Page 46 of Kept By the Bratva
I nodded. “I work—” My throat struggled to swallow past the lump of emotion that rose with realizing my error. I wouldn’t work anywhere. I’d never earn my own way in life. Independence was a joke when I was locked in this wing like this. “I worked at a vet clinic. I’m a vet tech.”
“Yeah.” He rubbed his jaw. “I remember. You told me the first night.”
“I have experience stitching all kinds of wounds. I mostly did paperwork, but I am skilled at more than your usual first aid.”
He smiled slightly, almost sadly. “I wouldn’t want to trouble you.” Giving me his back, he turned for the door.
I stared after him. The clicks of the locks being engaged didn’t follow his exit, but I refused to read too much into that. He was buying me—paying for my freedom from being Diego’s bought slave. That amount of money also ensured I would be Nik’s. Not out of love, but of something that seemed like cold, bland duty.
“Don’t expect me to wait up,” I muttered dryly, turning back toward the bedroom to try to sleep for the rest of the night.
I doubted I’d rest at all with all that had happened in the last hour. So many things had upended my life, and as I sank into the bed’s cushiony surface, I wondered if and when he would return and if he would join me in bed.
I wanted him to, on a physical level, but I dreaded it in the same stroke.
He didn’twantme. He only had me here because there was no other option to keep me alive.
If he’d saved me for the sake of having a handy, personal fuck toy…
I sighed, nestling into the pillow and squeezing my eyes shut tighter.
I eventually slipped into sleep, though, because I woke late. The sun streamed through the curtains. My first move was to look for Nik, and I knew before sitting up that he wasn’t in the bed.
It hurt. He’d want me here with him, but not ashis.
I didn’t smell his musky scent. I didn’t hear his deep, steady breaths. For all the times we’d fucked, he’d never once slept with me. Even that first night we’d shared, he’d left without a goodbye.
He wasn’t hiding far. On the couch in the living room, he lay sprawled out and deeply asleep. His feet hung over the end, and that awkward angle of his neck on that pillow meant he had to be uncomfortable.
My steps were silent, bare on the plush carpet, but he woke as I exited the bedroom.
Blinking and rubbing his face, he sat up slowly and regarded me. “Sleep well?”
I shook my head. “I spent all night trying to fall asleep, wondering something.”
He yawned. “What’s that?”
Damn him, sounding all husky and sleepy. I had to resist his allure.
“If there is any way out of this.”
He pressed his lips in a firm line, annoyed.
“If there is any way I can avoid this fate.” I took a chair across from him, not wanting to stand over him and try to look bossy. “I prefer to determine my own fate. Above all else in the world, I value and treasure my independence.”
He looked away for a moment. “You’re independent to a fault.”
I shrugged. If he was waiting for an apology, he’d be waiting forever.
“If you weren’t here, with me, where do you think you could go?”
I licked my lips. “Are you saying I’d be with someone else in your Bratva if I wasn’t with you?”
He glared at me. “No.”
“You don’t share and offer women around to sample?”
“No.” He repeated it with lethal sincerity. “The soldier who said that, the one I stopped from striking you, he’s been punished and dealt with.”