Page 104 of Fortress of the Heart

His eyes soften. “Your father will be here soon, and I need to speak to him alone.”

“I’m sorry that I worried you,” I whisper.

He shakes his head. “Sladkiy rebenok,this is not your fault.”

I nod. “I know, but I don’t like to cause you more worry…”

“Katiya,” he cuts me off. “You only cause me to worry when you do stupid things, like call off security. You will not do that again.” I can see that he’s furious about it. I’ve lived my life up until this point with relative freedom. Nobody is aware of my relationship with him, he likes it this way, so I’m not used as a threat, however, that dynamic has changed. “You will have more security as of this very moment. Our enemies will do whatever they can to use the ones I hold dear against me. They are merciless.”

“I don’t think that it was your enemies,” I reply as he frowns. “They never had a ransom. I honestly think that I was taken randomly. Nobody knew me. Nobody demanded anything of me in the time I was held.”

He looks like he’s deep in thought. “Don’t be naive to think that a ransom wouldn’t have eventually come up. It would have, Katiya. We both know that the monsters behind this trade will use whatever they can to try and gain more power, it’s how it works.”

There was a time not so long ago that the Russians did far worse, not when Aleksi was the head of the Bratva, but when his father was.

“The Russian mob has brothels,” I tell him. “How do you know where these girls come from?”

I’ve no right to question him, but he doesn’t correct me.

Instead, he touches my chin affectionately. “You are correct.” I’m stunned at his admission, then he adds, “I will be changing how we operate our businesses from now on. I will not allow any person who has been trafficked to work in any of my clubs. To think there could be a young, innocent woman like you, or a child, among those places…” he trails off, shaking his head.

I stare at him. This is big. He has never discussed business with me, ever.

“Thank you, Uncle,” I murmur.

His lips twitch and he almost smiles. “Once again, my little Katiya proves that she is a strong and capable woman, yet, when I tell you that Vlad is worried, you say that you don’t want to see him. Why is this?”

I swallow hard. “I don’t want to marry him. I want to make my own choices.”

“Your father says he’s a good man, and also I believe it to be so.”

“I don’t,” I fire back, wondering how much I can get away with. “You don’t know him like I do.”

He frowns some more. “Has he been less than cordial to you?”

I’m tempted to say yes, but I know that if I do, Vlad’s life will hang in the balance.

I may hate the guy, but I don’t wish him dead. Not yet, anyway.

I shake my head. He’s never forced himself on me, but he has tried, on many occasions, to take things further than I want to.

“No, but I don’t want to marry so young. I have my studies, my career…”

He shakes his head. “Career? Katiya, you should be thinking about marrying and marrying well, planning children, making a home. This nonsense about your fashion ambition has gone on long enough.”

“It’s not nonsense,” I reply, my tone clipped. “It’s the modern world now. Women can do many things other than being housewives who cook, clean, and push babies out left, right and center. I’m not going to be a kept woman. That has never interested me.”

He looks surprised. “You mustn’t speak this way. You’re a well-bred, educated woman, and you should have more planned for your future than designing clothes and flaunting yourself on social media. That is not how you were raised.”

And there it is. What Ishouldbe doing.

I fold my arms over my chest defensively.I will never be brought to heel.

“Yet Vlad, the man I’m betrothed to, reluctantly, I might add, gets to do whatever he wants and fucks anything that moves.”

“Katiya!”

I maintain my stoic expression. I no longer care what he thinks.

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