Page 19 of Gangster's Empire: Leeza & Havel

“It’s fine,” she murmured.

He looked into her eyes. “You’re a difficult woman, Leeza Koba.”

She let out a laugh before she could call it back. She couldn’t disagree with his assessment. “Then why marry me?”

“I want a built-in chef,” he quipped, his lips tilting.

She smiled tremulously at his attempt at humor. "I hate cooking and I’m bad at it.”

But he knew that, of course. Pushing himself to his feet, he backed away from her. “Guess you’ll have to learn.”

“You saw what happens when I play with fire,” she taunted. “Are you sure I should have access to a stove?”

He chuckled and then the smile gradually fell from his lips.

“You’re really leaving me in here?” she asked as he walked toward the door.

He stopped and turned back to her. His expression was hard and unyielding. “Take some time to yourself. Reconcile with the inevitable. Like it or not, we’re getting married.”

“I don’t want to marry you, Havel,” she said quietly as she looked down at her hands.

“I know,” he said grimly. “I’ve always known that. Lucky for me, you don’t get a choice this time.”

He left before she could answer him.

“If I’d had a choice last time, it would have been you,” she whispered, falling back onto the bed and covering her face with her hands. The difference now was that she knew what marriage was like and she’d rather die than go through it again.

CHAPTER NINE

A scraping sound woke Leeza, sending her into a cold sweat. She could tell it was the middle of the night from the moonlight filtering through the bars of the cell. Havel hadn’t come back after leaving her in the Shed, but he’d sent a guard to drop off food. She assumed the guard was still out there.

“Hello?” she called softly, spooked as the scraping sound continued.

She realized it was the door lock when someone rattled the door.

Except for the separation from her son, she was mostly okay with being locked up. She’d napped, eaten her meal and done some light exercises. If she’d had a book or some other form of entertainment, she would’ve called the time spent in her prison a nice vacation from real life.

But she couldn’t stop the fear running through her as the door continued to rattle. She rose from the bed and took a fighting stance as the door flew open and someone came tumbling inside.

“Ouch!” a female voice snapped from the floor. “Motherfucker, that hurt.”

“Saskia?”

“Who else is going to rescue you in the middle of the night?” her grumpy voice said from across the cell. Saskia picked herself up off the floor and grinned, her white teeth flashing in the moonlight. “You ready to get out of here?”

“How did you get in?” Leeza straightened, dropping her fists. “Isn’t there a guard out there?”

“Yeah, but I told him Havel needed him urgently. He’s probably going to get fired. Who lets a nineteen-year-old lie and sneak into a jail cell without questioning the veracity of her story?”

“You’re not an average teenager,” Leeza said dryly.

Saskia shrugged. “Who’s to say? I don’t really get much of a chance to hang with my peers.”

Though the words were lighthearted, Leeza felt the underlying pain to them. Their lives had never been normal. They’d been educated by tutors until they were fourteen, then sent to boarding school in England to finish off their education, which was as close as either had come to having girlfriends.

Leeza walked to the door, squeezing Saskia’s shoulder as she passed. It surprised her to feel the fragile bones beneath her sister’s sweater. Saskia had always been the curvier of the two. She was shorter, but her body was fuller. Her weight loss was probably due to the stress of Jozef’s takeover and the loss of their parents. Leeza had lost weight as well.

Before Leeza could leave the cell, something hurtled out of the darkness at her, striking her in the middle. She gasped and stumbled back before realizing it was her son clinging to her.

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