Page 104 of For a Price

Ivanka arches a brow when I stride into the room that I’ve been using for war planning. She’s as petulant and irritating as ever, arms folded over her chest and legs crossed as if she’s dissatisfied already.

The bitch better have something of use or I just might break my rule about harming women.

“What the fuck do you want?” I snarl. “If this is you showing up to sell me more of your girls?—”

“Where have you been, Zver?” she interrupts.

“Out.”

“You seem upset. Is everything alright?”

“Get the fuck out if you’ve got nothing important!” I thrust a finger at the door, the veins in my neck throbbing. “You never should’ve been allowed in here in the first fucking place!”

“Are you sure about that? I think you might want to know what I have to say.”

“What?” I spit. “Tell me now!”

She smirks. “This info feels so valuable. Maybe I deserve something in exchange.”

Of fucking course.

Of course a woman like her would bargain even words. The only existence she’s ever known has been the life of a prostitute and then madam. She does nothing for free.

“Tell me the info first,” I grit out. “Then I will compensate.”

She shakes her head to the side. “Not good enough. How do I know you won’t cheat me? Your cheap uncle loves to. He fucks my girls and then refuses to pay.”

My temper snaps like it had earlier with Finch.

In less than a second, I’ve rushed toward her, clenching my hand around her throat. I’ve lifted her out of the chair, glaring darkly into her pale face.

“You have five seconds before I snap your neck.”

But Ivanka’s not like Katerina or Rosita.

Women who aren’t used to being roughed up. A woman like Ivanka has experienced the worst from men in the bratva.

There’s little I could do to truly shake her. The simple threat of violence doesn’t work.

“The girl you were with,” she says in her thick accent. “The one with the purple hair. What happened to her?”

“You know where she is? Tell me now!”

“I didn’t believe it at first. Leonid insisted she was not a real pet. He told me you had pretended. You hadn’t really bought her. But then I saw her. Sheisa real whore.”

An urgency so intense the room begins to spin takes over me. I rattle her hard and snarl some more in her face. “Tell me where she fucking is!”

“In Easton,” she says, smirking despite my rough treatment. “At the market. She’s up for sale, Zver. Will you buy her back?”

Ivanka’s thrown to the floor as I rush for the door.

There’s no time to waste. If what she’s said is true, I have to make it before she’s sold. Before she disappears into obscurity forever.

We make it to Easton in record time. My men flank me as I stride toward the entrance to the Midnight Society’s marketplace, where humans are sold for the right price. The guards at the door attempt to turn me away without realizing who the fuck I am.

Pure rage clenches onto my face as I prepare to crack skulls to get inside.

“Zver!” calls a familiar voice first.

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