Page 39 of Debt to the Mafia King
“Viktor, stop. What has got into you?”
My boiling blood turned icy, turning my head toward her, I lashed out. My hand curled around her throat and forced her back against the shelves.
“What’s got into me?” I said in a cold voice. “What’s got into me is the fact that my wife left to come back here to a man who isn’t fucking me.” Without taking my eyes away from her, I reached for my gun and leveled it at the man lying at my feet.
“You’re acting like a crazy man.” She faltered at the sound of the gun cocking, and I saw the first fear flicker into her wide eyes.
“I don’t share Leah. I thought I made that clear.” My voice was clipped with anger.
“He’s my friend. Please, Viktor.” Leah’s hands came up to grip my wrist. Her fingers were shaking, but all I could concentrate on was the creamy nail varnish from our wedding day, which was already chipped.
It felt like an omen. Were there chips in my plan and in my marriage as well?
“He is your past.”
“Look, man—” the man on the floor mumbled and tried to get up. I pointed the gun into the middle of his forehead, and he fell back again, his hands up in surrender.
“You will not have contact with my wife again. Is that understood?” Not waiting for him to answer, I turned back to Leah. “Get in the car, now.” My voice brokered no argument, and she scuttled away the second my arm dropped to my side.
I followed her out without another word. I didn’t need to say anything else. The boy on the floor knew I wasn’t joking. It was just my wife who seemed to have a problem with following my orders.
And all of that was going to change. It hadn’t even been a week since our wedding, and she was already doing things no wife of mine should do. Three days of behaving was all she had been able to manage, and maybe that was my fault for giving her so much freedom.
That all ended now, though. The drive out of the city was fraught, the silence thick and heavy, and the entire time she curled herself against the door and put as much distance between us as she could.
“Go—” I began to say, but I didn’t have the chance. The second the car stopped, she was out and running up the stairs. Throwing open the front door, she disappeared from view.
I followed behind more slowly. Taking my time. I knew she would be scared. Scared and angry, but by the time I finished with her, she would knowher place in our lives.
“Go away.”
Ignoring her, I stepped into her room and then slowly turned and locked the door.
“I don’t think so, Leah.” Leaning against it heavily, I studied her. She was sitting on her bed, clutching one of the frilly decorative pillows to her chest like it was a shield.
“I don’t think I’ll be leaving you alone at all after that stunt today.”
Her wide eyes locked onto mine. “What stunt, Viktor?” Her eyes might be full of apprehension, but her tone told me she wanted to argue.
“All I did was go and see my best friend. I’ve done everything else you’ve asked me to. I even went to that stupid doctor because you wanted me on the pill. I gave up everything, and now, I’m not even allowed friends?”
“You can have friends, Leah, friends I’ve vetted and agreed to.” I took a step into the room, and her body shrank back. “What you can’t have is male friends. In fact,” I took another step. “You don’t talk to any man other than those who are in my organization, not without my permission. Is that understood?”
Her pretty eyes flashed. “You’re not my father, Viktor.” She spat.
It was the wrong thing to say. I was on her in a second. I crowd her down into the pillows with my arms, trapping her under me. “Oh, I know I’m not your father, Leah.” Angrily, I swiped my tongue along the length of her jaw. “What I am is your husband, and you will learn to obey me.”
Grabbing her purse from next to her, I pulled out a small white container and held it up between us. “Maybe you won’t be needing these after all.”
Her eyes grew impossibly round as she stared at the slim packet of pills. The ones that would stop her from being tied to me for life.
“If you won’t behave like my wife, then maybe I need to keep you in check another way.” My smile grew cruel. “It would be hard to run around with other men when your belly is swollen with my baby, wouldn’t it?”
“You wouldn’t—”
Laughing, I straightened. “Wouldn’t I? I think you are underestimating me, Leah. So let me make myself clear. You will stay here, you will dress how I tell you to dress, speak when I tell you to speak, and cum when I tell you to. And you will not under any circumstances have any kind of relationship with another man, even one from your past. I don’t care if he’s your best friend.” I air quoted with a roll of my eyes. “That part of your life is over. You belong to me explicitly.”
“Viktor, it’s—”
