Page 39 of The Lazarov Bratva

The green-eyed monster nearly strangles me from the inside. Boys? She came here looking for boys, huh? Men to touch her, kiss her, woo her?

Fuck that.

That’s my job.

Grabbing Alena’s arm once more, I dig in my jacket pocket for my phone and dial my brother as I eye Katja.

That dark, teasing thought from the pit of my mind flares up once again.

“Aleksander will kill you for this,” I say, and Katja’s eyes widen further.

“But it was my idea,” Alena snaps.

“Doesn’t matter,” I snarl. “He won’t care. If he finds out about this, he will kill you, do you understand?”

Katja clutches her hands together, tears filling her big blue eyes as she nods.

“If you breathe a word of this to anyone, Aleksander will find out and kill you. If you tell anyone about my being here, I’ll tell Aleksander himself and he will kill you, do you understand?”

A flicker of confusion passes over her face, but fear is stronger and she nods rapidly.

“You were never here. Alena was never here. I was never here. Got it?” I lean close, and Katja remains frozen in place, nodding over and over.

Finally, the ringing ends and the voice of my brother, Ivan, fills my ear.

“Kristof, I just heard about Alena. Any news?”

“I’m handing it,” is all I say. “I need you to come to Gemini and pick up Katja.”

“The maid?”

“Yes. You need to take her home and sneak her back inside, understand? No one can know she was out.”

Katja’s tear-filled eyes glance at Alena and then back to me. Ivan agrees without question and hangs up.

“Go wait by the entrance. When Ivan turns up, you do exactly what he says.”

Katja doesn’t move.

“Go, now!” I snap, and she stumbles backward, then she turns and starts to shove through the crowd. Alena makes to follow her, but I tighten my grip and pull her back toward me.

“Not you,” I growl as we come face to face and she gasps. “I’m not finished with you yet.”

8

ALENA

I’ve never seen Kristof like this before.

He’s like an angry beast, seething at the seams and ready to rip apart the first person who looks at him wrong. I’m pretty sure it should scare me, but it doesn’t. If anything, it’s the most exhilarating thing I’ve witnessed.

Katja vanishes, and before I can fight it, Kristof drags me away from the heart of the club and storms like a bull toward some double doors at the back of the club. My arm throbs from the strength of his grip and anger licks at my thoughts. It can’t be over. I don’t want tonight to ever end, but especially not right now.

Alcohol, combined with Kristof’s strength, makes my attempts to free myself almost impossible, but that doesn’t stop me from struggling. Not until we reach a small, secluded room with black-and red- checkered walls. Black leather couches line the room, and I glimpse a sleek back table, but then the door slams behind me, and Kristof has all my attention.

Suddenly, he throws me backward, and I hit the wall with a thump. The impact shocks the air from my lungs, but there’s no time to breathe. He’s in my space, one arm above me on the door and his face so close that I can see all the speckles of color in his silver-gray eyes.

“How can you be so fucking stupid?” he snarls. “So reckless? Does your life mean nothing to you? What if someone had recognized you, huh? You’re so drunk, you’d have walked willingly into the arms of someone who could have taken you, hurt you.”

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