Page 85 of Brutal Bratva King

Declan groans loudly, clutching at his neck. He staggers up to his feet.

“Fucking bitch, what the fuck?” he hisses.

One of his men comes out of the store, gripping Ruslana in his hands. Tears are streaming down her face. Panic in her eyes.

Declan steps forward and slaps me across the face. It stings my cheek, but I won’t show an ounce of weakness.

“Take them both,” he snaps to his men.

“Actually, step the fuck away from both of them.” Rodion’s voice sends a flood of relief through me, to the point where I am fighting tears.

I spin to see my brothers and his, all standing around the team of guys Declan brought with him.

Three of Declan’s men bolt immediately. Declan swears under his breath.

The guy holding Ruslana drops her and runs into the shop.

Declan is finally left alone. He lifts his hands in the air and Leon walks towards him.

Before he can get close enough, Declan makes a dart to the side and sprints away, into the mall.

“Should we go after him?” Oleg asks.

“No, we know where he lives. We don’t want to cause a scene in public like this.”

Rodion grabs me and drags me right up against him. “Are you hurt, is everything ok, did he do anything to you?” he stammers, running his hands over my body.

“Rodya, it’s ok, we’re both alright.” I lean into him, burying my face into his shirt and breathing in the scent of his body. All of my fear evaporates with him near me.

But the aftershock of what just happened starts to show when my entire body begins to shake.

He holds me tighter.

“You were amazing,” he whispers against my ear. “You did an incredible job. I’m so proud of you for fighting back.”

I take a deep breath and lean away from him.

“Ruslana?” I call out to her. Her brothers are standing around her, checking on her.

“I’m ok.” She nods, tears in her eyes. “Thank you so much.” She rushes over to me and hugs me tightly.

“Let’s get out of here before the cops arrive,” Leon sighs, looking down at the dead security guards.

“We’ll have to handle this privately,” Rodion says.

“I’ll call my guys. They’ll sort it out—and then we are going to plan together—to sort out the Volkov problem.”

We all walk out of the mall together and I have a sense that my family is now twice the size it used to be, and we are all going to be looking after each other from now on.

Rodion drives me home, his hand resting on my leg, he doesn’t want to let me go even for a second. I feel shaken but relieved that it turned out ok.

At home, Rodion and I curl up on the sofa together, wrapped in each other’s arms, we just snuggle up together and watch a show. Neither of us is really paying attention to the television, though because we both can’t keep our hands off each other.

Epilogue - Rodion

I arrive back at the warehouse, my brothers both looking as tired as I feel.

“That was a good day,” Rad says, climbing out of my car, stretching his arms back and flexing his back, shaking out some of the tension from a good day of work.

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