Page 72 of The Bratva's Bounty

It's not that I didn't appreciate his determination, but given the situation, I didn't want those words. Shaking my head with a frown, I refused to accept his promise. "Don't say that." I couldn't keep my voice strong or loud; I felt too beaten to hold my head up.

"The last thing you are allowed to do is grow old with me after we've raised our little gaggle of children together into wonderfully crazy adults," I told him with a forced chuckle in an attempt to lighten up the mood between us. "We'll get out of this. Together." Somehow.

For a moment, the two of us had some peace.

Too bad it didn't last long.

Our sweet moment ended with the door slamming open, followed by a cruel laugh. "If I had a heart, then I would feel a little bad for cutting your last moments together short, but I've got too much of a bone to pick with both of you to give a shit." Some man's spiteful voice filled the air, turning it rather volatile.

The yellowed fluorescent lights above us flickered on, causing my eyes to ache slightly from the sudden shift. It was only then that I saw the prick who's been a nuisance to the Volkovs and me by proxy. The sight of him brought an immediate frown to my face, causing him to tut at me.

"Now, now, that's not a very becoming face of you to make toward your husband." He chided me with a silent anger in his voice. "I suggest you change it before I do it for you," he stated harshly, glowering at me warningly.

A sudden shout of rage shook the room, along with the rattling of a chair. "She is not your wife!" Lev spat at Igor with the deadliest glare I've ever seen from someone in my life. "And I swear, if you dare lay a finger on her, I will rip you apart, limb by limb, then have rats eat you alive!" The raw wrath in Lev's booming threat shook me to the very core.

If the situation was in our favor or any different, then I would've laughed a little at how Igor's face paled with his widening eyes. Honestly, he looked ready to shit or piss himself with the way his body trembled with terror as he avoided Lev's gaze.

Fucking coward.

Clenchinghis eyes shut, Igor lashed a shaky hand out at Lev, landing a weak punch to Lev's face. The impact barely twitched Lev's head, and it even got Lev to bark out a m0cking laugh. "Come on, I can't even do shit to you all tied up like this, and you still fear me." Okay, Lev sounded a little too arrogant for his own good right then. "You better count your fucking seconds because you're not going to have days to live. You're dead the moment my brothers storm this place."

If they can find us.

I'd sent an SOS to Angel and the others while I was in the safe room, but there was nothing for them to track us to our current location. So, Lev gambled quite a bit with his threat.

Igor's hands balled up into tight fists as he glared down at Lev. "The only thing they'll find here is your dead body once I'm done with you." He bit back with some conviction. "And the last thing you'll be doing is begging me not to take your life before I do."

Throwing his head back, Lev let out a crazed laugh that had all the men in the room looking at him with wary eyes. "You know, if my sister-in-law didn't kick your ass half-drunk, then I'd be more inclined to take your pathetic threats seriously." Lev's laughter cut off with a winded grunt when Igor planted his fist into Lev's stomach.

Worried, I grabbed at the bars and shook them, frowning at the sight of Lev coughing. "Lev!" I cried out instinctively.

His reassuring gaze and bloody grin flashed at me. "I'm fine," he strained out.

Chewing my bottom lip, I looked over at Igor. "Let him go. It's me that you want, so let him go." I tried to keep my voice from wavering, but the idea of trying to bargain with this disgusting rat made me want to hurl.

"No," he flatly denied me, not even bothering to turn his attention to me as he was too focused on burning holes into Lev with his eyes. "The Volkovs made a mockery of my family, tore it apart, and burned it to the ground. So, I'm not going to take mercy on any of them."

What happenedover the next few minutes made my heart crack. "Igor! Stop! Please!" My incessant begging fell on deaf ears.

No matter how much I pleaded with Igor, he wouldn't stop driving his fists and feet into Lev, who had toppled over with the chair. Even if Lev wasn't wincing in pain or reacting appropriately, I knew the blows had to hurt to an extent. Also, surely, he'd suffer the aftermath of it all, and I was worried that he might have an internal bleed with how many hits he took to his unguarded abdomen.

An outcry strained out of Igor when he realized his physical abuse of Lev did nothing but cause Lev to laugh like a complete maniac and spit balls of blood at him.

Yeah, good luck getting him to break.

Although, I may have spoken too soon.

I don't know what shit went on in Igor's head, but his head suddenly darted to me. Next thing I knew, his body appeared next to the cage and the door was thrown open after he unlocked it. My instinctive move to scramble away from him didn't amuse him one bit because once he locked his fat hand around my arm and hauled me out, he slapped me right across the face.

Now, that got a reaction from Lev. "Ty, chert voz'mi, ublyudok!" I don't know what he said, but he was very angry.

Being rather pissed about being physically assaulted, I whipped my scowling face at Igor and lashed back with my own hand, clawing him across the face and digging my fingers into his eyes. While my hand attacked his face, I leaned my body in and bit his hairy forearm that was exposed from his pushed-up sleeves, gagging a little when I felt the hairs in my mouth.

Fuck it, if I threw up, then it sure as hell would be all over him.

No matter how hard he tried to shake me off, he couldn't with how deep I latched onto him. It was only when he slammed me against the cage did I let go because it felt like he broke my fucking spine.

I was then thrown to the ground next to Lev, who was still shouting angrily at Igor in Russian.