Page 21 of Caught By the Bratva Boss

I shake my head yes as best I can.

Loosening his grip on my mouth, he growls, “If you fucking scream, I swear to God I will gag your mouth and throw you over my shoulder, hauling you out of here like the little fucking brat you are, and no one will dare try and stop me. By the way, the redhead downstairs hopes we can get our relationship patched up. It took all of five minutes to get a keycard out of her.”

He holds the card up to prove his point. I glare at him, and finally see the corners of his mouth lift in that signature smirk.

He gives me a wink. “I can be very persuasive.”

I roll my eyes at that. No doubt he flirted his ass off and had her nearly swooning in seconds. He stands and before I can say anything, he’s grabbing my waist and hauling me out of bed. As soon as my foot hits the ground, I yelp and my knees buckle. He catches me before I can fall. His arms surround me, holding me tightly against him, and I’m engulfed in his scent and powerful body. I try to resist him, but I feel my body soften into his even as I try to fight it.

“How badly are you hurt?”

His voice is softer and so are his hands when he carefully lays me back on the bed to inspect my injury.

“Fucking hell, you are such a pain in the ass,” he grumbles when he sees my very badly swollen ankle. It’s much worse now than when I last looked at it, and the bruising has spread and darkened.

“It’s fine,” I say, gritting my teeth and trying to pull my leg back.

“Fine, huh?” He steps back and rests his hands low on his hips. “Then you’ll have no problem walking out of here with me.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.”

He laughs. “Wanna bet?”

“You can’t make me. You can’t hold me against my will.” My words are hard and clipped because the pain in my ankle is really starting to get to me, and I’ve had just about enough of this.

“I can, and I will.”

He grabs my bag and slings it over his shoulder before scooping me into his arms. I struggle against him, but he just holds me tighter, waiting for me to tire myself out. It doesn’t take long. When I let out a defeated sigh and sling my arms around his neck, I see his lips quirk up the tiniest bit, and if I didn’t know any better, I’d swear he was fighting an actual smile.

“Let’s see if you can be a good girl long enough for me to get your ass to the car, and I swear to God, Charlie, if you ruined my transmission, I’m taking a belt to your ass.”

I don’t say anything, mainly because the idea of him taking a leather belt to my ass both terrifies and excites me. Keeping quiet, I rest my head on his shoulder, wondering what’s in store for me when we get back to his house.

Chapter8

Mikhail

Ihave to resist the urge to grab Charlie by the shoulders and try to shake some sense into her. Instead, I hold her tighter, pressing her soft body against mine, reminding myself that she’s okay. When I’d seen her on the security footage scurrying her little ass out of my window before shimmying down a fucking bedsheet, I’d nearly had a fucking heart attack. Then I’d watched the little shit steal my Aston Martin. Watching her great escape had made me more pissed and more turned on than I’ve ever been in my life.

She stays quiet on the way to the lobby, keeping her face pressed close to my neck so I can feel the heat of her breath on my skin. As soon as we’re outside, I carry her to the car. Artyom is leaning against it, waiting for me just like I told him to. When he sees Charlie, he laughs and shakes his head.

“I believe you’ve met your match,” he says to me in Russian.

“She’s a pain in the ass,” I grumble. “Nothing more.”

Artyom just laughs and opens the door so I can lower her into the front seat. I toss her bag in the back and shut the door on her before she can start whining about something else.

“Don’t be too hard on her,” he says, giving her a cutesy wave when she looks up at him through the window.

“Since when did Death turn into such a fucking softie?”

He snorts and turns back to me. “Because she’s not mine. I can be nice for your sake. I know you care about her, even if you don’t want to admit it. Don’t forget I walked in on the two of you cuddling.”

“Enough,” I growl.

He smiles but keeps his mouth shut.

“I need you to take my motorcycle back, and then get with Yuri and start working on a plan for the mayor. If Jinx is right, then we might actually have something we can work with.”

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