Page 39 of The Bratva's Beast

I had to take the offensive side of things, chase and hunt Stepan down if I wanted any chance of winning his little bet.

Do it for the gun. Do it for the gun.

The motivation repeated in my mind as my adrenaline worked itself throughout my body until my heart pounded in my chest like a rabid beast in its cage.

Snapping my head up to the scoreboard, I caught a glance at the time—forty minutes—before taking off in a random direction. The place was huge and littered with many hiding spots and vantage points. Wildly, my head snapped in every direction as I carefully stalked around the place. Left, right, up, down, everywhere.

Then, in a stroke of luck, a scurry of movement was caught out of the corner of my eyes, making me sharply change directions. My ears picked up the sounds of hurrying footsteps, and I quickly followed them until Stepan was in my sights.

Gotcha!

Not.

The paintball narrowly missed him by a damn inch. For a big guy, he was fast. Well, he was big to me, but compared to his brothers or others, he was a bit on the leaner side. As much as I appreciated Stepan's contrast from his brothers, I wished differently right now so that I'd have a bigger target to hit.

"God damn it, stay still!" I huffed when another shot narrowly missed him.

My hopes rose to new heights at the turn of a corner. A wicked grin spread across my face when Stepan's cornered body turned towards me. Shot after shot, the paintballs flew at him. Unfortunately, only three managed to stick, barely. I only got him because he was too busy climbing and vaulting over a stack of crates to escape me. Well, at least three was better than nothing; now I just needed to land twelve more hits on him, and I was golden.

Easier said than done.

Over twenty minutes, I only managed another seven hits on him after I tracked him down again and gave chase. Then he managed to slip away from me again, but I kept a close tail on him this time because the last ten minutes would fly by in a minute. I couldn't afford to hunt him down again.

Come on, just five more. Five more shots, and you get a shiny new baby.

"Blyat'!" The reason for Stepan's sudden curse was apparent to me when I turned the corner.

Unable to help it, I let out a devious giggle before letting loose on poor Stepan, who got cornered again, this time with no escape because the only way out was through me since the other sides were the warehouse walls. Trapped, all he could do was try to dodge my shots until they became too much, and then all he did was hold his hands up in surrender while cowering and laughing in a corner. Too bad I have no concept of mercy because when the hell would I get a chance to freely shoot at Stepan like this?

"Ha! I win! You owe me a new gun!" I cheered with a crazed grin as I stood before him with my empty gun pointed at him.

Also, I had too much fun shooting Stepan in a nonlethal way.

Startled and taken aback, I let out a high-pitched sound and immediately raised my arms to shield myself when Stepan suddenly shot at me. Then, we were on the ground in laughter after I tackled him and grabbed the gun from his grasp, holding his wrists down as we laughed. "You're such a jerk for doing that," I managed through my fits of giggles while pinning him down with my body weight and trapping him under my legs and arms.

Stepan's laughter died down to soft chuckles as he reached up and took my goggles off with one hand while his other took his off. "Did you have fun though?" He asked through heavy pants as he looked up at me.

My head nodded in response while my lips grinned down at him. "I haven't had this much fun in… Well… I've actually never had this kind of fun before… So, thank you." Sure, I had fun killing people and beating people up, but never innocent fun like this.

A shiver snapped at my body when Stepan settled his hands on my thighs, digging his fingers into the back of it before stroking them slowly. Sucking in a sharp breath, I tuck my bottom lip under my teeth and chew on it to hold back my sound of pleasure as I looked down at Stepan pleadingly.

But was it for him to stop or continue?

Chapter 22

Hanna

I'm fucking losing it.

Sucking in a sharp breath, I let loose another volley of punches at the punching bag, not giving a single care about the fact my knuckles ached for a break. I needed to vent in the best way I knew how, and since I couldn't exactly take a bat to a car or someone's face right now, this poor bag would have to do.

I don't know how, but my determination and goal of pushing Stepan aside had taken a turn for the worst.

After our little paintball outing and late-night dinner, things went astray for a bit. It was a great moment between us, too great. I nearly lost control that night in the warehouse with him; I almost gave into my urges and almost leaned down to kiss him. Guilt consumed me for a good night and day after I shut Stepan down and out that night before we both lost ourselves.

Stepan wasn't mine to have.

Apparently, my brain didn't get the memo because my dreams about Stepan occurred more often than not. Usually, I wouldn't complain because anything was better than my nightmares, but the ones about Stepan started to become an annoyance because it kept him ever present in my mind—awake or not.