Page 12 of The Bratva's Christmas Bump
“You’re disgusting,” I snap hotly, shifting on the stool and keeping my legs pressed closed together.
“She doesn’t deny it.” Blue tie smirks as he gets closer. “What did you do? Suck him off in the car? Spread your legs while he was cooking? A meal after sex always tastes better, don’t you think?”
My cheeks flare hot while my heart pounds harder and harder. I feel like a gazelle cornered by hyenas while the lions are busy elsewhere. With nothing to defend myself, I try to act as confidently as I can while looking them both in the eye.
“Why don’t you go ask Maxim? I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to give you an answer.”
“Maxim,” red tie scoffs. “He’s a puppy dog. Dude doesn’t kiss and tell. But his bitches, on the other hand?” Whatever he was going to say next dies as a subtle voice buzzes in his ear. He lifts one hand and presses on his in-ear speaker, then he grimaces. “Shit. Boss!”
In a flash, they’re both heading down the hall and I sag on the stool like my puppet threads have been cut.
This isawful. How is it I feel safer with the murderer than I do with those two disgusting men? Tugging the hem of my skirt down as far as it will go, I glance toward the opening leading toward the elevator. Biometrically coded, he said. No escape. One wrong move and it’s my family that will suffer.
What the fuck am I supposed to do?
The guard’s rapid knocking on the door is quickly answered and a short, sharp conversation occurs. Then Maxim reappears with his gaze fixed down on his phone, but he looks up the moment he’s close to me.
“You good?”
I nod, speechless. What use would it be to tell him what happened when those same guards were seconds away from shooting me? Whoever they are and whatever criminal shit they’re involved in is beyond me, but I know one thing for sure.
I don’t want to die.
I just want to go home.
“I have to go,” Maxim states, though it’s unclear who he’s talking to.
“This isn’t over.” His father appears behind him, flanked by his two smirking guards. “Did you listen to anything I just said?”
Maxim locks his phone and slides it into his pocket, then he moves to a built-in closet in the wall and removes a T-shirt. It’s black with red fall leaves drifting in a light pattern across the back and down the sleeves. Despite how large it looks in his hands, it fits like a glove and looks seconds away from ripping by the time he slides it over his bulky torso.
“I heard you, but I made myself clear. Hollie and I are engaged. We were engaged before tonight and the whole reason she was there was because I told her the wrong time. She saw nothing, do you understand? Nothing.”
The lie spins from him like silk and my mouth runs dry. He’s painting out a life story for me and I have no idea what it is.
“But I have to go,” Maxim continues. “There’s trouble at one of the clubs.”
“Let me keep an eye on yourfiancéethen, until you make it back to finish our conversation," his father says abruptly, his tone as icy as the wind outside.
My heart punches painfully up into my throat. Staying with him sounds terrifying, and with how his guards ogle me like I’m a piece of meat, I think I’d rather die.
“No,” Maxim says, much to my immense relief. “She’s coming with me. Right?”
I blink, and Maxim’s intense blue eyes are locked onto mine, but his expression is unreadable. It’s almost like he’s giving me a choice, and while a choice between two awful things is hardly a choice at all, I choose him.
“Yes,” I say, unable to stop my voice from trembling.
Suddenly, my hand is engulfed in Maxim’s fist. He pulls me from the stool and strides down toward the elevator at such a pace, I have to jog slightly to keep up. His grip, despite being firm and almost dwarfing my entire hand, is warm and oddly gentle, like the touch of a friend rather than that of a captor.
Once the doors hiss closed, I jerk my hand away and he releases me without complaint.
“The men you surround yourself with are disgusting,” I snap, huddling away from him against the side of the elevator.
“We can’t choose our parents,” he replies without looking at me.
“But you choose your guards, right?”
That catches his attention and one dark brow arches as he looks at me. “What happened?”
