King of Me (The King Trilogy #3)(10)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

“If it were me,” Mack said, “I would try thinking of someplace I’d never been before. Somewhere far away from this.”

I had to admit, the idea of escaping for good sounded very tempting. “You really think it works?”

He nodded. “Yes. For f**k’s sake, run, Mia.”

I held the bracelet in my hands, thinking. I needed to get Justin back. No, I absolutely didn’t believe a word anyone said about him. I knew my brother. They didn’t. But more importantly, I needed to end my parents’ suffering. “I can’t.”

He sighed and shook his head. “Stubborn, stubborn, Mia. Maybe you haven’t changed.”

I cocked my head. “Trust me, I have. Which is why I’m not trusting you.” I held out the bracelet.

“No. You keep it. In case you change your mind.” He turned to leave, and I watched his shoulders sag a bit as his strong frame strode away. I had to admit, a tiny part of me wanted to believe he cared, but he’d shown me differently.

Then why the hell is your stomach knotting up? The nausea was threatening to make me hurl.

“Where are you going?” I yelled out.

“Back to hell,” Mack replied. “See you there.”

He shot a smile over his shoulder, and in that very moment, an image flashed inside my head. It was of King standing over a body, a bloody sword in one hand and the head of his twin brother dangling from the other. It was the image I’d seen in my mind when King had made me read a translated copy of Hagne’s journal. She had been his queen, but hated King with every fiber of her being. She loved his twin brother, Callias, though, and it destroyed them all. I suspected it was the cause of the Minoan civilization’s downfall. No, I hadn’t had time to do any heavy research, but archeologists said they mysteriously disappeared between 1500 and 1200 BC. Some say it was an earthquake, some say it might have been a volcanic eruption or foreign invasion, but I thought it was war. A civil war sparked by King’s executions of his own traitorous brother and of Hagne.

I shoved the bracelet into my jeans pocket, planted myself down in the sand, and let my mind cull through the random bits and pieces it had gathered up over the past few months. So many questions, so few answers. And lucky mio had another one to add to the heap: Is this another trap?

“What do you think?” I heard King say.

My head whipped around, but I saw no one.

“Over here, Mia.” The sound radiated from the deep blue waves. Like a mirage, King emerged from the water, completely nude.

My jaw dropped.

I hadn’t really seen King na**d since he’d lost his tattoos (compliments of Vaughn when King was his dungeon guest). One tattoo, in particular, was of a sundial that gave him a few hours each day to walk among the living with little effort. The other tattoo had been an elaborate Egyptian-looking collar that circled the base of his neck all the way down to his pectorals. I never did learn what it had been for, but now that his body was free of any ink, I more clearly saw every exquisite inch of the man.

Yes, I wanted to look away and be bigger than my physical feelings for him.

Yes, sometimes I failed. Miserably.

Like now.

I so don’t get it.

Unable to pull my eyes away from the chiseled perfection of every muscle and his deep olive skin glistening with drops of water, I simply stared. His long thick c**k hung low between his thighs as he ran his hands through his wet black hair.

He strolled up and stood before me, his penis dangling freely in front of my face. “Like what you see, Miss Turner?”

My eyes snapped up to meet his. Yes, I liked what I saw, but so what? Didn’t mean anything. Of course, the bastard could read my mind.

“Mia,” I corrected.

He dipped his head and sat beside me, stretching his long legs into the warm white sand.

“What did the infamous Mack have to say?” he inquired.

“Don’t pretend you didn’t hear.”

“I did not. Otherwise, why would I ask? I’m not the sort of man to waste my time with games, Mia.”

Yeah right. King was the master of games.

“Of course not,” I said sarcastically. “That’s why you threw me in that cell with Vaughn.”

“Ah. Well.” He scratched his chin. “I admit, I may have gotten carried away.”

“You’ve turned me into a murderer.”

“Perhaps, Miss Turner, I simply wanted to grant you the opportunity to confront your brother’s killer.”

“Confront,” I repeated his word. “Is that why you slid a knife under the door?”

“No, but that was one hell of a confrontation.”

He thought this was amusing. Evil bastard. I didn’t feel regret over what I’d done, but it wasn’t entertainment material.

“No, not entertaining,” ” he replied to my thoughts and spoke in a deep, slow voice. “Stimulating, however…”

I turned my body and scowled at him. “Why would you do something like that, King?”

“I’ve already answered your question; you simply don’t care for the answer.”

“Because you’re lying.” King always had a motive for everything he did, and they were never frivolous.

“Don’t we all?”

“All what?” Sometimes I wasn’t sure if he referred to something I said or to something I thought.

“Do we not all have our motives? You, for instance; what motivated you to end Vaughn when you know perfectly well, Miss Turner, I wouldn’t have let him live?”

“I don’t know.”

“Ah, but you do. You merely don’t wish to say it.”

“I saw what he intended to do to my mom,” I blurted out.

“Saw?”

“Like I was right there with him,” I explained.

“Perhaps you were.”

“That’s not possible,” I argued.

He shrugged. “You are a Seer. A very powerful one who’s just beginning to comprehend her abilities.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m merely stating that Seers have unusual gifts which develop over time. Who knows what you are capable of?”

“Seers had,” I corrected. “You killed them all. Remember?”

And thank you for that, because now I’ll never know squat.

“We all have our pasts, Miss Turner. Even you.”

I looked at him and scowled, knowing he referred to my incident with Vaughn.

Thanks to you.