Page 43 of The Bratva's Secret Baby

Kendric's gaze made me fidget in my seat. His gaze burned on my cheeks and his brown eyes sparkled curiously. “You know Damien Varkov, don’t you?”

My breath hitched. “How do you know Damien?”

He shrugged. “I saw him following your car when you left the courthouse the other day. What’s your relationship with him?”

I tensed as if all the bones in my body had disintegrated, leaving only a frozen sack of flesh and blood. I wasn’t sure why Kendrick was asking about Damien or if he had found out Damien’s identity, but I couldn’t let on that I knew who Damien was either.

“Why do you want to know?” I eyed his face, trying to figure out what thoughts were going through his head. “Does it have something to do with the case?”

He shook his head. “I think he's a little suspicious.”

“Oh.” I shifted back and forth in my seat, trying not to let on that I was nervous.

“He’s part of The Circle, isn’t he?” There was something menacing and evil in his eyes, while his tone became dangerously low. “You’re trying to protect him, aren’t you?”

“Kendrick..."

He interrupted me with a shrill chuckle. “All right. Let’s do this another way, shall we?”

I didn’t have enough time to process my thoughts when he rose from his seat and stomped over to me. He grabbed my hand, pulled me up out of the chair, and turned me around.

Fear prickled my scalp as he wrapped his arm around my neck and pressed his chest against my back. “Isn’t this what you wanted?” he growled in my ear. “For me to fuck you hard?”

Something metallic glinted in the overhead lamp, and I winced as I realized he’d pulled a knife from his pocket. He pressed it to my throat and the ice-cold metal penetrated my skin.

Fear clenched like a tight fist around my chest as raw, liquid terror dripped into my veins. “What are you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing?” He pressed the knife deeper into my throat, and a sharp sting echoed through me as it scraped my flesh.

I dug my nails into the skin of his arm, and my pulse twitched in horror as he pressed harder into my neck. In my mind, I imagined my lifeless body plopping to the floor, and another wave of terror gripped me at the thought of Kaity waking up the next morning finding. “Don’t do this, please. I don’t know what this is about, but we can talk.”

“There’s nothing to talk about, Rosanne. You only have yourself to blame for your death.”

My heart was pounding in my ears and my throat was racing as I tried to make sense of the situation. What is happening right now?

Everything felt like a nightmare. Kendrick, the man my brother worked for, and the man I had looked up to and trusted, was holding a knife to my throat. This couldn’t be real.

“What do you want?”

His hoarse laugh echoed in my ears. “You siblings are all the same, you know that? Your brother asked me the same question before he died.”

Horror whipped through me. “My brother? Eric? You saw him before he died?” I gasped, refusing to believe what I was thinking. “You didn't… You couldn't possibly..."

“I killed him,” he said as he ran the knife along my throat and stopped below my jaw. “Poor Eric. Always quick on the draw. So humble. He was one of my best boys, you know.”

Tears welled up in my eyes, a mixture of anger and the weight of Kendrick’s betrayal completely crushing me. “Why did you kill him?” I cried, my voice shaking. “What did he do to you?”

“Now, now, Rosanne. Why in such a hurry?” He wrapped his arm around my neck. “Your brother made a big mistake. He got caught, and he had to die for it.”

The living room was plunged into deep silence for a second. The only sound I heard was the pounding against my chest. “I don’t understand.”

“What’s not to understand?” He pushed me hard against the wall and pressed my face into it. “I had instructed your brother to transfer the money he stole from the organization into my account. No one was ever supposed to know, but then he screwed up and got caught. I couldn’t risk that the organization and the Police Department could find out what I had asked him to do and how I was using him to take money out of a criminal organization's pocket.”

Pain pierced me like the spikes from barbed wires. “So that's what this was all about? You got my brother to steal from the organization, and when he got caught, you killed him to keep it a secret. You used my brother and killed him, you monster!”

“Quiet.” He pointed the tip of his knife at my artery. “I had no choice.”

A mirthless laugh erupted from my chest. “Just like you have no choice but to kill me, right?”

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