Page 25 of Crowned

“Then you and I have a problem, don’t we, Lilia?”

I crack my knuckles. “I’m not finished with her. I’ll take her to the back of the plane and finish the job.”

Now that my craving for Lilia’s pussy has been satisfied for now, I should be able to keep my mind on the job. I cast my eyes down her body, wondering where I should start first. Lilia is stubborn so she’ll need some pain to motivate her. It would be a shame to ruin her beauty or scar that body of hers. A few broken fingers should do the job. I’ll just have to gag her and break them quickly so that Elyah doesn’t try and save his woman.

I take a step toward Lilia, but Kostya holds up a hand again and I stay where I am.

Kostya turns to Brazhensky. “I’m taking your daughter. You can have her back when I am once more in possession of sixteen pink diamonds.”

“And if she never tells you where they are?”

“Then you can have her back in sixteen pieces.”

Behind her chair, Elyah flinches.

“You can’t have her. My daughter is arranged to be married. Or she was, until—”

Lilia exclaims, “Dad, enough! There’s no way in hell I’m marrying one of your shitty friends again.”

Kostya looks thoughtfully from father to daughter. “I’ll marry Lilia.”

Lilia splutters in anger. “I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last—”

“For a dowry of fourteen million dollars.”

“The cost of the diamonds?” Brazhensky guesses.

“Of course.”

Brazhensky’s lip curls. He was hoping to make money or earn favors by marrying his daughter off, not be out of pocket a sizable chunk of money. “I’m not paying you to take my daughter off my hands. You’re going to pay in blood for hijacking my plane.”

Elyah pulls his gun from the back of his jeans and jabs it against the man’s head. “If you threaten myPakhanone more time, I will put bullet in your head.”

From the brutal expression in his eyes, nothing would make him happier than killing Lilia’s father.

Kostya spreads his hands and smiles. “I have no quarrel with you. When we land, you can be on your way, but I’m taking your daughter with me. Find some way to convince her to do what I’m asking of her, or you’ll never see her alive again.”

“Who are you to threaten me? I’ll have you all killed,” Brazhensky shouts at the top of his lungs, his face turning red and a vein throbbing in his temple.

Kostya flinches and presses his fingers to his temple. Sweat has broken out on his brow, a sure sign that he’s enduring one of his intense headaches. I grab a fistful of tissues and cram them into Brazhensky’s mouth and bind his wrists with a length of twine that I fish out of my pocket. Elyah hauls the man to his feet, and together, we drag him down the aisle of the plane and lock him in the other bathroom.

Lilia is watching Kostya. “Migraine?” she guesses.

“Yes,” he mutters, still rubbing his brow.

“It must be agony. I could help you with that.” Then she turns away and gazes out of the window.

Kostya casts her a baleful look and then gets to his feet. Walking to the front of the plane, he addresses the pilot. “Tell air traffic control you’re having engine trouble. Land at a small airport, as close to Paris as you can get.”

A few minutes later, we begin our descent. No one speaks in the jet until houses and roads below come into view.

“Where are we going now? Moscow?” Lilia asks. All this talk of chopping her into pieces doesn’t seem to concern her, or she’s hiding it well.

“Russia is no longer my home,milaya. I’m taking you to London where I’ll torture the location of the diamonds out of you myself. The longer you hold out on me, the less of you there will be for Elyah or one of your father’s men to marry. Keep it up long enough and you’ll be dead.”

She smiles at him. “So not telling you where the diamonds are will get me out of another marriage I don’t want. Wonderful.”

Kostya glares at her. “You are the most infuriating woman I have ever met.”

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