Twisted Empire: Dark Dynasty Book 3 Read online

  “I know.” Elias smiled at me from across the table. He was as handsome as ever with his mesmerizing blue eyes, chiseled features and a hint of dark stubble on his jaw. “I wanted tonight to be perfect.”

  “Well, you succeeded,” I declared. “The food alone makes it better than any five star restaurant in this city.”

  “Glad to hear it. By the way, what were you saying earlier?” he asked. “Back at the house.”

  I frowned, confused by the sudden change of subject. “I’m not sure. When?”

  “When I was talking about how delectable you look in that dress.” He arched an eyebrow.

  I smiled, my cheeks warming. “Oh. I said you might have to get down on your knees and crawl under the table.”

  “And what did I say in response to that?”

  My smile grew wider. “You said you might just have to.”

  He returned my grin. “That’s right. And I still might just have to,” he repeated. “Minus the crawling part.”

  Before I could respond, Elias left his chair and knelt beside mine. My eyes widened. “What—”

  “Don’t say anything. Not yet,” he said. He reached into a pocket and pulled out a small black velvet box. When it opened, I was almost blinded by the enormous diamond inside.

  “Tatum, I want you to belong to me completely. I want to look at your hand, see this ring, and know you’re mine forever. My wife. So will you do me the honor of marrying me?”

  My hand flew to my mouth, and for a second I couldn’t breathe. “Oh my god,” I finally choked out, a tear sliding down my face. “Of course I will!”

  Elias slipped the ring on my finger and got to his feet, pulling me up with him. “I love you,” he murmured in my ear, wrapping his arms around me. His voice was husky with emotion.

  I would never get tired of hearing him tell me that. He could say it twenty times a day and I would still crave the sound of those words.

  “I love you too. So much,” I said, my voice muffled against his chest. “I’ll always be yours.”

  Two years ago, if someone had told me I’d eventually become engaged to my captor, I would’ve laughed in their face. I would’ve said there was no way. But Elias saved me. Brought me peace and security. I never thought I’d have any of that before I met him, but he’d freed me from all my old fears with his strength and devotion and given me everything I ever wanted or needed.

  As strange as it may sound, belonging to him set me free.

  21

  Elias

  Eighteen months later

  “Excuse me, everyone.” I tapped a fingernail against the side of my champagne glass as I reached the dais at the front of the hotel ballroom I’d booked out. Throngs of beautifully-dressed party guests stood around in suits and gowns, their heads turned to me.

  Over a hundred people were here to celebrate the recent release of Tatum and Pri’s book about their time with Crown and Dagger. They’d worked hard on it for a long time, and after an extensive pre-release tour organized by the publishing company, the book had been a wild success.

  “I’d just like to say a few words about my beautiful wife Tatum and her amazing friend Priyanka. Please join me up here, ladies,” I said, motioning to the center of the crowd.

  Tatum was there in a long silver dress, her eyes sparkling and skin glowing along with the luminescent fabric. Her friends were clustered around her. The sight of them standing there together in long gowns made a fond memory pop into the front of my mind—our wedding six months ago. Pri, Greer, Willa and Katie had been Tatum’s bridesmaids.

  We had the wedding in one of the gardens at Roden, which was Tatum’s favorite place in the world aside from our Victorian waterfront home. Even though my family had fallen from grace and lost massive amounts of their old money, the King name still carried quite a lot of weight, so a lot of people expected us to have some extravagant event at a private estate with hundreds of guests, world-famous musical performers, media coverage, fireworks, and peacocks roaming the grounds.

  Instead we’d opted for a small event. Close friends only. No media announcements. We’d already received enough attention from the world when we destroyed Crown and Dagger, causing one of the biggest scandals to hit the world this century, so we didn’t want our wedding to be a spectacle for strangers. We wanted it to be ours.

  The ceremony was short and sweet, and when we were finally husband and wife, we honeymooned for several weeks in Paris. I chose the location because it was the first place Tatum picked to be displayed outside the fake window when we were hiding in the Ark.

  She’d never had the opportunity to travel before, so while Paris might seem clichéd or passé to a lot of wealthy snobs who preferred more exclusive places, it was one of her dream destinations. I was happy to make that dream come true. Besides, fuck all the pretentious snobs. Paris was beautiful, and it was even more beautiful with Tatum in it.

  Upon our return, she’d graduated from her course at Roden, and then she’d thrown herself into finishing the book with Pri. I’d read it twice, in awe of the way both women were able to pour their feelings out onto the pages. I always knew how terrified Tatum was when she was in captivity, but when I read her book, I actually felt that fear.

  Fortunately, it was over now. She’d never be afraid again. I’d make sure of that for the rest of my days, just as we made sure the third-level members of Crown and Dagger went down in flames like they deserved.

  Tatum had made a good point about them in the end of her book, which I hoped they all read one day while they rotted in prison. She said they were the same as many other people on this planet—just a bunch of guys with superiority complexes who wanted to believe there was something more to the world than the true banality of it all. Some way for them to play God and rule over the rest for eternity. They had the wealth and means to at least pretend there was something deeper, pretend they were all-powerful gods, but in the end they were nothing more than a bunch of sociopathic criminal assholes sitting around drinking, gambling, fucking, and carrying out meaningless rituals whilst playing at being a shadow cabal. They added nothing to the world but pain and suffering. Now they were less than nothing themselves.

