I ignored him and shifted my hips again. I was so close to rubbing the cap off. Just a little more…
The miniscule needle of the vial pierced through my thin pants and into my flesh. From what Dr. Poison had told me, I likely only had a few seconds before I conked out.
I reached for Dmitri’s throat. He knocked my hand away like I was a kitten pawing at a panther. Relief flooded me when he threaded his own fingers around my neck.
“Submit,” he said, lightly squeezing my throat.
Blackness danced around my vision even though he hadn’t applied any pressure.
“Never,” I said before the vial stole my consciousness.
Chapter four
Dmitri
Well, that was unexpected.
Alisa’s body went limp underneath me despite the miniscule amount of pressure I’d applied to her throat. When a breath flowed from her pillow soft lips, I hated the touch of relief that flowed through me.
“Lev Yegrov, you're up against Pyotr Belov,” the Pakhan said. His eyes were on me despite calling two other men to the sparring mat.
One of the Pakhan’s men approached Alisa’s unconscious body with a bit too much enthusiasm in his eyes. Before I could think it through, I swept Alisa’s concerningly light body into my arms.
“Where do you want her?” I asked, my voice impassive.
“So… courteous,” the Pakhan said dryly, his eyes narrowing as he looked at me.
The man who’d approached the mat was now openly staring at Alisa’s shifting neckline. The rational part of my brain told me to toss her to him like she was nothing and take my seat.
Instead, my grip tightened on her leg.
No one else was allowed to break my kitten.
I threw her body over my shoulder, so her cleavage was no longer in danger of being exposed. I mused that she looked like one of the many bodies I’d tossed over my shoulder before throwing them in a vat of acid.
“I aim to please,” I said with a smirk. “There’s a reason I’m your number one.”
The Pakhan’s lips thinned into a line before his eyes swept to a few of my henchmen lined up along the wall.
I held in a laugh when I saw the annoyance scrawled on his face. He’d recently tried to bribe a few of my men for dirt on me. Of course they’d revealed nothing.
Otherwise, their bodies would be at the bottom of the Hudson River.
“Go ahead,” he said, turning his attention to the new contestants hesitantly approaching the mat.
They kept their distance until I stepped off the mat. Fear graced their expressions like I might snap their necks if they got too close.
Probably a good idea, irritation was bubbling inside me in a steady beat to Alisa’s thin heart rate. I followed the Pakhan’s man to an empty room.
After I set Alisa on the cold metal table, he said, “I can handle it from here.”
His eyes landed on her chest for a beat too long.
“Out.”
He scurried from the room.
I tilted my head as I took in Alisa’s weak breaths. Her already pale skin was more translucent than normal. I could spy all the blue veins running down her arms. The only other color on her arms was the red bite of fading needle marks and accompanying bruises.
