Chapter 2 - The Kneeling King
Evelyn took two steps backward, keeping the kitchen counter firmly between them. The shock of his arrival did not erase the memory of his cold, imperious dismissal an hour earlier.
"Stay away from me, Darius," she warned, her voice trembling despite her iron effort to hold it steady.
Darius didn't advance. Instead, his knees buckled as though the bone had turned to dust, dropping him hard against the blood-stained hardwood.
He stayed on his knees, his hands trembling at his sides, staring up at her as if she were a ghost that might vanish if he blinked.
"I saw the video," Darius choked out, tears mixing freely with the rainwater running down his hollow cheeks. "I saw the entire diner. I heard what you said to Romano."
Evelyn watched him, her chest aching with a pain worse than any physical wound. "You gave me twenty minutes, Darius. You took my keys. You called me a traitor."
"I was blind," he said, the words scraping out of his throat like broken glass. "I let a demon whisper poison into my ear because I was too weak to admit my uncle could rot from the inside."
"He sent them to butcher me," she said, gesturing toward Pauly, who groaned softly on the floor. "And you handed him the butcher's knife."
"Shoot me," Darius whispered, reaching inside his jacket and pulling out his own semi-automatic sidearm. He flipped it in his palm and slid it across the wet floorboards until the grip bumped gently against her shoe.
"Darius, what are you doing?" Victor rasped from the doorway, trying to stand before his strength failed again.
"Take it, Evelyn," Darius begged, his voice cracking into raw sobs. "Put a hole through my chest. I deserve it. But let me get you and Victor out of this city first."
Evelyn stared at the heavy black weapon by her foot. Three years of marriage flashed before her eyes—every quiet dinner, every time he had wrapped his arms around her when nightmares woke her, and every single wall he had built to keep her outside his kingdom.
She did not touch the gun. Instead, she knelt beside Victor, ripping open her silk robe to expose the clean cotton undershirt beneath.
With two practiced motions, she tore the fabric into long strips. "Hold this against your subclavian pressure point, Victor. If you pass out, you drown in your own blood."
Darius watched her save his man's life with steady, methodical fingers, while he remained unworthy of even her hatred.
"He called my private phone five minutes ago," Darius said quietly, picking up his gun and tucking it into his belt. "Albert thinks Pauly finished you. He called a full council meeting at the Hudson Yards terminal for 2:00 AM."
Evelyn didn't look up from packing Victor's wound. "Why Hudson Yards?"
"Because that's where the Romano family controls the freight rail lines," Darius replied, his jaw hardening into granite. "Albert isn't just killing me. He's handing our entire empire over to Lorenzo tonight."
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"Then let him have it," Evelyn said, tying off the bandage with a sharp knot. "Walk away, Darius. Let the wolves eat each other."
Darius looked at her, his eyes hollowed out by grief. "If I walk away, they will hunt you to the ends of the earth to keep their secret buried. The only way you ever wake up safe again is if Albert dies tonight."
