Page 154 of Gilded Cage (Kovalyov Bratva 1)

Artem.

He looms over me, eyes dark and stormy. I know deep in my bones that this is it. He’s going to finish what the others started.

“You lied to me, darling,” he whispers.

“No,” I gasp. “My baby… Our baby…”

Panic rises in my chest. My heartbeat is hammering against my ribs. I try to move away, to run, but I’m trapped in this chair. Strapped down. Can’t move.

And I realize suddenly that I can’t scream anymore, either. It’s like I’m underwater—I open my mouth but no sound comes out.

I’m drowning in this darkness, in these shadows, and Artem comes closer and closer, and that knife of his touches the soft curve of my throat and there’s nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, no one to help because my husband killed the only other man who ever tried to protect me and if I don’t have one or the other of them than I don’t have anyone and so all I can do is scream and scream and scream as Artem takes one final look in my eyes and then he tugs his jagged knife across my throat.

Blood spurts.

Artem laughs.

And everything turns to darkness.

42

Esme

I sense voices all around me. Some calm, others panicked.

I hear the shuffling of feet and the beeping of monitors.

I feel whispers at my ear and warm breath on my cheek.

I try to open my eyes, but my eyelids are impossibly heavy. It takes all my effort just to lift them a tiny crack.

I manage to catch quick, blurred glimpses of white walls. Bright fluorescent lighting. Snatches of rushed, whispered conversations.

“… she’s stable… so is the baby…”

“She’ll wake up when she’s ready…”

The echoes of Artem’s voice from my nightmare are still ringing in my head.

Wait, no.

That’s not the nightmare.

That’s the living, breathing man.

“I’ll be back,” he says.

He’s here, in this room with me—wherever this is.

I open my eyes a tiny bit again and catch sight of his shoes across the room.

A scream rises up at the back of my throat, but I swallow it down. My brother’s murderer is standing just a few feet away.

I want to curse him. Spit in his face. Cause him just a fraction of the pain he’s caused me.

I let my eyes fall closed before anyone notices I’m awake.

I hear more murmured voices. The shuffle of movement.

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