Page 12 of Captive Union
“Just the way you are, huh?”
She wraps her arms around herself.
Kira will be a tough one to crack with how shy she is. It makes her tough to read. Clearly, she’s frightened. Anyone would be. But she’s not giving me anything to work with. How can I make her mine if I don’t even understand her?
“Fine. Keep to yourself. Once I get you home, I promise you’ll start to open up to me.”
She meets my eyes for a second before looking away again. A small act of defiance. Maybe Kira has some fight in her.
Rowdy laughter comes from the door right before it opens and a bunch of my men spills into the warehouse. Good to see not all of them died during the fight.
One of them, Scott, the drugged-up former athlete, comes up and offers me a high five. I just look at his hand before looking at his face. Scott coughs before dropping his hand.
I face my men. “I’m glad you all survived. But this isn’t something to cheer. This isn’t victory. Victory won’t happen until Maxim and Alexei understand what it means to mess with the wrong man.” Kira looks up at me. I meet her eyes as I say, “They’re going to understand pain.” She flinches before looking away. I turn back to the group. “So take a breather. You’ve all earned it. But this fight doesn’t end today. Maxim will hunt endlessly to get his sister back. I need you all at your best to keep an eye out for him. You didn’t see anyone follow you here, did you?”
They shake their heads no.
“Good. That’s good.” I look at Kira. “Then we should get going.”
“Going so soon?” Another of my guys, a slime ball named Sam, sits down next to Kira. My body tenses in a way I’ve never felt before. Kira scoots away from him. “Come on,” Sam says. “Don’t be like that.” His fingers trace over Kira’s arm. I watch for a moment to see how far Sam is willing to go while I’m standing right here. It’ll give me a good excuse to kill the motherfucker. “I just want to say hi.” He tugs Kira closer to him and leans down to kiss her cheek. The other men laugh as Kira pulls away, wiping Sam’s saliva from her face.
“Come on, baby,” Sam continues. “Don’t tell me you didn’t like that.”
“Kiss her again,” another guy shouts out.
Sam leans down, this time to kiss her lips. Fuck this shit. I calmly approach Sam and jerk him up by his shirt. Sam’s eyes widen.
“You thought you could kiss my girl?” I growl. Kira is hunched over, her arms wrapped around herself.
“Uh, uh, I’m … I’m sorry, boss. I thought you brought her here for all of us to share.”
I lower my voice until it’s a dark rumble in my chest. “And what made you think I did that?”
“Uh.” His eyes flick to Kira.
“Don’t look at her. Look at me,” I snap, shaking him.
“B-b-because she’s right there?”
“Oh, and you think any woman in your vicinity belongs to you?”
“No?”
I growl, shoving the fucktard away so hard he falls to the ground. “Did none of you understand why we attacked that party tonight?” I ask the group.
No more laughter comes from any of them. They all just nod quietly.
“No? Explain it to me.”
“You, uh, want revenge on the Petrovs,” one guy murmurs.
“That’s right. And part of my revenge is this woman right here. She ismine.” Out of the corner of my eye, I see Kira look up at me. Always with her little looks. “Not yours. Mine. I wanted her for myself, so I took her for myself. None of you get a taste of her. Understood?”
A round of them saying yes echoes through the room.
I look down at Sam. “Doyouunderstand?”
“I just don’t understand why you didn’t say anything at first,” Sam says, trying to weasel his way out of this. “Why didn’t you stop me when I kissed her cheek?”
