Page 154 of Born in Depravity

My tongue felt foreign, probably from underuse. I hadn’t told anyone about anything that happened to me before.

Damien’s jaw clenched as he turned to look at me. “And I let him go? I should have fucking killed him when I had the chance.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I said nothing.

We stared into each other’s eyes for a long moment, until my eyelids grew heavy and I closed them.

I didn’t know when I fell asleep, but it was after I felt Damien’s finger trailing down my face.

“He won’t ever hurt you again,” he whispered to me in the dark.

I smiled a little, and felt him press a soft kiss to my lips as I drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

By the timemorning came around, I felt almost … well rested. I sat up on the bed and stretched my arms. I was alone, and I didn’t know when Damien had woken up and left this morning.

The door to the room opened and I looked over to see Mikhail.

Judging by his appearance, he had been awake for a while now. It seemed they all functioned on less sleep than I did.

He frowned when he noticed I was up. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he touched the pad of his thumb under my eye. “We’re only here for a few days, until we can get everything under control over the shit storm that happened at Petrov’s house. So I suggest you use this time to really rest up,kotyonok.”

Did I really look that bad?

I thought I’d slept better than I had since the day they took me.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

He smiled a little. “Home.”

“New York?”

I knew the Bratva ruled the East with an iron fist. While my Father’s drug operation expanded to the South, getting in deep with the Mexican cartels, the Bratva was known for having total control of the East for nearly twenty years.

It was something Father hated more than anything else, and though he had to travel to a lot of places because of his “business,” he didn’t go to New York.

It was rumored that New York was where the Russian devils lived. I now believed Mikhail, Damien, and Nikolay lived there.

Mikhail nodded. He didn’t smile. I could probably count on one hand how many times Mikhail had smiled at me, but I realized now that the soft look in his eyes was a common occurrence.

“Yeah.”

I bit my bottom lip and looked down at my lap.

He used his thumb to free my lip. “What is it?”

“What’s going to happen to me?”

Something dark shifted in his eyes. “You’re going to stay with us. And that is all there is to it.”

Stay with them.

He said it like it was simple.

Mikhail climbed off the bed and held out my hand. “Come on,kotyonok. It’s time to get ready for the day.”

I grabbed his arm before he could move away. “The women?”

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