Page 101 of Lies He Told Me (Bratva Crime Syndicate 1)

Gavril

This was not planned. This woman before me, this Joy, was not planned.

The plan was to find a malleable woman, a blank slate. Someone I could mold to be what I needed. This—her, what she’s become to me—was not planned. As she steps away from the edge, I get up to grab her, snarling, “Don’t ever do that again.”

Joy’s all sharp daggers in my grasp, her voice more so. “Why? Afraid to lose your precious merchandise?”

I clench her tighter in my arms. “Stop it.”

“Why?”

“You know why.”

She waits for it, wants it. What I can’t give her.

She wants me to give voice to how my whole body burned at the thought of her in danger … of what I could, in no way, let happen … The compulsion in me keeps growing the more time I spend with her—to see her, be close to her.

I press my lips to hers, and she sinks into the kiss. This, at least, always makes sense. Our bodies know how to act better than our minds do.

She tastes like the hamburgers we just ate, and yet, I want more. My hands slip into her back pockets and grasp her ass. Yes, I want more. More of her pressing herself against me how she is right now. Unable to stop, or even to slow this.

I can see it now. Already, it’s not happening fast enough. I want to bury myself in her and fuck her until we’re both gone.

Suddenly, a blast cuts the air. One I know all too well.

My reaction is immediate, instinctive. I throw both of us to the ground without thinking. A gasp rips out of Joy’s throat…

As a bullet buries itself in the concrete where we were seconds ago.

My spine stiffens. Someone is about to pay with their life.

I wait a moment to confirm that there’s no second bullet on its way yet, then grab Joy and run for the only exit, throwing a look at the nearby roofs as we sprint. Bullets start to scream after us, but we’re just out of reach.

There’s a building nearby that I didn’t notice before, an office complex. I can just make out several men crouched there with semiautomatics blazing away.

Skull Kings, I’m certain of it.

“C’mon,” I say, pulling Joy along into the staircase. “We have to get to the car.”

As soon as we’re off the elevator, we set off at a run to the car. We throw ourselves in and I peel away, out of the parking garage.

“Gavril!” Joy shout.

I follow her two-stop gaze. The first stop is on her friend Jimmy, slumped and still on the side of the road with a bullet to his neck. Probably from tipping off the Skull Kings to where we were. Cruel bastards. He helped lead them to me, and this is how they repaid him. Their appetite for blood has no bounds.

Second, to the army-green Jeep filled with grinning Skull Kings lumbering after us. I slam my foot on the gas and we’re off.

Behind us, the Jeep is still too far to be within range … for now.

“They won’t follow all the way up to the mansion,” I say.

“Who is that?” she asks in a panic.

“Not now.” There’s bigger things to worry about here. Like how the Jeep is gaining on us. No matter how hard I jam my foot against the gas, they’ve outfitted their vehicle with after-market improvements.

What that means is that I’m going to have to get out of range by maneuvering.

Starting right fucking now. Passing an intersection, I grab the steering wheel and twist it all the way. We speed through it and I throw a look back. They didn’t manage to duplicate my hairpin turn.

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