Page 132 of Her Filthy Reverse Harem Romance Collection

For several frenzied heartbeats, I freeze in the darkness. Listen. But the blood rushing through my ears makes it hard to hear.

All I get back is the sound of tiny droplets of rain forming larger puddles of water on the asphalt.

It would be easy to compare my life to my drabby surroundings. It basically went from survivable to adumpster-fire shit showin the span of a few hours. I mean it wasn’t perfect. Daddy has a mean temper when he gets riled up. But things had been okay since momma died a few months ago. I thought we had found common ground in our grief.

Lace snags on the large diamond on my ring finger.I tug on the band, but nothing budges the gold.

So, yeah. That would be a huge fat no. I grieved while my bastard father planned my forced marriage from the second my mother was lowered into the ground. Maybe even before.

I wish we’d stayed in Georgia and never came to New York City. Here he’s a different man. Grief does things to a person, but I had no idea it could make a man a monster. I am not sure if momma’s death triggered something buried inside him or if her sudden death simply broke him. The outcome is the same so I guess it’s all irrelevant. My shot nerves would agree.

Tears came easily hours ago. Now my dry eyes burn with rage, anger, and…fear.

I swallow hard. But mostly fear.

A part of me—the betrayed, angry daughter—wants to see Daddy rotting in the ground. No one as evil as him should be allowed to draw air. He practically sold his only child to a man with a bloody reputation. And not for dollars in a bank account. There’s much more than just cash that serves as currency in my dark world. Power. Territory. Strong united fronts.

Why I don’t know. He already owns half of this city. It only took a couple of years for him to move in, take over and rule over the criminal underworld of a city I used to dream about loving.

Cops, judges, and even the city’s mayor are all in his pocket.

Greed knows no bounds is the only answer I’ve come up with. I’m learning how true that is the hard way.

Renewed tears slide down my cheeks, and I let them mix with the rainwater.

“Damn him,” I seethe into the darkness. But my problems are bigger than betrayal and tears.

I close my eyes.

I have no friends.

I have no family except the one who betrayed me long before today.

And now my worst nightmare has come true. I belong to a monster.

The kicker? You’re going to love this one. I’m pregnant with his enemy’s child. If he catches me, I’m dead and so is this unborn baby.

It wasn’t on purpose but that didn’t stop it from happening.

Honestly, I’m just damn tired of fighting for my place in this world that isn’t tied to a bed as a breeder for the mob.

I settle a hand over my abdomen that will be round and fat in a few months.

The wedding wasn’t set for another week. I thought I had time to execute my escape plan. Daddy’s new powerful Russian mobster friend wasn’t due to arrive in the country until the day after tomorrow. I was supposed to be in WITSEC by then while the FBI moved in on my father and Kirill. Easy plan, right? I would be safe and all my ties to the criminal underworld would be severed. I would be safe.

Nothing is ever easy. In the history of plans, when did one go off without a hiccup? Never. Not for me anyway.

Toward the end of the alley a car rolls by a little too slow for comfort. Like the driver is looking for someone. Air seizes in my lungs. I grip two handfuls of white silk and hold tight against a brick wall. A small eve offers a respite from the drizzling rain. The smell of urine is strong this deep into the dark alley, but I don’t dare move to pinch my nose.

“They don’t know where I am,” I reassure my racing heart and tight chest. The memo is slowly moving through my body so it takes me a minute to peel my back off the wall.

The car keeps moving and I don’t make a move until the fade of the tail lights blinks out of existence.

I mentally crawl over the same details again and again trying to find the tiniest slithers of information I might have missed that led to today. Did they know about me being an informant? A Rossé enforcer would have slit my throat while I slept. Daddy would have handed him the knife.

No. It has to be something else that spooked my father and Kirill into moving up the timetable.

My heart clenches. “God, hear me now. I would rather die than belong to a man like him. Do you hear me? I would rather be dead than be his captive for the rest of my life.” Bile burns the back of my throat with disgust. My voice shakes with unwavering determination. I will not give myself to a monster like him.

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