Page 99 of Scarred (Russian Sinners 2)

Her eyes returned to me, and I knew whatever she would say next, I wouldn’t like it.

“I’ve been thinking,” she started. There wasn’t an ounce of doubt in my mind, her next words would drive me over the edge. I could feel her tension rolling from her in waves. “Let me go to him and-.”

“Fuck no,” I barked cutting her off.

“What the fuck, Olivia?” her brother shouted through the phone. “We didn’t go through all this so he could get his fucking hands on you. If you have a death wish, there are easier ways to die.”

“Both of you stop it,” she warned. “Now listen. And don’t interrupt me. Otherwise, I’ll go through with my plan alone.”

Now, that shut us all up. When in the fucking hell did she have time to come up with a plan? In front of me stood a woman ready to give back what she had endured.

“Fuck, Olivia, you can be scary,” Andrey muttered under his breath.

She took a deep breath, ignoring his comment.

“It’s a trap and you know it,” she started her voice strong. “So instead of all of you heading into it and getting yourselves killed, we set a trap. You said it yourself, he is after me. So let’s set the stage with me as bait. We just need a tracking device on me. Let him think he snatched me, he outsmarted us all. We could find out his connection to this Vlad guy, their plans, and then you guys come in.”

It was a good plan, but not with her as a bait. That alone made her plan unacceptable.

“It’s actually a good plan,” Ilya muttered. Andrey shook his head in agreement, a slightly impressed look on his face.

“Yeah, not bad, although I’m not sure if I like it,” her brother’s voice came through the speakerphone.

Damn straight I don’t like it!

“No fucking way,” I maintained my cool, but on the inside, I was furious with her for even thinking about using herself as a bait. I shot a glare at Ilya and Andrey daring them to challenge me.

I didn’t want Olivia anywhere near Malcome. I was seeing red just thinking about his dirty fucking paws on my woman. They didn’t see those gut-wrenching drawings. She couldn’t go through this.

“Nikolai, you have to-” she tried.

“No,” I gritted out, furious she would even ask it of me.

“You will get yourself killed if you go to him.” Her voice shook and I hated that I was the cause of it.

“Then so be it,” I growled.

“How dare you? You expect me to sit here and watch?” She was getting mad again, her voice elevating, tears glistening in her eyes. “Well, fuck you! You can’t make me.”

“Malysh-” I tried to sooth her.

“Don’t you baby me,” she threw the words back at me. “What do you expect me to do if he kills you?” Her eyes darted to all of the men. “Any of you.”

“I survived the last thirty years on the streets; I can handle him.”

“And I survived him for four years,” she challenged me back, her stubbornness unlike I had seen before although it lurked on the surface all along.

Ilya, Andrey, and Oliver quietly waited and listened to our battle of wills.

She came over to me and gripped my shirt. “Nikolai, please. Think of Tasha.”

Fuck; didn’t she see if something happened to her, I wouldn’t be able to go on without her.

“Please,” she begged. “With a tracking device, you would know where I was at all times and can come for me. It’d be barely any risk.”

It was one risk I was unwilling to take.

“No.”

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