  Tatum also talked me up a lot in the book, raving about how she couldn’t possibly have survived her experience without me. I viewed things a little differently. The way I saw it, she saved me.

  Before I met her, I’d been destroying myself with black lies and hatred, detaching myself from the world and slowly turning to stone as my mind went to darker and darker places. I’d done many terrible things as a result of that darkness, but my beautiful Doll understood and forgave me for all of it. Even the things I thought were unforgivable.

  She brought me into the light. She made me realize I wasn’t a monster. I wasn’t born under some sort of grim cloud, destined to become an evil tyrant ruling over a dark empire like my father. I wasn’t a stone-cold killer.

  I’d killed in the past, sure, but only to protect her, because I knew she wouldn’t feel truly safe in this world until my father was dead and buried. As for Matthew Towne, that was yet another move I made in order to protect her, and he wound up surviving the severe stab wounds anyway, unbeknownst to us at the time. I would never try to kill another person for simple amusement, and like Tatum once said, that set me apart from the others. A monster would never wonder if he or she was a monster.

  I waited for Tatum and Pri to join me on the dais. Then I slung an arm around Tatum. Her eyes were wide and nervous.

  “I’d like everyone to raise their glasses in a toast,” I said. “I know you’re all here to support the book, so I thought I’d share what I just heard from the publisher. Around an hour ago, Prisoner sold its twenty millionth copy. That’s twenty million books sold in less than a week. How incredible is that?”

  Cheers and whoops echoed throughout the ballroom. Glasses lifted and clinked. I held up one hand. “Wait, there’s more. I have another special announcement to make. Tatum and Pri have dec
ided to donate ninety percent of the book royalties to a charity Willa van der Veer and I founded a while ago which aids the previous victims of the Lodge as well as many other victims of violence and trafficking. So because of your support, and the support of every other person who’s bought this book, a lot of people out there will receive the help they need. The help they deserve. I can’t even begin to tell you how grateful and proud I am to share this news with you. It’s all thanks to these two lovely ladies.” I nodded toward Tatum and Pri.

  Another cheer went up in the crowd. I raised my glass. “All right, I’ve bragged about my amazing wife and her awesome friend enough, haven’t I?” I said with a teasing grin. “So I’ll let you go. Eat, drink, be merry. You know the drill.”

  Tatum slipped a hand into mine and led me into a dark corner of the room. “I almost had a heart attack up there,” she said when we were standing still.

  “Sorry, I know you don’t like a lot of attention. I’m just so proud of you.”

  She shook her head. “It’s not that. It’s just… when you said you had a special announcement to make, I thought you might’ve found out before I had a chance to tell you myself.”

  “Found out what?”

  She bit her bottom lip. “I was going to wait till after the party to tell you,” she began. “But I’m… I’m pregnant.”

  My eyes widened. “You are?”

  “I know we weren’t trying and I’m on the pill, but I guess it’s just like your father once said: sometimes one slips through. Only this time it’s really happened. I’m actually pregnant now.”

  She looked slightly nervous to share the news with me, but there was no need for that. I couldn’t be happier.

  I picked her up and spun her around, a wide grin tugging my lips up. “I think you’ve just made me the happiest man alive, Doll.”

  “Wait, I’m not done!” she said, giggling softly and demanding I drop her.

  “There’s more?”

  “Yes. I’ve still been getting periods, which is why I had no idea I was pregnant until the doctor told me today. Apparently that can happen sometimes. But anyway, because it did and I had no idea what was going on for so long, I’m nearly sixteen weeks in already. Can you believe it?”

  “Holy shit. Does that mean…”

  She nodded. “Yes. It means they were able to tell me the sex.”

  I waited with bated breath as she paused dramatically.

  “It’s a boy,” she finally said, her face radiating warmth and pure joy. “We’re having a little boy.”

  My grin grew even wider. “So my perfect queen is giving me a perfect little prince.”

  She playfully slapped my arm. “I’m not royalty just because my last name is King now.”

  “You are to me, and you know it.”

  She giggled again, then smiled shyly. “I was thinking we could name him Henry.”

  “You read my mind.”

  The joy bloomed and spread in my chest until there was no room left for it to be empty. I leaned down and captured Tatum’s mouth in a fierce kiss. As she melted into my embrace, I closed my eyes, losing myself in her beauty and perfection.

  No matter where our lives took us, no matter what happened in the future, we belonged to each other. Our love was meant to be and so was this baby. We were a family now, and together, we would weather any storm that blew our way and continue to grow and flourish. Together, we would build our very own empire.

  Some people in this world had enough money to write and direct their own endings to be everything they ever dreamed of. I might not be one of those men anymore, not like I used to be, but I wouldn’t want it any other way.

  With Tatum, I already had my perfect ending.

  THE END

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  Also by Stella Hart

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