Page 161 of Born in Depravity

A huge fucking part of me loved that.

Maxim raised one scarred eyebrow. I narrowed my gaze on him. One word, and I didn’t care if he was our most trusted advisor and friend.

He cracked a small smile before moving aside and letting me through. I led Catalina in.

She kept her distance from him. I didn’t blame her. Maxim was one intimidating motherfucker. Older than my thirty years of age by at least a decade, he was covered from neck to toe in tattoos, most that he got in prison, having served only five years of his twenty-year murder sentence in Moscow before a bribed judge overruled it and he was set free.

He was running the prison drug-trafficking ring with his inside contacts before Damien found him and offered him a place in the brotherhood.

With a shaved head and hard brown eyes, he wasn’t someone anyone wanted to mess with.

This room looked the same as our room. There were at least three other men with Maxim who’d traveled with us to New Mexico.

It didn’t take Catalina long to find Kirill sitting at the dining table, smoking a cigarette, a pile of sunflower seeds in front of him.

“Put that out,” I said.

He frowned, pointing to his cigarette. I waited as his eyes came to Catalina and stopped.

I didn’t give a fuck if he wanted to burn his lungs off with that shit, but he wasn’t doing with her in the room.

He grumbled something under his breath about “overprotective,” but he was smart enough to put it out.

Catalina watched the scene curiously. If she smiled at him, I would make good on my threat and kill the fucker.

Lucky for him, she merely looked at him a second too long before turning to me.

“The prisoners?” I asked.

Cataline tightened her grip on my forearm.

I let out a sigh.

“The women and staff from the house,” I corrected.

I couldn’t be sure, since she turned away from me, but I might have caught a small smile gracing her lips.

Maxim looked like he was holding back a laugh. He pointed to one of the rooms. I opened the door.

Someone jumped from the sudden noise, and I took in all the people.

Ten women who were in the same sad situation Catalina was in, and seven of the house staff that our men had been able to find, including Maria, the woman who brought Catalina her food.

Her terrified brown eyes moved from me to Catalina, and it looked like she was seconds away from grabbing Catalina from my arms.

I would kill her if she tried, and I’d much rather not kill anyone in front of Catalina.

No one was taking Catalina away from me.

“At midnight, my men will come in and set all of you free.” I looked around the room, making sure my eyes settled on everyone’s faces in turn. “You’ll have your freedom, as long as you can keep your mouths shut. If I find out anyone here was talking about what they’ve seen or heard at Petrov’s house, anything about the brotherhood, I’ll come for you personally. And the mercy you’re seeing me offer right now will be nonexistent. Think about that. I have a long and unforgiving memory. Billions of dollars at my disposal and thousands of men at my fingertips. There isn’t a place you can go where I won’t find you, unless that place is hell.”

Catalina frowned, her hands moving to her notebook. I placed my hand on top of hers and she stilled.

“None of that, princess. You’re not going to talk to them or for them. You wanted to come here, I granted you that. I’m letting them go for you, but that’s all they're getting from me. Understand?”

She looked up at me, and I narrowed my eyes, daring her to challenge me in front of my prisonersand my men.

The memory of the spanking I gave her back at the hotel teased my mind. I wouldn’t mind a repeat.

She didn’t fucking make me that soft.

She let out a sigh and held the notebook close to her chest.

Good girl.

I grabbed her by the hand and we left the room. Maxim nodded when he caught my eye, obviously having heard the plan, and that was all I needed to know. We walked out of there and back to our hotel room. All the while, I talked myself out of locking Catalina up permanently.

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