Page 54 of Savage Bratva King

Tamara stands in front of me, arms by her side. From this position, I can’t see the back of the rambling house, but I’m still not convinced that there aren’t cameras hidden inside tree trunks and monitoring our every move.

“You don’t know where you’re going.” Her eyes harden.

“But you do.”

She glances at the trees, her eyes flitting from one to the next as if she is counting them. “On the other side of the woods is a wall. It is patrolled. There is razor wire along the top. But if you follow my instructions, someone will be waiting to help you.”

“Who?”

My heartbeat is thudding, a strange tune that I don’t recall ever hearing before. When Tamara offered to help, I assumed that she would deliver me safely outside the boundaries of Leonid’s property herself, and now that I know she isn’t coming with me, I’m not sure that I can see this through.

“No names. You will have to give your family something, but you will not be foolish enough to give them my name.”

She doesn’t threaten me with her sister; she doesn’t have to. I can already picture Ivana appearing in my bedroom at night, fangs and talons bared and dripping with the blood of previous victims.

“I…” I shake my head. “I don’t think?—”

“No turning back, printzessa. The guards saw you walking with me. If you come back with me now, Pakhan will never believe that we were enjoying some bonding time.”

Click. It is like a key turning in a lock inside my head, setting in motion the first part of her trap, and a shudder travels down my spine.

“He will know that you helped me then.”

She smiles and her eyes are almost filled with pity. “I will tell him that you attacked me.”

“I-what?”

“Hit me, printzessa.” She slides a gun from her pocket, flips it around and offers it to me, then taps her cheekbone with a tapered scarlet fingernail.

“You want me to hit you with your gun?” I don’t take it.

“You won’t shoot me. The gunshot would alert everyone on the property to your location, and you would be dead before you reach the first tree.” She pushes the weapon into my hand. “It has to be convincing or Pakhan will never believe that you overpowered me.”

My heart is screaming at me not to do it.

Will Leonid even believe her? What if she’s lying about someone waiting at the wall to help me? I’ll have no choice but to come back and pray that last night meant something to him too. Perhaps, in another world, one in which mafia wars and power struggles don’t exist, we might’ve met under different circumstances and had a chance to get to know one another like regular people. But we don’t. And there is no chance for people like me and Leonid.

I take the gun from her, ignoring the bite of cold metal against the palm of my hand, and jab it into the side of her face before she can prepare herself.

An involuntary groan escapes her lips. She clutches her cheek with her hand, blood oozing between her fingers from the split skin.

I hand the gun back to her and walk towards the dark shadows of the trees lined up like sentinels protecting Leonid’s kingdom.

But she calls me back. “Wait, printzessa.”

I turn to face her, and she gestures to the dog whose leash is still in my hand. I didn’t even realize that I was taking Marvel with me, and I reluctantly hand him over to Tamara.

Crouching beside him, I cup his large face in both hands and talk to him softly. “Go back to the house, Marvel. Good boy. She won’t hurt you.” Then I kiss the top of his head and address Tamara. “If I ever find out that you or your sister have hurt the dog, I will come back and finish what I started.”

I stroke her bleeding cheek and run into the woods.

I’ve no idea if I’m doing the right thing. I want to go home to my family, but something is telling me that I’m not done with Leonid Ivanov. Not yet. Maybe this is for the best though. If I can convince my family and Xander that he didn’t hurt me, perhaps they can reach a truce over this relentless war.

I might even meet him again someday. Who knows, we might find that our attraction is even stronger when one of us isn’t being held against her will.

Blurry eyed with hot stinging tears, I protect my face with my arms from the branches clawing at me, stumbling over exposed roots and boulders, and dodging clumps of thorny nettles.

I’m so focused on my footsteps and the heavy thump-thump-thump of my heartbeat that I don’t even hear the thundering paws behind me until Marvel leaps up, his front paws hitting me square in the middle of my back and sending me sprawling forward. I hit the ground face-first, my arms taking the brunt of the fall, the air leaving my lungs with a whoosh.

---