Page 22 of Pregnant Bratva Prisoner

“You know my name?” she hisses.

“I’ve known your name for a long time now. I know who you are.”

“How? I never once mentioned my name. How do you know who I am?”

“Little rabbit, I am a powerful man. If I want to know things, it’s easy for me to find out. I had to look into who you are and why those men took you. I had to do it to keep you safe.”

“Rubbish!” she shouts, losing her composure. She stands up, pushing her chair back.

“Wait.” I stand too. “Please, just talk to me.”

“About what? How you stalked me behind my back? How you pretended not to know my name the entire time? How you have kept me prisoner, telling me it was to help me heal and get strong—yet now that I am strong you tell me that you can’t let me go?”

“Please, sit.” I reach towards her, gently touching her arm. Electricity charges between us, filling the air with even more tension.

“Jennifer. Sit.” My voice becomes deep, demanding, and unquestionable.

She glares at me but lowers herself back into her chair. I take my seat again and run my fingers through my hair.

“I can’t let you go. It isn’t safe out there for you.”

“Why not?”

“I want you to stay with me. I want to take care of you.”

Chapter 7 - Jennifer

I stand with my palms pressing into the table, anger and defiance painted across my features. I want to leave. I want to go home. He cannot keep me here anymore. I have a life, a job, things I want to do. I cannot spend another day as a prisoner here.

“Jennifer. Sit.” His voice booms loudly through the greenhouse and sends a current running deep in my veins. I have never heard him speak like this. It frightens me.

I ease myself back into the chair. My body is shaking ever so slightly, but I do not want him to see that.

He sits down and I can see he is frustrated. Why does he have a right to keep me here? I don’t care if he is frustrated. I am the one being held against my will.

“I can’t let you go. It isn’t safe out there for you.”

“Why not?” I snap back.

“I want you to stay with me. I want to take care of you.”

Take care of me? But I am healthy. I am healed.

“I don’t need someone to take care of me anymore.”

I cannot believe he knew who I was this entire time. What does that mean? Does he know everything about me or just my name? A new fear begins to swim through my thoughts. Perhaps he knew all along because he is one of the men who took me.

In my entire time with him here, as his guest, I have not seen any of the cruelty that I experienced in the container. I close my eyes and fight tears that threaten when the memory springs to mind. I shove it forcefully aside. Now is not the time to dwell on those things.

He has not been cruel in any way. In fact, he has been the opposite. He has taken care of my every need. He has been gentle, caring, and attentive. Still, I am a prisoner.

I shake my head, trying to make sense of everything. The fact that he kept such a big secret does not sit well with me. He could have told me that he knew who I was ages ago. Why would that be something he hid?

When I look up at him, I see an expression in his eyes that takes me by surprise. Hope. Mixed with something else that I cannot put my finger on. Is it concern? I am not sure.

“Kiril, there is no reason for me to stay here any longer.”

His mouth pulls tight. “Do you have any idea how easy it was for me to find out who you were, where you live, where you work? It was effortless. Do you know what that means, Jennifer? It means that if I could find it out, then so could the men who took you—and they will be looking for you. They do not like to lose. If I let you go and they take you again, what will happen? Do you think you’ll have another chance of escaping? I don’t think you realize how lucky you were that we found you when we did. The life that they had planned for you—the things that would have happened to you—”

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