Page 6 of BRATVA'S Avenging Bride
"No."
She grits her teeth. "Let. Go."
"Make me."
For a heartbeat, we're locked there. Her fury meets my control, and the air between us crackles with something sharp and dangerous.
Then she moves.
She's fast. Faster than I expect. She twists her wrist, yanks the blade free, and slashes at my face in one fluid motion.
I catch her wrist midair and spin her around, pinning her back against my chest. The knife clatters to the floor. She writhes, all teeth and elbows and feral desperation.
"Easy,zhar-ptitsa."
"Fuck you!"
"Heh." I grin as I lean down, my mouth close to her ear. "Right now, you're going to listen."
"I don't have to listen to anything you—"
"The police are looking for you." My voice cuts through her struggle like a blade. "They have witnesses. They have footage. They know a girl walked out of that fire, and they know she started it. You have maybe twelve hours before they find you. Less, if Boris's friends decide to come looking first."
She goes still.
"You can run," I continue. "Hide. Try to disappear. But you're not a ghost, Katherine. You're a woman with a face and a name and a body count. Theywillfind you."
"Or?" Her voice is quieter now. Sharper.
"Or you come with me."
"Why the hell would I do that?"
I release her and step back, giving her space. She spins around, eyes blazing, but she doesn't run.
"Because I can protect you. Because I have resources, money, and men who are very good at making problems disappear. Because you're smart enough to know that this—" I gesture around the shitty flat, the broken windows, the life she's been clinging to "—isn't survival. It's just a slower way to die."
"And what do you get out of it?"
I smile. Slow. Dangerous.
"You."
Her breath catches. Just for a second, but I hear it.
"You're insane."
"Maybe." I pick up her knife from the floor and hold it out to her, handle first. "But I'm also the only reason you're not in handcuffs right now. So, what's it going to be,zhar-ptitsa? Run and hope they don't catch you? Or take my hand and live long enough to build something from the ashes?"
She stares at the knife, at me, at the door behind me like she's calculating her odds.
Then she takes the knife.
"If you try to cage me," she says quietly, "I'll set fire to you, too."
I laugh. Low and dark and full of promise.
"Malen'koye plamya, I'm counting on it."
