with sharp, biting fingers. “Kian, what are you talking about? What is this—why are you?—”

He starts to speak, seems to think better of it, and then steps forward, his hand closing around my arm. “We’ll talk upstairs. I’ll show you to your accommodations first. You might as well see where you’ll be staying, until I’m done with you.”

“Until you’re—Kian, stop!” I nearly scream it, trying to jerk out of his grip, my chest tightening with fear until I feel like I can’t breathe. I still can’t get past his voice, his accent, how I’ve heard him speak to me day after day, and he never sounded like this. “Kian?—”

“The harder you fight me, princess, the harder you’re going to make this.”

“Don’t call me that!” I snap, rearing back again, and Kian chuckles darkly. As much as I never liked that nickname, the last thing I want is to hear him use it now, like this.

“There’s that fire I recognize. Would you rather I call you lass? Or bitch? There’s a good one. I can throw you over my shoulder and carry you upstairs, or you can come along like a good girl. You’ve never had any problem being a good girl for me before, have you?” He raises an eyebrow with a sneer, and shame washes over me, my face burning red at the memory of every degrading thing I ever did with him, for him, because I thought we were doing it together.

Now, it’s all reframed in an instant, and I don’t even know why.

“Tell me what’s going on,” I plead, still digging in my heels, and Kian laughs.

“You beg so prettily, wife . But no. We’ll do this my way. Are you coming along easily, or do I have to do this the hard way?”

I set my lips in a thin, mulish line, anger now warring with fear and confusion, and Kian shrugs.

“The hard way, then.”

He steps forward, and before I can dart away, scoops me up and throws me over his shoulder as if I weigh nothing, exactly as promised. I twist in his grasp, trying to get away, not even really caring if I end up falling and hitting the marble floor by doing so. But his muscled arm is locked tightly around me, and no amount of kicking at his stomach and pounding my fists against his back seems to make a difference.

He carries me to the twisting, black-banistered staircase, up it the whole way, seemingly completely careless of my efforts to get away. He doesn’t even say anything, staying silent all the way up to the third floor, where he walks down a dark wood-floored hall to a door at the very end, opens it with his free hand, and walks inside before locking it behind us and setting me down.

Before I can stop myself, I lunge forward, slapping him across the face with every bit of my strength. It connects, and the crack of my palm against his cheek is momentarily satisfying before the burn of it runs up my arm, and Kian smirks at me as he shakes it off. It’s clear that I hurt myself more than I hurt him.

“Feel better now, princess?”

I glare at him, and he returns it right back. “That wasn’t much in the way of a slap,” he adds. “I’ve had harder hits. You cleaned me up from some of them, not all that long ago.” That smirk is still on his lips, as if the memory amuses him somehow .

“And you let me.” My chest tightens, remembering that night. How I’d hated seeing him hurt. How I’d wanted to take care of him, a gesture of affection, even if we hadn’t spoken any words to that effect to each other yet. “Why would you do that, Kian? Why?—”

“I’ll tell you now that you’re here.” He shoves his hands into his pockets, pinning me with that dark glare that looks very much like hate—except I can’t imagine why. I can’t imagine what I’ve done to make this man hate me. Nothing makes sense any longer, and I have no idea how much of the last weeks have been a lie.

All of it, maybe.

“We’ll start with the easiest part—I’m not Kian Brady. My last name is McNeill.” He says it flatly, and I wince, the revelation that this simplest part of him was a lie, feeling like a slap in my own face. I have no idea how many more hits I’m going to be expected to take.

“Even your name was a lie?” I whisper, and Kian snorts.

“As if you have any right to judge that, Sabrina Miller .”

“That wasn’t my choice!” My voice rises instantly, that anger sparking again. “I was taken away from my home. I was forced to hide in Rivershade, to change my name, to leave everything behind. I didn’t change it and lie for some—some—” I break off, because I still don’t understand what’s happening. What Kian’s purpose in all of this is, why he’s done this.

“Oh, I know perfectly well what happened to you, princess. I know why you had a different last name, why you were in Rivershade, and what you were running from. I’ve known it all along.” He looks far too pleased with himself, and for a moment, I’m itching to try to slap him again. But I don’t, because I doubt the second attempt will have any better effect, and I don’t want to risk him tying me up. The last thing I want is to be restrained while all of this is happening.

“You knew?” I bite my lip, fighting through the tangle of emotions welling up in me. There are too many to sort through, it feels like—anger and betrayal and hurt, confusion and fear and…I don’t even know how to put a name to all of them. I’m furious at being lied to and terrified of what happens next, unsure of what’s going on… on top of all of that, I can feel my heart breaking, because my feelings for Kian were real. Are real—they can’t be destroyed that quickly, no matter how complete his betrayal is. “I don’t understand. Is this about my father? Are you working for the Kariyev family?”

