Page 32 of Stolen By the Bratva King

She adjusts her weight. “How do you make it? It looks so real.”

I give her a smug smile. “Yes, that’s the whole point.”

“So, these will be used out there, like in the real world?”

I put the bill back after brushing it clean. “Something like that.” I begin telling her a bit about the process of making watermarks, using glue and bleach to make it look authentic to a genuine printing, then I let her inspect the printer itself.

I watch her slender fingers typing out notes on her phone. I take a deep breath as her full lips pucker in concentration, as her tongue slides over her top teeth.

I knead my fingers into the back of my neck and blurt out, “I need to go get some air.”

Her head shoots up and she looks at me through wide, gorgeous eyes. “Is something wrong?”

I shake my head. “No.”

“Should I come with you?” She sounds hesitant.

“You can stay here and look at the equipment. There’s no way in or out other than the way we came. You’ll be safe in here.”

She holds out her phone. “Do you want to take this?”

I shake my head and give her a firm glance. “Like I said before. I will trust you until you give me a reason not to.”

She almost smiles at that statement, nodding her head.

“I’ll be right back,” I mutter and begin dragging my feet toward the door.

Once I’m outside I lean against the door and light a cigar, inhaling the sweet smoke into my mouth before releasing it in a satisfied puff up toward the sky. I instantly start to relax.

Being around Hazel after claiming her is proving harder than I thought. I need to get myself under control, but I don’t know how much longer I can keep my hands off her.

The mixed signals are killing me. I know on some level she must feel that burning, intense attraction too.

I see it in her eyes when she looks at me. She’s holding herself back. I need to find a way to break her walls, but at the same time, getting involved with her is like putting my hand in a fire and watching it torch.

I take another drag of the cigar when I hear a car engine rumbling closer. I straighten when I hear car doors slamming and muffled voices coming from around the corner of the building.

My heart is in my throat as I start walking in that direction, craning my neck to glance around the side.

Oleg and a few men I don’t recognize are standing around a G-Wagon SUV. The liftgate is up and they are huddled behind it, unloading things out of it and moving around like hornets swarming a nest.

The air in my lungs freezes when I realize they’re wielding machine guns. One of them spots me and whistles to alert the others. I’m temporarily immobilized by fear and shock. There’s no way I can take these guys by myself.

Instead of shooting at them, I turn around and bolt back to the warehouse doors, Hazel’s safety is the only thing I care about right now.

I storm inside the building, my pulse hammering in my ears. “We have to go,now.”

Hazel spins around, alarm spreading across her face. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong is that we’re no longer alone here,” I explain in a rush of movement. “Come on. Every second is going to count if we want to get out of here alive.”

I grab her arm and yank her forward, sprinting toward the exit. I’m calculating the time in my head that it will take us to leave this building and make it back to my car without being ambushed.

“David, what’s going on?” Hazel is moving fast to keep up and her voice is shaking with fear. My hand cuffs around her wrist, encouraging her forward with hard tugs that I hope she knows I would only use in a life-or-death situation. “Are we going to die?”

“Not if I have anything to do with it,” I growl through clenched teeth, bolting through the door as we’re swarmed.

Bullets fly. I shove Hazel in front of me and pin my body to hers, my back as a shield in case any of those bullet’s fire in her direction.

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