Page 104 of Twisted Cage

I can’t afford to let my guard down in this world. To show weakness.

But when he touches me, when he’s brutal with me, I know I can enjoy the way he wields vicious control because to its core, it’s in direct response to the power I have over him.

“It’s not important.” The words come across as calm, dismissive… resolute, and I know there will be hell to pay when the truth comes to light.

One battle at a time.

It’s what I’ve done to Konstantin’s heart that has doubt looming like a bad omen inside me. It’s the realization I’ve fundamentally changed how he feels about me that left me lying awake with a cold, hard ball of dread lodged in my chest.

This is not the mother and father I envisioned for our little girl. I won’t let her suffer, trapped on a battlefield between us. She won’t be the object of a tug-of-war in some hollow fight, fueled by wounded pride and a sick need for revenge.

“Did you know about this?” The rumbling in Nikolaj’s question has my head snapping up to find him and Konstantin in a hostile stare-off that has my heart jumping into my throat.

Konstantin pins me with a hard stare and tilts his head like he’s debating just whether or not to throw me under the bus, knowing I’ll drag him right under the tires with me if he does. “Just found out myself. Your little sister just seems to be full of surprises.”

“You guys have been in this house for two days. How is that possible?”

“Ask the actress. While you guys discuss it,” Konstantin says, grabbing his keys, “I’ll look into that Emmy for performance of the year.” He’s out the door before anyone can say a word, his parting words only adding fuel to the fire.

The bastard.

Nikolaj winces and scratches his fingers through his hair. “You pissed him off good.”

“He’ll get over it.” I wish I believed the words, but more and more I have to wonder. It’s the shadows in his eyes, like something died. Something I can never get back.

“Letti, the father needs to take res?—”

“Nikolaj… stop.” Taking a seat on the couch, I pat the cushion next to me and as discreetly as possible open my dress just wide enough to bring Lexi to my breast. “It’s my business. My problem.” I peer down at her and watch the rapt fascination on her face as she barely nurses because she can’t stop trying to turn her head and stare at her uncle.

He turns to me, but quickly glances away with a pained expression on his face, his mouth pinched with tension. “So it is a problem?”

“Bad choice of words.”

“This changes things, Lettie.”

“Nothing’s changed. She needs the best protection I can get for her.” I glance around at the men in the room and desperately wish they were it. Because they’re a family of sorts. Powerful, but almost playful in a way at times. Especially Dimitri if last night was any indication. She might be half in love with him already.

Lexi would love growing up wrapping these big men around her little finger. It wouldn’t be the cold, strained life we had at my father’s estate with his ice queen of a wife and our menacing, twisted brother.

Every man here works for my brother, and by extension Konstantin, but something about them is more. Like an underlying current of friendship. A brotherhood.

The best kind of family, because blood and marriage don’t obligate them to stay. Ultimately, they’re here because there’s nowhere else they’d rather be.

“We slow the process down, then. Once Konstantin fills me in on all the details from last night, I’ll dig deeper into your options. She’s not just going off with anyone.” He reaches out and brushes a tattooed finger over her hair, the gentle smile on his mouth turning serious. His eyes narrow, his dark brows dropping low over his eyes. “He has to be a father to her… as good as he would be to his own. She won’t live with some cold fucker hell-bent on payback. She won’t have a stepparent like Elena.”

“No. She won’t.” Lexi detaches again and stares at Nikolaj. I sigh, my breasts getting harder by the second as they grow painfully full. My thoughts go to Konstantin for the briefest moment and my skin blazes hot.

Nothing felt the way he did when he?—

“You okay?” Nikolaj asks, his inquisitive gaze zeroing in on my face.

“Yup, good.” I force the image of Konstantin drinking from my breast out of my mind. As a matter of fact, I’m going to pump after this and march those bags of breastmilk to the freezer just to see his reaction when he finds out my breast pump got more action than him today.

I choke back a laugh, picturing the righteous indignation on his beautiful face. “Okay, Uncle Nik, you ready to hold your niece?”

He nervously glances everywhere but at her. “What? Now?”

Leave it to a tiny little girl to terrify a mafia badass to his toes. “Sure, why not?” He thinks this is bad, wait until she needs one of her uncles to do a tampon run.

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