Page 13 of Wicked Knight

He claims to have found the two of them the same way we did. However, he has said repeatedly that he wished he had killed Tommy for whatever he did to Mackenzie.

The aftermath was even more horrendous because Aleksander Ivanov absolved Adrian due to lack of evidence.

Crimes amongst the Knights are not dealt with in a normal civilian court. We have our own laws and our own justice system.

To murder a Knight automatically results in the death sentence. Or if Aleksander needs to keep you alive, you go to the Hallows, the Knights’ prison which only he knows the location of.

We thought either of those options awaited Adrian, but the evidence was inconclusive. The coroner wasn’t able to give a solid answer on how long Tommy had been dead.

The time frame that was agreed on the autopsy excused Adrian by almost two hours. He was supposedly with his private investigator, trying to find Mackenzie.

My father doesn’t believe that. Neither do I.

I can’t imagine how we’re supposed to when guilt points toward him. And he had a reason.

Tommy kidnapped, assaulted, and did fuck knows what else to Mackenzie.

The truth is, I wanted to kill him, too, for what he did.

I’ve never spoken those words outside my head. But my father knows how I feel.

The details of the investigation were never shared with the public. Only the people who were involved in the investigation know.

We weren’t allowed to talk about our suspicions to anyone. As my father and Adrian are both senior Knights and judges on the council, defaming each other would garner more severe punishments.

Everyone wondered how my family and Mackenzie’s went from being friends to enemies overnight. But people did the math and figured out that it had something to do with Tommy’s death.

Despite the warnings, I would have told Kade and Logan years ago, but I’ve never spoken about what happened until I took over Mackenzie’s contract. The two secrets went hand in hand.

Kade, Logan, and I are as close as brothers, so I couldn’t tell them about the contract without telling them about the past.

Mackenzie leaps through the air, the movement slicing through my mind like a blade. I’m pulled back to the present once more and the situation I’ve landed us in.

To say it’s complicated is beyond understatement.

All I’m certain of is that I still want her. My father’s rules, warnings, and threats won’t stop that.

Neither will they stop me from thinking of ways to have her.

I own her for the next six months.

Thatsounds like music to my fucked-up mind.

Chapter Four

Mackenzie

“Hey, girl. How are you doing?” Isabelle’s usually vibrant voice is filled with concern for me.

I lower onto my bed and press the phone to my ear, gazing through my opened window at the twisted wrought iron railing of Dimitri's balcony.

The light was on in his bedroom the other night, and I wondered if he was home. I didn’t see much sign of life in his room the following day, so I cast the idea aside. Not that it would have changed anything if he were home. I couldn’t have exactly walked over to his house like I used to and spoken to him.

Pulling in a steady breath, I look away and think of how to answer Isabelle’s question—how am I doing? “I feel like the people in Pompeii moments before the volcano destroyed them.”

I know I sound extreme. To some, I might even sound clever given that history wasn't one of my best subjects. But Pompeii was the only disaster I can think of where the people affected were doomed to death without a hope in hell.

“Mackenzie,” Isabelle chides, and I can imagine her rolling her eyes at me.