Page 21 of Cruel Bratva King
“I said I wasn’t hungry,” Lilianna chimed in. “Let me out of here, please.”
Neither Marina nor I said a word in response to her pleas.
“What would you like to eat?” Marina asked in a soft tone.
“What do you have?” Lilianna responded. She sounded calmer now but angry nonetheless. “Do you have anything that can get me the hell out of here?”
Marina looked at me, and I signaled her to ignore Lilianna’s rudeness. She obliged. “I’m sorry, it isn’t within my power to get you out of here, but I can make your stay comfortable. I’ll make something nice for you to eat.”
Lilianna looked on as Marina left the living room. She waited until she was completely out of sight before folding her hands to her chest. “Did you kidnap that one too?”
“Her name’s Marina.” I strolled the short distance between us and lowered myself in a squat. “I didn’t kidnap her. She’s worked for me for five years.”
“So you only kidnap pregnant women?”
“I don’t kidnap pregnant women.”
She scoffed and rolled her eyes at me. “Bullshit. I’ve heard enough about men like you to know you have no regard for women or human life.”
“Is that all you heard?”
“Is there more I should know?” The fear that’d flashed through her eyes when she first came in had dissipated into some kind of courage. I wonder where it came from. Had she discovered I wouldn’t actually hurt her? “Do you drown puppies in your spare time too?”
A smile touched my lips. Her accusations were hilarious. “I do a lot worse than that.” I found it hard to keep my usual deep, humorless tone when I spoke with her. This woman made me want to be a different person whenever I was around her, and that wasn’t a good thing. With her in my life and our baby on the way, I needed to be a more ruthless creature than I’d been all forty-two years of my life. That was the only way I could protect what was mine.
She shrank away in her chair, and I saw some of her fear return. She wasn’t wrong when she called me a heartless bastard. I’d killed men and had their blood splattered all over me. I’d given some a fate worse than death. Disgusting and cruel things I had done.
It wasn’t my fault I was born into this world, though. It was either kill or get killed, there was no escaping it, and I always made the choices I thought were best for me and my siblings.Kill.
“Do you think I’ll be scared of you if you said that? New flash, big guy, I’m not afraid of you.”
“Good, then you’ll have no business living with me either,” I said.
She blinked up at me in disbelief. She was probably cursing me out in her mind. “I won’t live with you.”
“You don’t have a choice,moy tsvetok.”
We both stared at each other silently. The air hung between us, hot, tensed, and filled with animosity. But it wasn’t just that. It was flaming with something that made us both breathless. In a span of a second, I’d imagined kissing her plump, velvet lips roughly. She’d probably felt it, too. I could tell from the crimson burning her cheeks and her sudden need to avoid eye contact. God, the urge to flip her over on one of these coffee tables and fuck her like I was gonna die.
I’d be damned if I tried to resist her any further. I started walking towards her but halted when Marina re-entered the living room with a tray. She set it down on the coffee table beside Lilianna.
“It’s fried chicken steak,” Marina said to Lilianna. “I don’t know the kind of food you like to eat. Maybe you can give me a menu of things you like later?”
For the first time since Marina re-entered the living room, Lilianna drew her attention to her. She had a scowl on her face, her eyes red as if she was about to break into a full sob. She tried to pick up her fork but dropped it on the floor.
Marina made a move to help her pick it up. One moment, she was bending over to pick up the fork. The next moment, she had a knife, and Lilianna stood beside her.
“I’m sorry, Marina,” Lilianna panted. “I have no choice but to do this.” She shifted her attention to me. “Let me go, or I’ll kill her.”
I had to admit it; I was awed. I’d underestimated how brave she was, to be honest. Lilianna was full of surprises. She never ceased to amaze me. “You won’t kill her.”
She laughed a deranged laugh that was filled with her desperation to escape. “Try me.” She held the knife tighter to Marina’s neck. “I’ll kill her.”
I sat back on one of the upholstered chairs in the living room. This was going to be a hell of a show. Lilianna didn’t know Marina was as good in combat as any other man in this room. I’d personally trained her after I took her in. Marina wasn’t at Lilianna’s mercy. It was the other way around. “Kill her then.”
Lilianna’s eyes widened as if she couldn’t believe what I’d just said. “What?”
“Kill her. I’ll let you go if you can.” I leaned forward. “If you can’t kill her, then you must stay for as long as I want you to.”