Page 246 of Gilded Cage (Kovalyov Bratva 1)

I need to think of her. Everything I do from now will have a direct effect on her.

This is the first time in my life I’ve weighed my actions against future consequences.

“I don’t want to,” I reply, sidestepping his question. “I just want to be able to finish my hike, hunt some deer, and go home.”

“Go home,” the leader snarls. “You don’t have a home here. This is our fucking territory.”

“Then allow me to get off it,” I say carefully. “And no one has to get hurt.”

“The only one in danger of getting hurt right now is you.”

“You willing to bet on it?” I ask.

Another flash of uncertainty flits across his eyes. It disappears almost instantly, but I’ve already caught it.

Do the smart thing, asshole. Walk away intact.

Then I see his jaw set in a determined square that I don’t like one bit.

And I know he’s chosen violence instead.

“I don’t know who you are,” the leader begins, taking me by surprise. I was sure he had cornered me herebecausehe knew who I was. “But I have eyes in this town. And they whisper important bits of information to me about everything that happens here.”

Why have I caught their attention?

“The word around town is there’s a beautiful young woman with big hazel eyes,” he says. “According to my sources, she looks a lot like Esme Moreno.”

That makes my blood run cold.

Esme. They’ve caught her scent.

Fuck.

I have to play it cool. Esme’s safety and my sanity depends on it.

For a moment, tangible fear grips my heart. I wonder if another group of men have been dispatched to the cabin.

If that’s the case, I need to get to her as fast as possible.

But as desperate as I am to get to her, if I show my hand now, then I’ll just be proving that they were right about who she is.

“Asma Mirena?” I ask, purposefully butchering her name. “Who the fuck is that?”

“You’re telling me you don’t know.”

“I wouldn’t be asking if I did,” I growl with irritation. “Who is she? What’s she have to do with me?”

The leader exchanges a glance with his men. “She’s a bargaining chip,” he replies. I almost lunge at him right then and there. “And a very important one at that.”

“Is that right?” I say, trying to sound unconcerned. “Well, good luck finding her then.”

“Her father was a notorious crime lord. Controlled quite a few cartels down this route,” the leader continues. “Except that he was killed, along with his entire household. According to my sources, the only body not recovered from the massacre was Esme Moreno’s.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that my only way out of this is to kill them all. They know too much.

And the fact that Esme is on their radar at all does not sit well with me.

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