Page 24 of Born in Depravity

I observed her.

Like the obsessed man that I was. I didn’t know what it was about the girl that got to me so badly, but she did.

I wanted her desperately.

Nikolay opened the package of candy he bought from the gas station. I watched him. I never knew the man to have a sweet tooth, and he looked like he was enjoying himself.

“What’s that?” Damien asked.

“Candy,” Nikolay answered drily.

Damien shook his head. “I know that, asshole. Why did you buy it?”

“Malen’kaya kuklahad it in her hand when I got in. I was curious why she picked this.”

Malen’kaya kukla. Little doll. I supposed Catalina did resemble a doll, with those big brown eyes too big for her small face, and high cheekbones.

Although I thought she looked more like a kitten.Kotyonok. Harmless, helpless, and fucking adorable.

I shook my head.

Since when did I think a woman looked adorable? Even if that was what Catalina was.

Adorable and so fucking delicate andfuckable. And fuck if I was hard just thinking about her naked body squirming beneath mine in ecstasy as I worked to push her over the edge.

I couldn’t wait to taste her. I fucking bet her pussy would taste sweet.

“Is it good?” I asked, shaking myself out of my thoughts. Catalina was too far away from us to hear, though it probably wouldn’t have mattered if we were directly behind her. She seemed to be in her own little world.

Our sheltered princess.

Nikolay popped the small round pink candy in his mouth and shook his head. “Too sweet.”

I let out a small chuckle.

The waitress stopped by our table. A thirtysomething-year-old woman with tired gray eyes who looked like she had been through and seen a lot of shit. Her voice had a raspy quality, as if she’d spent the last two decades smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. Her eyes glimmered hungrily as she took us in.

Unlike Catalina, this woman looked like she knew what she was doing.

This was the kind of woman we usually associated ourselves with. Someone who knew the score. We had no business stalking the little innocent eating her food, so completely and utterly unaware of all that was going around her.

For being a runaway and the daughter of one of the most feared mob bosses in the southern territory of the U.S., she sure was oblivious.

I shouldn’t be so annoyed over the fact, since it would make our job easier, but fuck if I wasn’t feeling the slight edge of annoyance over the looks being shot her way from all the stupid motherfuckers around.

If they wanted to keep their hands, they wouldn’t step within six feet of her, and so far, it seemed everyone was keeping to themselves.

I looked away long enough from her to order a cup of coffee. Damien didn’t say anything, already dismissing the waitress standing in front of our table as insignificant in his eyes, while Nikolay ordered the exact same thing Catalina had ordered.

If I had been obsessed with our little princess, Nikolay was tormented by her.

He never said—it wasn’t like him to share everything with us—but just from his actions alone, I knew he was studying Catalina.

The way he usually did when another man had the misfortune of becoming his target.

He didn’t want to cut into Catalina, though. Didn’t want to do to her what he did with those men.

No, he wanted to own her.

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