Page 14 of Savage Bratva King

“When I say you can.”

O-kay, so that’s how he wants to play it.

“My fiancé won’t let you get away with this.”

“Your fiancé?” He arches an eyebrow and continues to pour his honey-coated voice all over me.

“Seamus Mulligan.” I pause. “Oh, wait, did no one tell you about him? Yeah, he heads up the Irish mafia in Chicago. He won’t let you keep me here against my will…” My voice trails off when I see the bemused gleam in his eyes.

“You think that your fiancé can take on my entire organization?” He sits back and sips his black coffee, but those amber eyes hold on to mine.

“Seamus and my family. Oh, and let’s not forget Xander, my brother-in-law.”

“Oh, I intend to do exactly that once I have taken Xander Amory down.”

“I…” I shake my head.

I need to hold it together, keep up the bravado, not show him that I’m afraid because he will have already won. But now, I’m not only afraid for me, I’m afraid for Mel and Lucian and the rest of my family.

His eyes grow cold suddenly, and I shudder as if the sun just went behind a cloud. “What’s the matter?” he asks, mimicking my earlier question. “Run out of steam so quickly? I must say, I had higher hopes for you.”

I push my chair backwards, breakfast and coffee threatening to come back up. “I’m done here.”

“Sit down.” His voice slices through the air in the room, laced with something toxic instead of the honey I imagined before.

I turn around to face the witch who is already marching towards me. “I want to go back to my room.” I see it in her eyes, the rising mountain of a man behind me as he stands up and towers over me.

I turn around slowly, clenching my fists, and willing myself to stay strong. I’ve already rattled him; now, all I have to do is keep up the momentum, and he’ll be begging my dad to take me back.

“I said sit down.” His top lip curls into a snarl worthy of a Rottweiler, and my insides turn to mush that has nothing to do with fear, and everything to do with his narrowed eyes locked onto mine.

I straighten myself to my full five feet and four inches and tilt my head towards the ceiling to peer up at him. “And I said that I’m done here.”

A tic appears in his temple. “You are done when I say you are done.”

“You don’t get to tell me what to do. You have no idea what my family is capable of.”

His mouth twists into a sinister smile and he laughs out loud. I don’t hear anyone else laughing. “I have every idea what your family is capable of, but they will have to find you first.”

“They will.” I stand on tiptoes and still barely reach his shoulders. “They will find you, and they will make you pay for this.”

And yep, I’m so forceful that he turns around, walks back to his seat, and ladles a heap of scrambled eggs onto his plate.

6

LEONID

“They will find you,and they will make you pay for this.”

Her words echo in my mind like a slap I didn’t see coming. I am not afraid of her family. Her father is using his daughters as pawns to buy alliances that will strengthen his waning position. It is Xander I am interested in. Only Xander.

But I saw the fear behind her defiant eyes, and some irrational part of me came loose and wished, for her sake, that her family was stronger. They have allowed their little printzessa to slip through their fingers and they really should’ve taken better care of her because now that she is here, they will have to spill blood to get her back. Xander’s blood.

“Sit.”

I barely glance at her. In the corner of my eye, I notice the way Sergei steps closer, ready to move her himself if he must. Tamara and Ivana have been following the conversation with furrowed brows. Perhaps they expected an alternative outcome, one in which the printzessa cried and begged for me to let her go home.

It is true that the kind of disrespect she has shown me would have earned anyone else a warning they could not refuse, but Gianna is different. Perhaps it was the way her boldness flickered for a moment to reveal the fear lurking beneath the surface. Or perhaps I simply find her amusing, like a playful puppy with a squeaky toy.

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