Page 31 of Brutal Bratva King

“Anya, are you ok?” I ask, but she doesn’t seem to hear me. “Anya!” I shout her name, grabbing her chin and forcing her eyes onto me.

“Are you ok?” I ask again.

She blinks, hesitating for a second and then nods. “Yes, I’m alright.” Reaching up, she unconsciously runs her hand over her arm and her fingers come back red, coated with blood. My heart sinks.

Her eyes go wide again.

Fear slams into me, and for a moment, I can’t breathe.

“Were you shot?” I stammer, pulling her sleeve up over her shoulder.

I breathe out a heavy sigh of relief. It’s a graze. But the thought of what might have happened if the bullet had been a few inches in a different direction suddenly floods me with rage.

I turn and run at the guy who fired the shot. I should never have let Frankie get away with his shitty behavior the first time—and now he almost murdered my wife.

Grabbing his collar, I rip him off the ground where his coworkers have pinned him down, trying to force him to cool off, and I slam my fist into his face. His nose cracks and he screams in pain.

I’m shouting, angry, demanding to know what the fuck he was thinking, firing guns inside my warehouse. I keep punching him in the face and he’s trying to fight back, but he doesn’t stand a chance against me. I’m too angry. He’s pushed me too far.

Behind me, I hear Anya’s voice, pleading for me to stop. It’s the only thing that I can hear over my anger.

“Rodion, stop, you’re going to kill him—please stop,” she cries out.

The other workers are trying to pull me off the guy, their hands tugging at my arms and their shouts of panic getting louder.

Slowly, my uncontrolled rage fades and I hear the voice of reason pulling me back into myself.

I drop him to the floor, and he lands hard on his knees, clutching his broken nose, choking on thick, wet rivers of his own blood.

He spits up a puddle of red and gasps for air.

“Get him sorted out,” I snarl, glaring at him. “And I never want to see him again.”

Two men drag him to his feet and away from me. I might have killed him if Anya hadn’t begged me to stop. I shake my head and run my hand through my hair, trying to force myself to calm down.

Anya grabs my arm and when I turn to face her, she immediately wraps her arms around my waist, hugging me so tightly that for a long moment, I feel confused. She has never done anything like this before.

It freezes me, but then I wrap my arms around her body and hold her, talking to her gently.

Her body is still shaking a little and I realize that she is in shock. Even though her wound is minimal, she is not used to this type of thing at all. Including my violent outburst.

“I’m so sorry, princess. Are you ok? I’m sorry, I got angry, I got a huge fright. It could have been—you could have—“ I sigh, forcing myself to slow down and take a moment to clear my head. Everything is ok. Anya is ok.

Shit like this isn’t exactly uncommon working in an environment like this—but the idea of Anya being seriously hurt was too much.

She looks up at me. Those gorgeous eyes of hers are bright with concern and flooded with emotion. “My arm hurts,” she says, a slight smile spreading across her face. “Do you maybe have a medical aid kit here?”

“No, we will take you to the doctor right away,” I say sternly.

“Don’t be silly. It’s just a small graze. But I need you to help me disinfect it and stop the bleeding. This was one of my favorite tops.”

She laughs and the sound runs through me like summer rain. It pushes the last of the anger away. I hug her tightly against me, kiss the top of her head, then take her hand and lead her towards the office.

Chapter 10 - Anya

Rodion leads me towards the office, holding my hand tightly. It hurts, but I don’t tell him that. He seems to need this kind of control over something. So, I just let him lead.

My heart is racing fast and in all honesty, I am terrified to my core, that was so close. I am so lucky to be alive. Then witnessing Rodion’s outburst afterwards—but I can’t focus on my own thoughts right now—I have to force myself to calm down in order to get Rodion to calm down.

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