Page 117 of For a Price

It makes no difference as I grab hold of his arm that’s basically the size of my thigh. I could swing off his arm if he throws another blow.

He moves to do so before he realizes I’ve latched onto him. I’m holding on for dear life, trying to get him to calm down and stop seeing red. Breaths still heavy and ragged, he goes motionless. The blood dripping from his clenched fingers splatters on the floor. We stand together almost entwined, as if suddenly frozen into a block of ice.

Slowly, his head turns to the side for a glance down at me clutching his arm tightly. He sees the tears shining in my eyes and the deep knit of my brow. His intense anger fades… at least for the moment.

He returns to me. Mentallyandemotionally.

“Kitty cat,” he husks out. His arms encircle me, drawing me into a close embrace. My head tucks into the space between his chest and his chin, and he strokes my hair like he had earlier. Each careful glide of his wide palm feels better than any healing balm. I close my eyes and breathe him in.

His warm musk reminds me of leather and smoke in the best way possible.

“I don’t want you to hurt yourself,” I murmur into his chest.

“I’ll hurt everyone,” he answers, his breathing still heavy. “I’ll hurt everyone for hurting my kitty cat. But him most of all. I’llslaughter him for what he’s done. For the fucking games he’s played.”

I draw back slightly for a look up at him. “But why, Zver? Why would he…?”

“You remember what I told you about there being a schism? I believed it was between the pakhan and my father, the sovietnik. Maybe that assumption was wrong all along,” he says solemnly. “Maybe all along the schism was between me and the others.”

“But you’re loyal! You’re a fierce fighter for the bratva. How could they ever turn on you?”

The corner of his lip curls. “All the more reason to turn on me, devochka. My father may be second-in-command. He may be powerful in his own right. But he’s a feeble old man on his deathbed. He won’t last much longer.”

I gasp and take a shocked step back, eyes widening. “You think the pakhan sees you as the threat to take over?”

“I’m not sure where the truth lies. If my father was working with him or if the pakhan is working on his own. It likely has been him all along. Right down to the kidnapping attempt.”

“You mean when me, JC and Fozzil?—”

“He must be who you were working for without even knowing it,” Roman confirms.

“That… that wouldn’t surprise me at all. He would want a third party so it wouldn’t be traced back to him,” I mutter, overcome with shock.

“Yes, that is exactly it, devochka. But it doesn’t matter anymore.” Roman’s blazing blue eyes drop to his side where his battered fist still drips blood onto the floor. “I’ll destroy them both anyway.”

Roman leaves only briefly to attend the important intel meeting he had skipped earlier to spend time with me. I use the moment to sit alone in our bedroom and gather my thoughts. It’s late at night yet I’m wide awake.

My mind’s racing. My heart won’t stop beating fast.

I cross my legs and rest my elbows on my thighs, covering my face with my hands.

So much has happened over the last seventy-two hours, but also over the last several weeks. Just a couple months ago I was a petty thief living a life of crime, coming and going as I pleased. When I wasn’t sleeping on Rosita’s couch, I was wandering the streets and making money doing bad things. I was trusting bad men like JC and the rest of our crew.

Never in a million years did I imagine I’d fall into the kind of situation I have now.

I’d be taken captive by a Russian mafia boss and then develop feelings for that man. That he would develop feelings for me that sometimes feel so intense, I’m overwhelmed.

I had no idea what it would be like to be sold as a human being. For another powerful Russian mobster to violate me the way he had.

When my foster father did so many years ago, I buried it away. Once I got the hell out of there, I refused to let myself think about it. I couldn’t spend time feeling sorry for myself when I was a homeless orphan with nowhere to go and nobody who gave a single fuck about me.

I had other things to worry about. Shelter, food, and safety all took priority.

But it manifested itself in other ways.

There’s a reason I never had much of an interest in sex. There’s a reason why I had friends who had voracious appetites for men while I was more wary and cautious.

Roman was the first man I’d ever been with who actually made me come.

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