Page 33 of Bought By Sin

What are you doing to me?

What do you want with me?

I almost wished he’d assign me as a spy or guard or something, a position far removed from him so I wouldn’t have to analyze how he made me feel.

He thrust his hand out again as I watched him.

Then I took it, prompted not to let him see me as a defeat. In taking his hand, I tried to pull him back down. He growled at the fight, then with a huff of a laugh, he resumed sparring with me and doing his best not to let me tackle him.

As I tried to hide behind the focus of combat with him on the mat, I hated the nagging worry that wouldn’t be silenced in the back of my mind.

That stubborn concern that this could all be a trick. A game. A ploy to mess with my head.

He’d ‘bought’ me, and I’d never be able to feel “free” with him. It’d only be a mistake on my part to allow myself the pleasure or excitement of attraction.

He’s not here to flirt with me.

I’m not putting long days in here for a fitness routine.

I’m a tool to use and they’re only honing me like that.

As something to use.

13

LEV

It wasn’t enough to only watch Mila train. Standing off to the side, I felt too distant from her. That was why I’d started to incorporate myself into training with her.

Instead of hawking over her progress during the day, I stayed busy with keeping up on the tasks expected of me.

I attended meetings. I killed traitors and liars. I backed Dean up at another run to assist the Garcias near the border.

But come evening, I headed to the training facility. Seeing her there was the reward I wanted to look forward to all day. Rather than drag her along with me in the hopes of breaking her and getting her to talk to me more, I shifted course and allowed the separation during the day.

Roman and his trainers could mold her into a combat fighter. I was still leaning on having her work for us as a spy. She was too stealthy not to be employed for something like that.

But in terms of trying to reach her and break her damnable stubborn and tough exterior, it seemed that this kind of communication was better. Physical touches. Silent debates with nothing more than a look of an eye or a twinge of a limb moving. Getting closer to her with the disguise of sparring with her seemed to work more than asking questions and never getting a reply.

Nikolai joined me as we walked back to my car after handling a situation with members of the Konstantin family. A smaller faction of a rival group, they represented a nuisance in the city. It was never anything too in-depth, and usually, a “slap on the wrist” conveyed the lesson to them not to mess with us or our businesses.

“Why not just… fuck her into telling you what you want to know?” he asked when he called me out on how committed I was to personally training with her every evening.

I hated to admit that I wanted her, and that I was using this as a way to get closer to her.

I shook my head. “Like that hasn’t been done before?” I shot him a skeptical look.

He nodded, letting out a deep breath as he settled into the passenger seat. “If she was sold when she was twelve, there’s no way…” He looked out the window. “Fuck. Twelve, man. That’s so young.”

We didn’t deal with human trafficking all that much. If we did, it was women, prostitutes well past adolescence. Now that Adrik was going to be a father himself, I doubted he’d be open to starting his reign as the Pakhan by selling children, either.

“There’s no way she hasn’t been raped already,” I told him bluntly. “She’s too tense and guarded not to have been treated like that.” And something deep inside me wanted to rage at her being mistreated at all. She was still such a stranger to me, but something in her eyes haunted me. Her inner strength spoke to me on an elemental level. The challenge she presented coaxed me to tame her, to show that controlling the narrative of her being here would benefit us both.

“What are you even after?” he asked. “As far as her being an employee here…” He shrugged. “She’s solid. Adrik trusts her. You want to know her story and shit? Like get to know her for something long-term?”

I was after her. Owning her—and not with just a contract.

“I’m not even sure anymore,” I admitted because that summed up the mystery of how fiercely she captured my attention. All I knew was that I wanted her, and using force or torture to get her to submit did not seem like the right way to go.