Page 77 of The Bratva's Auctioned Bride
And who do I walk into? None other than Bardil Popov.
“Hello, little fox. Sneaky, cunning little fox,” he snarls, grabbing my arm and pulling me close.
“You!” I gasp in shock.
“Me. Yes. Hi.”
He pulls a gun from beneath his jacket and hisses, “Not a word. Don’t you dare scream.”
I stagger away from him as he releases my arm, but in his eyes I see the warning. If I run, he will shoot.
“What do you want?” I snap.
“Last night I thought it was you, you know. But that disguise was clever. Of course, when the bombs went off, it was like a lightbulb in my brain, piecing two and two together. So, here I am, and darling, I am pissed off.”
His eyes flare with anger as he speaks. He really is furious. A man who doesn’t seem to have control over his emotions. That makes him a very dangerous man at this moment.
“What do you want, Bardil?” I ask again, slower, trying to take in my surroundings and plot an escape route.
“If you run, I shoot,” he says. “So, don’t bother trying. I’m so fucking sick of people messing up my plans. You have no idea how much you fucked me over with that stunt you pulled last night, girl,” he snarls.
My heart is racing a million miles an hour. Diomid is asleep upstairs. My brother thinks I’m out shopping. I’m truly alone here, and once again, I was reckless with my safety. Blinded by my need to escape my own emotions, I left without thinking or preparing.
Ok, there is absolutely no point in being hard on yourself now. You need to get out of this mess, and then you can worry about how you keep making the same mistakes afterward.
I let out a sharp breath.Stall. Keep him talking. Think. Find a way out.
“It wasn’t about screwing you over, Bardil. It was about saving those girls. It wasn’t a personal attack on you,” I explain, forcing my body to relax, trying to act calm and unaffected by his threat.
“Oh, but it was. It was very,verypersonal.” His face distorts with anger, and I bite down on my lip. “Your family has fucked with me one too many times in the past, but this time, you, fucking girl, you really fucked me over.”
Anger surges inside me. I want to scream at him that he deserved it, that what he did to those girls, what he tried to do tome, gives me every right to fight back. He needs to know that he can’t get away with it... But that won’t get me anywhere. Logic. Calm. Attention to detail.
“So, then… what do you want from me, Bardil. What do you expect to gain from facing me out here? Revenge? You want me to help you fix whatever I messed up?” I speak slowly, drawing out time, hopeful that an opportunity will present itself or someone will notice us.
“You can’t fix it. But you can pay for what you did. I can use you to recover some of the costs I lost. I already have a buyer.”
My stomach spins, and I want to vomit.
“I won’t come with you. I’d rather die than end up sold to one of those men,” I snarl.
“You’re going to die, alright. It’s part of the deal. I told him I want you disposed of after he’s done with you. Can’t have you coming back to haunt me. But I do want to make some money out of you in the process of getting rid of you,” he hisses.
Chapter 23 - Diomid
Someone laughs loudly, and I jump in fright, realizing I was woken up by the movie playing in my living room.
I run my eyes and look around for Angel, but she’s not here.
What? Why? Why would she leave like that?
Standing up, I flick the remote and the TV switches off.
“Angel?” I call into the penthouse. No reply.
My heart sinks. “Angel?” I call again, moving from room to room, until I realize she’s fetched her phone from the kitchen counter and her house keys are no longer sitting in the bowl where she left them last night. She left.
I’m standing dumbfounded in the hallway outside my bedroom, running my fingers through my hair, an intense argument racing through my mind.
