Page 102 of Ripped Lace (Ripped Bratva)

“You make it sound like a commodity.”

“It is,” he says. “The most valuable commodity there is.”

Without even realizing it, we’ve somehow managed to move even closer to one another. His chest is practically touching mine. The heat coming off him is blistering with electricity.

I desperately want him to touch me—not my head; my head wants him a million miles away—but my stupid, fickle heart wants him so bad it physically aches.

But he doesn’t. He just exists. And that’s a torture in its own right.

“Let me make one thing clear,” he says. “You seem to think there’s some convincing me. That we have a give and take. A rapport. You’re wrong about that. I am the don, and what I say goes. Is that clear?”

I resist the urge to laugh in his face, but only barely. “Is your ego so fragile that you can’t take one word of criticism?”

His jaw tightens. “You’re a naïve brat from a godforsaken desert cult. You know nothing of this life or this world. What makes you think you’re qualified to tell me what to do, little lamb?”

He’s angry and lashing out because of that. I know I shouldn’t push him over the deep end. Especially when he seems so close to it already.

But I can’t help myself.

“Matvei agrees with me,” I counter. “Is he a naïve brat, too?”

His first response is a glare so deadly that I actually contemplate getting into bed and burying my head underneath a pillow.

“Matvei is no longer a part of this Bratva,” Phoenix hisses. “Not in any way that matters.”

“He cares about you, you know,” I say. “He loves you.”

“We are no longer on the same path.”

“Is that because you pushed him off it?”

“Jesus!” Phoenix roars, ripping away from me and stalking towards the windows like a Greek god of wrath. “What the fuck do you want from me, Elyssa?”

I look down, wondering about that answer myself. “I don’t know,” I whisper. “I wish I did.”

It’s the truest thing I’ve ever said.

He doesn’t look at me when he speaks again. Just continues staring out the window, hands clasped behind his back, cutting a brutal silhouette in the low light. “I’m going to do the best I can to get Theo back. In the meantime, you are to follow my orders to the letter.”

“I’m your wife, not your employee,” I remind him saucily.

That does the trick. Over the edge he goes.

He whips around and comes at me like a hurricane. When he grabs my arm, I try and fail not to cry out. His eyes bore into mine as he leans in. His irises glow luminescent.

“You are whatever I need you to be,” he growls right in my face. “Understood?” When I don’t answer, he twists my arm painfully and pulls me even closer into his body. “I asked if you fucking understood me.”

Fear is the only thing that makes me nod my head. Fear of what a man like him might do when he has lost everything he’s ever cared for.

The moment I acknowledge him, he releases me and storms out of the room. His scent lingers in his wake, as do the marks of his fingerprints on my forearm.

He’s in love with you,Matvei said.

Is that love?

Because if it is, I certainly don’t recognize it.

24

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