Page 14 of Cruel Bratva King
“Generally speaking, he isn’t,” Nikolai conceded. “But we should never underestimate our enemies.”
“Unless that enemy is one who doesn’t know his own strength.” I turned around to look at my brother. “Have some of our men keep an eye on Giovanni. Let them know it must be done discretely.”
He nodded. “And Giulia?” he asked. “She’ll be back in Chicago in a week, and I doubt she’ll let you off easy when she finds out about the marriage offer.”
I almost cringed.
Giulia has had a crush on me for decades. It didn’t matter to her that her father and I were sworn enemies. If she wanted something, she had to get it. That was her own sick and twisted way of love. But then again, most of us in the mafia were that way. If we wanted something, we had to have it.
I wanted Lilianna. I had to have her, and I would have her soon. Twirling my drink, I thought of all the nasty things I could do to Lilianna with a glass of liquor. I could pour all of it into my mouth before forcing it down her throat, or I could drink it and then kiss her hard so she could taste all the flavors on my tongue.
Fuck, heat shot straight to my cock thinking of her and all the things I could do to her. All the ways I wanted to fuck her until she was weak and trembling beneath me.
Shit. Thinking of her like this was wrong when I couldn’t have her just yet. I needed to get my thoughts straight and focus on the Italians. For now, they were a much bigger problem than my lust for Lilianna—they should be.
“And Giulia?” Nikolai repeated.
“Leave her to me,” I replied. Giulia was the biggest bitch I knew, but I could deal with her better than anyone else could. All I needed to do was pay her no mind and pretend she didn’t exist. She wasn’t bright at taking clues, but I hoped she would eventually get fed up and leave me the fuck alone.
“Fine then, I’ll leave her to you.”
There was a knock on the door, and one of my security men came in the minute I permitted him to.
“There’s a problem, boss,” he announced.
Of course, I knew there was a problem. He wouldn’t dare interrupt my quiet moment with my brother if there wasn’t. “What’s the problem?” I asked, displeased that he didn’t get straight to the point.
“There’s a woman at the door. She insists on seeing you.”
“I’m not taking visitors now. Tell her to come another time.”
He didn’t move. “She insisted on seeing you and refused to go away otherwise.”
I huffed, exasperated. Who was it now? None of the women I’d been with lately had the guts to barge in and demand to see me like this. Whoever she was and whatever she was here for, I hoped it would be worth my time. I didn’t like hurting women, but it didn’t mean I wouldn’t be mad at one disturbing me at a time like this.
Between my pending proposal with the Italians and coming up with a plan to get rid of them for good, I didn’t have the time to entertain nuisances.
“Who is she?”
“She said she’s a friend of yours.”
“I don’t have any friends, idiot,” I said. “What the hell is her name?”
“Lilianna, boss,” he replied. “Her name is Lilianna Anderson.”
Chapter 7 - Lilianna
It wasn’t until I was in front of Sergey, his dark soulless eyes boring into mine, that I realized I hadn’t thought this through as well as I should have. I didn’t know what I expected when I left home and drove all the way down here, but it wasn’t to be this tensed and dumbstruck.
I glanced around the room to avoid eye contact with him. Aside from the guy that brought me in here, there was another guy sitting across from the stranger. He had similar dark eyes and curly hair. It was almost as if they were brothers, though I couldn’t be sure. Regardless, his gaze nauseated me. He was big, not tall and muscular like the stranger, just big.
Tattoos poured down his left arm all the way to the back of his palms, and he had a deadly stare. I wasn’t comfortable with him around, but then again, I hadn’t been comfortable being close to any man that wasn’t my idiot ex or the stranger who was now my baby daddy.
When I arrived at the club an hour ago, I was hoping to stumble into the stranger again. Or meet someone who at least knew him based on his description since I didn’t even know his name. But I’d ended up shocked when I found out he was the owner of this club and not a regular like I’d thought.
“Why are you here?” the stranger’s deep rumble voice pulled me out of my thoughts and back to reality. My stomach purred aggressively, with the nerves rippling through me. “Can we talk…” I stared at the terrifying-looking guy across him again. “In private?”
He nodded toward the guy sitting in front of him and the one behind me. They both took the cue and left but not without the big guy sniffing me like a police dog. A German Shepherd, precisely.