Kian snorts. “Fuck no. Like bloody hell would I ever do a goddamned thing for them.”

He curses differently, too. Nothing about him is the man I knew. And yet?—

There’s something off about this, too. I can see a hesitation in him every time he speaks. Something behind the anger as he looks at me, something almost like uncertainty. I tell myself to look for the reason for that, to try to exploit it. It might be my only way out of this.

“Just tell me what’s going on. Please.” I don’t care if I sound like I’m begging. I need to understand. “Did I meet you before that day you showed up on my front step? Did I forget? What did I do to you—I don’t understand why you’re so angry at me.”

His face hardens, and whatever uncertainty or hesitation I thought I saw vanishes. “It’s not about what you did to me,” he growls, his jaw tightening until I see lines form at the edge of his face. “It’s what you did to my family.”

“Your—family? I don’t know—” I search my memory, trying to think of the name McNeill , if it means anything to me. If I encountered Kian, or any other member of his family at one of the galas or events I’ve been to over the years. But I don’t recall it. If his family moved in similar circles, they didn’t do so in Chicago, and I never attended any event like that in New York.

“Of course you wouldn’t.” Kian shrugs. “The McNeills are the most powerful Irish mafia family in New York—all the way down to Boston, actually—but I don’t think my father did much business in Chicago. Definitely not with the Petrov family. I certainly haven’t, since taking over after his death.”

“Since—” I blink, as several things click all at once for me. The expensive engagement ring. Kian handing me his credit card for the wedding dress. The flight to New York. The driver and this extravagant house—both of which, I realize, must be his. The job as a sheriff, playing house with me, the preference for diner food over a nicer steakhouse—none of that was real. It was all meant to fool me. To make me trust him. Which, of course, I did.

Because I wanted someone to trust. I wanted something to make me happy. I wanted a choice in how my life would go after it was so drastically upended.

I feel like a fool. My face flushes, and I know Kian can see how he’s made me feel, that he might even be enjoying it. But I’m not sure I care. I’m too overwhelmed by what’s happening.

“I still don’t understand how I’m a part of this. Did my father insult you in some way?” Am I once again about to pay because some other family has a problem with my father? “Kian?—”

“I’m getting there,” he snaps, almost impatient, as if he’s the one being made to wait and not me. “You were supposed to be taken by the Kariyevs, Sabrina. Kidnapped as a lesson to your father. Sold to some billionaire or prince as a trophy. But instead, Karyiev’s youngest son, the bastard, found out. Playing double agent with the FBI. He got to you first, and got you to them. Got you away .”

I suck in a breath, feeling as if I’ve been punched in the chest. “You were part of the trafficking ring?” Somehow, this feels worse than any other revelation, any other betrayal. The idea that Kian wanted me sold, wanted that horrible fate to happen to me , that he had some hand in it—it feels like someone has twisted my heart out of my chest. “You’re going to—what? Finish the deal?”

Anger blazes, briefly, in Kian’s eyes. “Fuck no,” he spits. “I’d never do such a shite thing. Selling women ought to earn a man a special place in the lowest hell. No, Sabrina, the issue isn’t that I wanted you sold. It’s who was sold in your place.”

It takes me a moment to recover from my first assumption. I feel as if I have whiplash, the information ping-ponging back and forth until I don’t know what I think is going on. “Someone was sold in my place?”

“Obviously.” Kian looks at me as if I’m an idiot. “Dima Kariyev banked on your kidnapping going to plan. You fetched a very high price—the virgin daughter of a powerful pakhan . Plenty of men wanted to break you. From what I heard, he held an auction somewhere on the dark web for your virginity. Broke well over five million dollars. And when the FBI stepped in instead, he needed another girl to take your place. He couldn’t disappoint his client, after all—that would have had consequences for him. He needed a different mafia princess. Italian, Russian, Irish, that didn’t matter so much. What mattered was that she was from a powerful family, first and foremost. A virgin, next. Beautiful, of course. And the eldest daughter, preferably. One raised to think she was the jewel of the family. Plenty of men would pay the earth to put a woman like that on her knees.”

“Like you,” I spit, glaring at him, thinking of the nights that he did just that. Kian narrows his eyes, taking a threatening step towards me.

“Aye. I put you on your knees, princess. I took everything from you, and I savored it. I never came harder in my life than when I took your fucking virginity from you. When I punished you. When I tied you down and used you until I was spent. When I made you believe I wanted you as my wife and fucked you in every way you could be fucked, made you beg and plead for it like a whore.” He lunges for me before I can flinch away, his hand grabbing a fistful of my hair, wrenching my head back. “I took everything from you, the way that man who bought my sister took everything from her. It should have been you. If it had been you, she wouldn’t be the way she is now, broken and mute, locked away in her room because she can’t bear to see anyone. She hasn’t been the same since she came back. She hasn’t spoken since she came back. That should have been you !”

