Page 31 of Tarnished Tyrant (Zhukova Bratva 1)

"Color me shocked," I mumble sarcastically.

I jump into the leather front seat and immediately lock the doors behind me. The car smells like him. That intoxicating allure of leather and spices and luxury.

I muddle through my lusty mental fog and start the engine. I'm not much of a gearhead. When the mechanic asks me what kind of car I have, I tell them “green.”

But this carpurrsunder me.

It feels like a live beast at my fingertips, stretching and growling and warming up for the drive. Even his goddamn car is sexy.

As annoying as his opulence is, it's working in my favor. Because, just as I suspected, the car has more screens in it than an Apple store. I tap the center console and a menu pops up. I scroll down to the GPS and then fumble through various settings until I find what I'm looking for: the location history.

Instantly, a list of addresses and named businesses appears. I snap a picture of the screen with my phone. I’ll drive to every single address on the list if I have to. Whatever it takes to find my sister.

I reach for the key to turn off the car, and then stop. A small smile spreads across my face.

“It’s only fair, right?” I mutter with a shrug. “He took something of mine, I take something of his.”

I reach for the joystick, but just as I move to shift the car into reverse, the engine dies.

“What the hell?”

Then the doors unlock.

“What the—”

Then the driver side door opens.

I scream just as Nikolai reaches into the car and yanks me out. He pins me back against the car with his hips.

“Going somewhere?” he growls.

Inside, even while he was threatening me, Nikolai looked like a businessman. Some part of me felt like I was safe. A businessman wouldn’t kill me in his office, right? A businessman wouldn’t get blood on his button-down, right?

But out here in the dark, cool air, Nikolai looks wild. He’s pure shadow and muscle tone.

I don’t stand a chance.

“How did you—”

He holds up a second set of keys. “I wanted to know exactly how far you planned to take this. All the way, apparently.”

His knee drives between my legs. I gasp involuntarily at the friction.

“Let me go!”

He clicks his tongue. “Not just yet, little lamb.”

His hand slides between us, and I stiffen. Heat trails behind his touch, warming me from the inside out.

I should be fighting harder than this. Somewhere in the back of my brain, the rational part of me is screaming for me to wake up.

Punch him in the dick, you sexed-up floozy! Fight! Scream! Run!

But there’s moisture pooling between my thighs, and up close like this, Nikolai smells even better than the inside of his car.

Then he darts into my pocket and pulls out my phone. He grabs my wrist and plants my thumb on the fingerprint scanner, unlocking it before I can really even register what is going on.

He shakes his head as he looks down at the screen, which is still displaying the picture I just took of his location history. “What was your plan, Belle? Were you going to charge in and rescue your sister by yourself?”

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