Page 52 of Gilded Cage (Kovalyov Bratva 1)

“I’d rather be brave and foolish than smart and cowardly,” I snap back.

My eyes are still focused on my brother’s grave. I can just see it beyond the jet’s sleek tail.

“You can be whatever you want,” he replies, “but not here and not now. We have business to attend to.”

“I don’t give a damn about your business!” I scream. It feels so good to speak, to fight back, to resist.

“You’ve made that clear. And yet, I still don’t give a fuck. You’re coming.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you. You’re nothing but a murderer and a monster.”

“All true,” he nods calmly. “You’re still coming with me.”

“No,” I scream, struggling wildly against his iron grip. “Let me go. Let me go!”

He sighs tiredly, as though my outburst is merely an inconvenient tantrum that he doesn’t have time for.

He looks past me and nods to a man standing beyond my line of vision. I feel panic slide up my throat, but it just makes me struggle harder.

My eyes are still on Cesar’s grave when I see a glint of something shiny and pointed coming towards me.

I scream as the needle pierces into the flesh of my neck.

No! My baby…

I’m pregnant… my baby…

But I can’t find the words.

The sedative works fast. I feel my legs buckle under the sudden invisible weight that compresses down on top of me.

I reach out—to whom, I don’t know.

I feel my weight being supported by someone, but my eyes are closing and I’m sinking and all the color is fading from the world.

My last thoughts are scattered fragments of pain and loss.

Cesar… my baby… please, no… I can’t breathe… I can’t see… my baby. Cesar. My baby.

“I won’t let you kill me,” I mumble through fat, uncoordinated lips.

The last thing I see is Artem’s cold sneer.

The last thing I hear is his laughter.

“Kill you?” he chuckles. “No, darling, we’ve got something very different in mind.”

15

Artem

On A Plane Somewhere Over Southern California

Her eyelashes flutter slightly as she sleeps.

The sedative worked better than I had expected. She needed it, too.

She was visibly shaken, especially at the beginning when I first stormed her bedroom and found her cowering in the bathroom.

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