Page 6 of Gangster's Empire: Leeza & Havel

“Kris?” she whispered.

“Leave her be,” another, deeper voice spoke. “Let her wake up in her own time.”

Havel.

Not the sweet Havel who’d given Leeza her first kiss, but the Havel who was now her enemy.

As she bolted upright, her head spun and a lightning rod of pain made her cry out. She gripped her head and fell back.

“Momma!”

“Hush, Kris, she’s fine,” Havel growled. “Your shouting is going to make it worse.”

Leeza slitted her eyes and turned towards Havel. He was holding Kris on his lap, who struggled to get to Leeza, reaching his thin arms out for his mother.

Leeza licked her lips and whispered, “Give him to me.” When Havel hesitated, she added, her voice stronger, “Let go of my son.”

Havel released Kris, who flung himself at his mother, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and tucking his face into her neck. She took shallow breaths as waves of nausea rolled over her, made worse by Kris jiggling her.

"What did you give me?" she asked hoarsely, her vision blurring. "Where are taking us?"

Havel’s voice was emotionless as he answered her question. “Prague.”

Leeza looked around, blinking away the blurriness in her vision. Sure enough, they were on an airplane and now that she was paying attention, she could feel the vibrations and hear the buzz of the engines.

Leeza did her best to calm her son, but he was extremely agitated and could be difficult to manage on a regular day, let alone through a kidnapping. She narrowed her eyes. “What did you do to him?” She tried to push herself up onto her elbow, but the world spun and she stopped moving, touching a hand to her head to ease the splitting headache.

“It’ll stop hurting soon,” Havel said, a note of concern in his voice. “Kris came right to me when I opened the bolt hole. He’s behaved himself, just worried for his mother.”

Leeza covered Kris’s ears with her hands. “I don’t give a flying fuck how he acts for you, you kidnapping asshole. I care that he isn’t traumatized by what you did to us.”

Havel lifted a thick brow and stared at her with his dark, emotionless eyes. “What I did to him?” His tone was soft but dangerous. “You dragged him out of the only home he knew in the middle of the night, drugged him, and ran away with him. I’m just the guy who’s bringing him home.”

Leeza glared at him. Four months earlier, she’d had been forced to flee her home with her son after Jozef and Havel declared war on the Kobas. “I was acting out of self-preservation and love for my child,” she said bitterly. “Do you think I wanted to run away? My parents were killed and for all I knew, I was next. What was I supposed to do?”

Havel leaned forward and gripped her chin, the same as he’d done in the change room eight years ago. Only this time, his move seemed far more sinister. “And what exactly led to the deaths of your parents, Leeza?” Again, the dangerous note to his voice. “It was you who tipped over the first domino that toppled the house of Koba.”

Leeza bit her cheek to stop herself from screaming at him. She’d been left to fend for herself! Sold in marriage to a monster by an uncaring stepfather. Then the war between Jozef and Krystoff sent shockwaves through the Koba organization. She may have been the one to spark the dynamite, but she didn’t blow shit up.

Kris struggled in her arms, shoving at her hands, which were still covering his ears. Havel gripped her chin tighter, his dark, bottomless gaze roving over her face. He was looking at her like a man who would enjoy choking the life from her.

Her heart hammered in both fear and anticipation as Havel closed the distance between them.

He pressed his lips to hers in a replica of their first kiss. He knew! Somehow, he had to know that she’d been dreaming or thinking of him as she was waking up from the drugging. Had she mumbled his name?

A moan slipped out from between her lips and she blushed in embarrassment as she realized his team would be somewhere nearby.

Finally, Havel released her, but he didn’t move more than an inch, his eyes boring into hers spoke eloquently without words. She belonged to him now. He’d patiently waited eight years and now she was his. She had no idea what he wanted with her, but she had no doubt she would soon find out.

He turned his head and looked at Kris. “You want some ice cream, little man?”

Kris nodded emphatically, then slid off Leeza.

She sighed in relief at having his weight off her stomach. A glance behind her told her that Havel’s team were indeed at the back of the plane. She quickly faced forward, her face heating with shame.

She knew all of them, some well. Some had protected her when she was still a valued member of the family. Now she was the daughter of their dead boss, dragged back to Prague by the second-in-command to beg their new boss for mercy. They used to treat her with respect, now they were her captors.

Another wave of nausea rolled through her, and she dropped her head, pressing her forehead to her knees. She heard a flight attendant asking Kris what flavour of ice cream he wanted. Kris wouldn’t answer though, he rarely spoke to strangers.

---