Page 19 of Plus-Sized Bratva Prisoner

“Yes, Tia. Other spies who get caught gathering information.”

“I’m not a spy,” she says, angry and heated. “You know I’m not a spy.”

“Do I? And even if I wanted to make that assumption, would my brothers be willing to believe you and take that risk?”

I stare down at her, wanting to kiss her again.

“Yefim, please don’t do this.” Tears stream over her soft, rosy cheeks. “How will marrying me solve anything? Please. Just let me go.”

“If you marry me, I can convince my brothers that you knew about this all along. I can convince them that we have been dating, and that you’ve been working late to help me organize the shipment schedules for the underside of this company. They will accept you as one of us and no longer view you as a threat.”

She just glares at me, not saying a word. She’s obviously trying to process my logic.

“Do you want to live, Tia?” I ask darkly.

“Yefim, that’s a stupid question,” she snaps, full of fear and agitation. “I want to live, but what you’re saying—it’s so extreme. Surely, there must be something else, some other way—"

She’s feisty when she’s scared. I like it. It’s turning me on.

I’m sure there are other ways to get her out of the trouble she’s in, but I don’t care to explore them. I want to marry her.

I want her to be mine.

And this—this is the chance I need to make it happen.

Right now, I’m desperate to make sure she thinks this is theonlyoption.

I want her and Iwillhave her.

But also, I can see her closing off to me. She’s looking at me as though she actually hates me, as though she’s seen something in me that she can’t stand. This isn’t how she’s been looking at me over the past few weeks, since that first night I caught her working late.

I want her to look at me like that again. In awe. With curiosity. Her eyes tainted with lust.

But that look is gone from her eyes and has been replaced by distrust.

My reasoning isn’t getting through to her, and I’m losing her in some way.

I have to make my offer better, more appealing to her. Tailor-made based on everything I know about her.

What’s important to her?

What are her goals in life?

What does she want more than anything?

And this is why I find it so valuable to have my investigators look into people of interest to me. Because now I am able to negotiate with a stronger pull.

This is too easy, really.

I could go right in with the offer to pay her debts off for her, to take them over perhaps, so she’s still tied to me. But I know she won’t go for that. She’s too independent. And right now she doesn’t trust me. She would see it as simply moving her debts from one criminal to the next. No, that won’t work.

But I can give her the opportunity to pay her own debts off, keeping her independence, which I know she values. And being in a position where someone doesn’t own her by owning her debts.

Of course, I will own her as soon as she marries me, but we’ll leave that out of the conversation for now.

I shake my head, standing over her, hoping to create a sense of fear in her. An urgency she can’t ignore.

“Tia, beautifulinnocentgirl, you don’t know my world. You don’t understand the risk of seeing what you saw tonight. Trust me when I say this is the only way out. But…"

---