Page 11 of Secret Bratva Baby
Rose purses her lips tightly, her eyes glittering as tears threaten to spill from them.
In her arms, her daughter stirs. “It’s okay, Lily,” she whispers.
Lily. Lily and Rose. Two flowers in a garden.
I turn my head, not wanting to look at her anymore. I’m struggling in unexpected ways. Seeing her again after all these years is a lot harder than I imagined it would be, although I’ve been careful not to think about her as much as I am able to avoid it. So, maybe this is all just my mind going into shock.
I need sleep.
I need to figure out how I’m going to juggle keeping her safe and everything else running.
Dammit. What have I gotten myself into?
Chapter 4 - Rose
I refuse to sit down or accept that I’m staying here.
He kidnapped me. And he’s planning on keeping me a prisoner.
How can he say that so calmly? How can he look so uninterested in what is going on right now?
This is unbelievable. This must be some sick joke. It doesn’t make sense. Why would men be after me? Why would I be in danger? I haven’t done anything.
In my arms, Lily stirs, and I whisper to her, trying to soothe her back to sleep. She’s getting heavy at three years old, and my arms are tired. My whole body is tired. My mind is tired. I could collapse onto a bed now and sleep for a year.
But when I close my eyes, even briefly, I see Luka killing that man.
I see the knife slice across his neck, his skin splitting open, and blood gushing out of the wound. I see Luka, so casual, as he steps aside to avoid the blood splattering his jeans. He looks calm, as though he’s killed before. The whole thing makes my stomach churn, and I quickly open my eyes before the nausea becomes too intense.
The Luka sitting on the sofa in front of me is not the same Luka I was in love with four years ago. He’s not the same Luka I have been in love with since the day he pushed me away.
He was cold and cruel, and his actions made no sense.
I begged him to tell me what was going on, but he forced me out, then blocked me in every single way possible. He knew I didn’t have family I could lean on. He knew I was alone. But he did it anyway.
Luka was always intense. He always had that dark, bad-boy spirit. His eyes are so black they look like coal, deep and dark and full of secrets. He’s always been gorgeous and mysterious, but the Luka I met tonight…he’s a whole different level of dangerous.
It wasn’t until after he pushed me away, a month later, that I realized I was pregnant with his baby. I spent the entire pregnancy waiting for him to show up, to tell me he changed his mind, and that he would want to raise our baby together. Then I spent the first year of her life wishing that he would surprise me, come back into my life.
But on the day of her first birthday, I decided I couldn’t live like that. I couldn’t be in love with a man who was capable of discarding me so easily. For my daughter’s sake, I did everything I could to stop loving Luka. I did everything in my power to push him from my thoughts.
Of course, that’s not fully possible. And I still think of him far more often than I should.
But again, I look at Luka, the one sitting right in front of me, and I can’t shake the feeling that he’s changed. And regardless of who I knew back then, this isn’t the same man. This man is dangerous.
This man killed someone in front of my eyes, and this man has kidnapped me.
“Luka,” I say, carefully, shifting my weight from one foot to the other, Lily weighing heavily in my arms. “Please, let us go.”
He huffs in annoyance and glares at me with those midnight-black eyes. “Rose, you are testing my patience,” he growls, standing up. He grabs his glass and walks back towards the bar along the side of the living room.
While he pours himself another drink, I stare at his broad shoulders, his muscular back, and remember the first time I ever saw him.
It practically shattered my world the day I met him. I’d never seen someone so beautiful in my entire life. This man, tall, muscular, devilishly handsome—the way his smile curved into dimples on his cheek, his square jaw line shadowed with stubble. He was so sexy, I didn’t know what to do with myself.
The first time I ever met him, my knees went weak, I forgot how to speak, and I practically ran away to hide.
The second time I met him, he was incredibly flirtatious. I kept telling myself not to fall for the traps of this gorgeous man. He was only interested in one thing, and I wasn’t willing to give that out to just anyone.
