Page 27 of Cruel Bratva King

Sergey looked at me, clearly stunned. “Why should I let her go when she hit you?” He pulled her hair even harder. “You’re mine, Lilianna. Mine. No one gets to touch or hurt you.”

“I’m not yours, Sergey. I’ll never be yours, but you have to let her go.”

“You’re mine.”

“I’m not. Look at you. You’re a monster who hurts women. Why would I want to be with someone like you?” I shouldn’t have said that, and I regretted it almost immediately when I saw the rage that flashed through Sergey’s eyes. He was terrifying this way, and my instincts were screaming for me to run.

“Touch my wife again, and you’ll be a corpse in less than a second.” He released his grip on Giulia’s hair and tossed her away. “Everyone, out!”

Animosity bled into the air as the room grew quiet. The only thing I could hear was the whooshing of my blood in my ears. I was going to have a heart attack if the silence grew any louder than it already was.

Giovanni cleared his throat and stood, breaking the deadly silence. “This is not the deal we had, Sergey.”

“We never had a deal, Giovanni. You made an offer, and I turned it down,” Sergey said, his voice a wicked baritone that etched with brutality.

“You will regret it.”

Sergey moved closer to Giovanni. “I may, but you won’t live to regret threatening me in my own house.”

Guns cork around us, from Giovanni’s men first and then Sergey’s men. All of them looked like they were ready to kill and lay down their lives for their bosses tonight.

This doesn’t look good.

Sergey and Giovanni glared deeply into each other’s eyes for a moment, and the tension in the room grew with every second that passed.

“It is not a threat, son.” Giovanni signaled his men to put their guns down and it’s only after they did that Sergey's men followed suit. “Think your decision through. You have until tomorrow night to change your mind.”

Sergey’s jaw flexed with anger, his fists clenched by his side. He was fighting the urge to kill Giovanni right there and then. “You have until the next second to get the hell out of my house.”

“I shall leave then.” Giovanni flashed a wicked smile at Sergey, and then at me. “Dinner was lovely, too bad it will be our last time eating as friends.”

Sergey didn’t bless him with an answer before he started for the door, taking his daughter and bodyguards with him.

Once they shut the door behind them I allowed myself to breathe for the first time in minutes.

Christ, that could have ended with a bloodbath

Sergey’s men left the room and I tried to follow them, but I was brought to a halt before I made it to the door..

“Not you.” He prowled towards me, nearer and nearer, until I could feel his body heat warm my back.

I turned around to face him. “What is it? Do you want to hurt me too?”

“I’ll never hurt you.”

“Am I supposed to believe that?” I closed the remaining distance between us. I had no idea where my courage came from, but I didn’t want to cower away in fear. “First, you kidnapped me. Then, you hurt a woman in front of me and expect me to see you as a gentleman?”

He slammed his fist on the wall above me, and I jumped back in alarm. “I’m not a gentleman. I do not need to be one, Lilianna. Hate me all you want, but as long as you’re mine, I’ll never let anyone hurt you.”

The gloom in his eyes reminded me once again that Sergey was not an ordinary man. He was ruthless, a killer. Shivers splinted down my spine from the harshness in his voice, but I didn’t back down.

“I’m not yours. I’m not a rubber doll you bought at the dollar shop, Sergey. I’m not an item that you own.”

“You’re going to be my wife tomorrow. You’re mine.” He said it as if his word was final, and I had no say. I probably didn’t, but I couldn’t be a bystander in my own life. I needed to regain some control over my fate.

My heart rate tripled, and my chest swelled. I would explode if I got any angrier than I was right now. “I do not want to marry a man like you. Don’t you get it? You don’t love me. You’re only obsessed with the idea that I’m carrying your child.”

He didn’t deny what I said. Instead, he looked straight into my eyes and confirmed it. “You’re right. I’m obsessed with the child in your stomach.” He raised his hand to rub my stomach but dropped it when I flinched. Sergey had the right to feel and talk to his child if he wanted, and I wasn’t afraid of his touch.

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