He snarls it at me, shaking me until my teeth chatter, and I burst into tears.

“Let go of me!” I shriek, trying to wrench away from his grasp, heedless of the pain his grip is causing. This time, he lets me go, his chest heaving as he stares me down. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” I cry out, wrapping my arms around myself as I stagger back towards the window, my hip bumping into the side of the desk next to it as I do. “I’m sorry for what happened to your sister, Kian. That shouldn’t happen to anyone . That’s horrible. Unthinkable. But I had nothing to do with it!”

“It should have been you,” he repeats. “They were after your family. Your father. Your family was tied up in this. If you hadn’t gotten away, Ailin would never?—”

“I was falling in love with you!”

The words rip from my mouth, anguished and raw, and Kian freezes. Both of us do, my heart beating hard in my throat as I realize what I just said. What I admitted. I hadn’t even been sure it was true—but at this moment, I am. I know I was falling for him. And that makes all of this that much harder to bear.

“I can’t believe you lied to me like this.” Tears are spilling from my eyes, rolling down my cheeks. My chest hurts, aching with a pain that I hadn’t known it was possible to feel. “My god, Kian, I’m pregnant with your child!”

He reels momentarily at that, shock clouding his face. But just as quickly, it clears, and he chuckles. “Good. I’d hoped it might turn out that way. I switched your birth control pills for placebos, princess. The same day you brought them home. Every pill you ever took was nothing but sugar. Meanwhile, I was filling you up with my cum as often as I pleased. I’m glad it took as quickly as it did. I doubt you’d be as easy to fuck here, now that you know the truth.”

My mouth drops open, and for a moment, I can’t speak, hit with the fresh betrayal. “You’ll never touch me again,” I promise, venom in my own voice, now. “What was your plan, Kian? What was the fucking point of all of this?”

“Exactly what I’ve gotten.” There’s that victorious look in his eyes again, and now I know exactly what it means. “I made you want me. Made you fall for me. Took your virginity. I made you my wife. I made you pregnant, and when you have that baby, I’ll take that from you. I’ll have my revenge and an heir, and as for you—” He shrugs. “You can go back to your father, if you want. I doubt he’ll want anything to do with you, worthless as you are.”

“You can’t do that.” My eyes widen with horror, and I press my hand against my stomach protectively. Fear and anger tangle up with all the unanswered questions, and I close my eyes, trying to clear my head. “Why did you save me, then? From the men who kidnapped me? Why not let them chop me up and send pieces of me to my father? Wouldn’t that be revenge?”

“Not my revenge.” Kian’s gaze darkens. “You’re mine , Sabrina. Mine to take, mine to marry, mine to fuck, mine to punish. Mine to take my revenge on. And they tried to take you away from me. They tried to take that away from me, and I couldn’t allow that. No one, especially not a half-assed mafia of bloody backwoods drug dealers, was going to cheat me out of my revenge.”

“How did you—” I swallow hard. “The position in town. The sheriff’s job. How did you?—”

“Connections.” Kian shrugs. “I talked to some contacts I had. They came up and had a long talk with Sheriff Wayne. Suggested to him that he retire, and while he was at it, that he sign the papers for the new guy who intended to take over. Handed him a hefty paycheck along with it, to stay quiet, along with a few promises of what would happen if he didn’t. It was terrifyingly simple. For you, that is,” he adds.

I sink back against the windowsill, pressing one hand to my mouth. I’d thought I was safe, and the whole time, Kian had been hunting me. Making inroads to catch me. He’d played a long game, and I’d fallen right into his trap.

His little rabbit.

“Why not bring me here right away?” I whisper. “Why spend all that time?—”

“Oh, Sabrina.” Kian clicks his tongue. “I didn’t want to just kidnap you and lock you up here, force you, and make you miserable. There was no pleasure in that. I wanted to make you fall for me. I wanted to give you everything you thought you wanted, so I could rip it all away from you. And I’ve done exactly that.”

A fresh wave of grief rolls through me, and tears run faster down my face. “I don’t know why you think this is right,” I whisper, my voice broken. “I had nothing to do with what happened. They came after me . I didn’t ask for it. My father didn’t ask for it. And I lost everything ! My family, my home, and now—” My voice breaks entirely, but Kian just glares at me, his jaw tightening .

“My sister lost everything ,” he hisses. “And as for your father, you have no idea what you’re talking about. Your family is at fault for this. I can’t go against your father, not without starting a war I’m not equipped to win. But I can punish you. And now you’re worth nothing to him.”

“He’d start a war if he knew what you’ve done!” I fire back, and Kian snorts.

“You mean nothing to him,” he says flatly. “And you never did.”