Page 49 of Reclaimed Crown

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The moment Viktorreturns to his apartment, he bolts towards me with an urgent look on his face. My stomach drops, suspecting the soldier with the tattooed scalp may have spoken to him. I brace myself when he gets an arm’s length to me, expecting something terrible to happen.

“I need something from you,” Viktor says. He hovers over me, standing close, but not threateningly.

I hesitate long enough to make sure this isn’t some trick and tentatively nod my head.

“What you told me you heard in the cells about someone betraying the Bratva… Are there any details you left out?”

My teeth scrape against my lower lip as I try to recall the moment, but struggle to think of anything other than being Viktor’s prisoner in that cell. My breathing goes shallow when I remember seeing my father’s corpse and the way his blood soaked into my shirt. My heart thumps deep in my chest when I recall seeing Viktor enter the cell for the first time with a look of pure hatred in his eyes. I try to remember what Viktor is asking me to, but all I can think of is the horrible things he did to me in that cell.

I shake my head helplessly. “What sort of details?” I ask.

“Anything,” he says as he searches the wall of windows behind me. He walks from me and paces the floor. “What did they talk about? Did you get names?”

A cold sweat collects on my brow as I try to think about that day, but I can’t. All I can think of is Viktor’s brutality and the nightmare he forced me to live in. My hands shake in terror, recalling what he did to me and what he did to my father.

The memories are too much to bear.

“I told you everything I know,” I respond in a trembling voice.

Viktor stops his pacing and shoots me a cold glare. I know I’m disappointing him right now, but I tried my best. He tucks his hands in his pockets and looks me over as if he’s discovered some new facet of me.

“I realize you have every reason to lie to me,” he says in a condemning tone. “About what you heard, what you didn’t hear. You might be lying about hearing anything at all.”

My mouth hangs open in shock. I know I don’t deserve Viktor’s trust. For all of my scheming to escape, he’d be wise not to. But I take a stand against this accusation.

“It wasn’t a lie,” I say through gritted teeth.

Viktor turns from me, seemingly dropping his accusation. He leans against the wall of windows looking over the Bratva compound and crosses his arms over his chest. His eyes still search the view outside as if the answer to his questions lie somewhere out there.

The urgency behind his asking for details of that day makes me uneasy. Viktor was curious when I first told him, but he wasn’t this adamant about hearing all the details. Suddenly, he needs me to scrub my memory for any information that could be useful to him.

I lower myself to a coffee table and wrap my fingers over the edge of the table top, gripping it hard as I let my suspicions run wild.

“Is there going to be an attack on this place?” I ask.

Sunlight combs through the top of Viktor’s hair as he leans his head down. He turns his head in my direction but doesn’t look at me. “No matter what happens, I’ll keep you safe.”

His answer hits me like a bolt through the chest. He means what he says, but that’s no guarantee we’ll be safe. This place can be attacked, just as our village was years ago.

I rise to my feet and walk a few paces towards Viktor. “We should leave then,” I urge him. “I can still get into America. And… you want to go back, don’t you?”

He lifts his head and shifts his weight in a way that tells me I’m getting through to him.

“You have your own business in America,” I say.

“My men are handling it for me,” he replies.

“Viktor, there is nothing good waiting for you here,” I say, pleading with him.

He turns to me with a look of disbelief. “My brother is here!” he shouts.

I startle at his response but continue, determined to convince Viktor.

“War is here. Your brother might die, you and I might die.” I walk up to him and wedge my body between the windows and Viktor. My hand drifts up the sleeve of his suit jacket and stops at his bicep. “We can start over, in a new place,” I say as my fingers circle the buttons of his shirt. I work my way downwards, unbuttoning until his chest peeks out. I kiss a trail across the hills of muscle, following the rise and fall on either side. Viktor exhales a subtle moan and wraps his hands around each of my upper arms. A thrill of heat spreads through me when I feel his erection grow against my abdomen.

Despite what Viktor put me through, I still want him. My body still needs to feel Viktor’s body against it, surrounding me with the intense desire I know he has for me.

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