Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 48709 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 244(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 162(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48709 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 244(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 162(@300wpm)
My hand twitches as I imagine the violent things I can do to this man. I want to grab his throat and slam him against the wall, then grab his head and bash it into the wall over and over again.
I want to make him scream for thinking he could touch my woman.
My. Fucking. Woman.
“Walk away, Gabriel. You came in here looking for me, couldn’t find me, then you left. Nobody knows any different. There’s no disrespect here.”
“She disrespected me, Damien. Me. Who do you think I am, some peasant pauper motherfucker? I’m the leader of the Cartel. Some little whore doesn’t disrespect me to my face. Especially not after what her father did.”
“You’re not beating a woman because your feelings are hurt.”
“Beating a woman? She is a nothing. Nada. Give her to me.”
“No.”
“Damien….”
“You’ll have to kill me,” I snarl, staring flatly at him. “I mean it. Unless you managed to sneak in a little handbag shooter, there are no guns in here. And what good will that do you? I’ll rush you in a second, then you are done. You’ve got no way to take her.”
“I’ll call my men,” he whispers, voice shaking.
“Call them,” I smirk, somehow withholding the rage. “I’ll do the same. Let’s get Max and the Shukoff brothers in here. Let’s get Dimitri. Let’s get Alexander, too, while we’re at it. Let’s call all our men, Gabriel. Let’s fucking do that.”
Gabriel takes a step back, shaking his head. “If she’s nothing to you, why do you care?”
Because she’s everything to me. She’s the only person I ever want to be with. She’s my future. She’s mine.
I stare silently, not responding.
“I won’t forget this,” Gabriel says, backing away toward the door. “I control Cartel matters. That was our deal. This is a Cartel matter.”
“Wait,” I snap.
He pauses, head tilted. Whenever I meet Gabriel’s eye, I always feel like I’m making a deal with the devil.
“The party?” he says.
I shift awkwardly, hating the need for this. But it’s all to avoid war, avoid more executions, and keep the drugs off the street.
“Yeah.”
“I will act like nothing happened as you said. But I mean it…I won’t forget this.”
He pushes out of the door. My legs twitch, trying to make me go after him. His words bounce around my mind, and I roar to myself. He’s going to pay for that. He’s going to hurt for it.
Liliana walks ahead of me, giving me a look at her hips. Even now, amidst the mayhem, I want to grab her hips and greedily sink my hands in. She turns, eyebrows raised, her breathing fast.
“I didn’t…I’m sorry. I didn’t say the right thing, did I? I can’t believe I…I just didn’t think, and now. I’ve never dreamed of speaking to him like that. I just go so freaking angry. What happens now?”
“Now, we go out there and act normal,” I tell her, struggling to hold back so much else. “I do whatever I normally do. You do whatever you normally do.”
“And then what?” she says.
Her chest is rising and falling quickly.
Fighting the predator part of me, the part that wants to grab her breasts and push them together, make her moan for me. I step forward, placing my hand on her shoulder.
She whimpers at my touch, sounding vulnerable and emotional.
“And then you and your uncle will be taken to a safe house outside the city,” I tell her. “You’ll remain there until I work out the next step.”
“You’d do that for me?”
I swallow, staring down into her glistening, disbelieving eyes. Her whole life has been marked by who she is, and what she supposedly is. It’s like she can’t believe that I, a Bratva man, would ever bother to help a Cartel girl.
But she’s so much more than that. And none of this is her fault.
She doesn’t deserve any of this.
“Yes,” I say, keeping my voice steady. “I won’t let him hurt two civilians, two people who want no part in the life.”
She stares for a few moments before speaking, her eyes even shinier, but she’s holding back the tears.
“You really think he’d come after me, us?” she whispers.
“I don’t know. But he might. There’s a chance. I can’t take it.”
“But why?”
She looks at my hand on her shoulder. I can feel the heat of her skin burning against my palm, making me think about the warmth of her heart, of her body.
“Why do you want to help me?”
“You don’t deserve to be punished for standing by your family.”
I let my hand drop, taking a step back. I have to.
Otherwise, I’ll tell her everything.
She’s mine, and her young body was made for my seed to be flooded with our future. Her mouth was made for kissing and for shyly opening as I glide my length between her lips. Her tits were made for grabbing and sucking and for feeding our children.