Dariy
“I don’t even know who you are,” she whispers.
I grip her chin, tilting her face up to mine, the same touch that spared her life downstairs, sealing her fate instead.
“Dariy Korolyov,” I say. “Fixer for the Korolyov Bratva. My eldest brother is Adrik Korolyov.”
The name must mean something to her as recognition briefly lights up her eyes.
“He got married not long ago,” she murmurs. “I was one of the servers that night. It wasn’t as big or fancy as I’d thought it was going to be.”
“No,” I agree. “He and Jasmine aren’t the type.”
“What did your brother think about this, about me?”
Adrik’s voice echoes in my head from earlier, when he met me in the room downstairs as I was finishing up wrapping the body and waiting for my men to come and dispose of it.
“Are you going soft?” he’d snapped, looking at me like I’d lost my mind. Maybe I had.
“She stays alive,” I’d replied. My tone left no room for argument, but Adrik never needs one. He looks through you until he finds the crack, then he pries it open with his bare fingers.
“You’re willing to risk everything for a stranger,” he’d stated.
“It wasn’t that long ago you were doing the same, big brother.” My words were gentle, but they were edged with something sharper. “You couldn’t explain that then, and I can’t explain this now.”
“Does she feel it too? Because if not, this doesn’t end well for either of you.”
“I don’t know. I mean, she must do right?” I heaved the body onto the tarp, and my words came out a little strained with the effort. “It makes no sense. This immediate, unwavering connection I feel to her. The urge I had to make her mine right here on this floor. To fuck my bloodline into her right then and there.”
Adrik glanced down, his lips twisted at the sight of smeared blood.
“Part of me thinks she would have let me,” I’d continued, “But I didn’t trust it wouldn’t be a bid to save herself.” I’d stood at full height and observed the neatly wrapped corpse at my feet.
“Make her yours so no one can question it. There will be no loose ends in this family. Not now, not ever.” He had taken a moment to look at me, before nodding and adding, “I’m going home now, Jasmine wants pears.”
“Heh,” I smiled, despite the weight in the air. “How is she coping?” Since finding out she was pregnant, Adrik has been tending to her every need. To see this side of him feels almost unnatural, and yet the most natural thing in the world.
“Well. She is strong.”
He clamped his hand on my shoulder and squeezed.
“You know what needs to be done,” he’d said, and then he turned and headed for his next mission. Finding pears after midnight on the Strip.
I’d felt like I’d done ten rounds when I returned upstairs, my mind in overdrive trying to make sense of it all. I’d tried to convince myself it had been a while since I’d had a satisfying encounter with a woman. Perhaps the lack of sex and the revealing uniform barely masking such sinful curves was clouding my judgment. Then I walked into the penthouse and found her standing there in my clothes, a T-shirt and sweatpants. Nothing special or sexy. And something inside me shifted so hard I almost fell sideways.
Now she has eaten food at my table and stands before me with her chin lifted, asking questions I don’t know how to answer.
The T-shirt slides over one shoulder like she’s presenting a gift that belongs only to me. More of her was on show in the glitzy gold beaded scrap of fabric, but something about seeing her in my clothes has possession threading through me like a wire in my blood.
“He said I should make you mine in a way that no one can question it.”
Her eyebrows flash quickly, betraying the surprise. “What does that mean?”
I let the silence hang between us. I wouldn’t know how to word it without sounding vulgar. Part of me wants to be vulgar because this woman has my blood running hotter than molten rock. Instead, I take a deep breath and release it slowly.
She lets out a startled laugh. “You want to…” she lifts her eyebrows fully now in question as she flicks her index finger back and forth between us. She spins away from me with a laugh, pacing to the window before turning back to face me.
“And how often do you kidnap your employees in a bid to fuck them?” she demands, and now it’s my turn to be surprised.
