Page 83 of Savage Bratva King

I take it from him and am surprised at how cold and heavy it feels in the palm of my hand, as if my time in this house has stripped me of all my memories of everyday life. This device was my connection to the rest of the world, but living without it has turned it into forbidden fruit.

“He said to tell you to call your sister.” Sergei keeps his face tilted upward as though soaking up the remains of the day.

“Mel? I can call Mel?” I don’t even try to hide the excitement in my voice. I hand Sergei the cup of coffee and unlock my phone.

“I have to stick around though. You understand.”

“Yes.”

I don’t even care that he’s been instructed to listen to my conversation. He’ll probably report back to Leo, but he won’t hear anything incriminating. I’m not exactly going to ask her to come and get me. I just want to talk to her about Leo and the wedding and Lucky.

My fingers are trembling so violently that it takes me three attempts to locate Mel’s number in my contacts app. When I hit the green button, I pray that she’ll pick up—it would be too cruel to be given this opportunity only for Mel to be too busy to answer.

My heart is thumping like crazy. Pick up, Mel. Please pick up.

There’s a click, and then Mel’s voice is saying, “Oh my fucking God, Gianna, you’re alive. Where the fuck are you? Tell me now, and I’ll come and get you.”

Tears sting my eyes. “I’m okay, Mel. Don’t worry about me. I’m safe.”

“Bullshit, Gi. You disappear off the face of the fucking earth and then call me up to tell me you’re safe?”

“Mel, listen to me. I don’t have long.” I raise my eyes to Sergei, who is discreetly looking the other way.

“Why? Where are you?” Her voice is shrill, and I feel a surge of love for my sister who probably hasn’t slept since I was abducted. “Tell me the name of the fucker who’s holding you and I’ll kill them myself.”

I can’t help smiling. I’ve missed my sister.

I’ve missed her so much that I don’t pay attention to the sounds in the background of the call until I hear a gunshot and realize that it isn’t at Mel’s end.

It’s right here in Leo’s backyard.

What happens next is a blur. Sergei grabs my hand. We run, not in the direction of the woods, but back towards the house. A bullet whistles past my head. Something hot and wet splatters my face, and still, we keep running, and I’ve no idea what’s going on, but I do know that everything feels wrong.

More gunfire.

A voice yells at us to stop right there. I look around and, through blurry eyes, find Ivana running in our direction with her gun aimed directly at us.

26

LEONID

I knowbefore I answer the call that I’m too late.

I wanted to give Sergei the benefit of the doubt. Time to put things right. He has been by my side for as long as I can remember, and I allowed my own sense of loyalty to misjudge his.

Fuck. Fuck.Fuck!

“Pakhan.” Ivana’s voice travels from the phone to my ear, cold and clinical, beating the blood gushing through my veins into submission. “The asset has been taken.”

She doesn’t need to say anything else.

I grip the phone so tightly I could crush it in my bare hand.

I didn’t want to be here at the casino tonight. I’ve spent the entire evening thinking about going home to find Gianna in my bed. Picturing her hair fanned across the pillows, her full breasts and pink nipples winking at me to be sucked, her legs open wide and inviting me in. But I lingered out of a sense of fucking duty.

Duty to the family rather than duty to the woman I love.

The woman who has switched a light on inside me and painted the world in vibrant colors I never knew existed until now.

---