Page 53 of Bought By Sin

“He didn’t just glance at her,” I argued. That asshole looked like he was going to snatch her away. If word got out that she was supposed to be seen as a slave, then any one of those fuckers could get an idea to offer to buy her from me.

Which was not happening.

“What, are you going to come out and claim her or something? Call her yours for real?” He raised his brows at me, expecting a real answer. “Because calling her your assistant leaves that open for interpretation…”

“She’s mine.”

“Your what?” he pressed.

“You know, nobody gave Adrik shit about Elena like this.”

“Elena also wasn’t ‘purchased’ as a contracted slave from a Cartel,” he argued. “She was given to him in a similar form of ownership. A payment for a debt of wrongdoing.”

I nodded, unable to deny that.

“Elena didn’t have the freedom to leave the Bratva if she had wanted to. I’m assuming the same for Mila, since you do have a contract that explains how she got here.” He held his hand up in a motion of surrender as he reached his car. “Look, just consider clarifying some details with her. Or yourself. Because if someone’s looking at her the wrong way and you act like a possessive asshole before punishing them… things are going to look a little inconsistent.”

I frowned at him, hating that he was hitting the nail on the head about this.

About her.

And about me.

“That contract explains how Mila came to be here,” I replied evenly. “But with how skilled she is and could really be an asset to the family, that contract doesn’t mean much anymore. Not to me.”

“If she means that much to you…”

I gritted my teeth at the pressure to admit she mattered to me. Of course, she fucking did. But she still wouldn’t fully submit. She still held back and wouldn’t open up to me fully.

“I said that contract doesn’t mean much anymore,” I said through clenched teeth, hating to have to defend myself and my decisions.

“Fine. The contract doesn’t matter. You don’t have to convince me of that. You don’t have to convince Adrik or anyone else that Mila’s more than just someone who was a contractual runner. She proved that herself when she wanted to protect Elena and Carina that one day. Her instinct to protect them without any explicit order to act as security says more than anything.”

I agreed. All of my cousins and even Alexei had changed their view of her from that day forward. But it hadn’t shocked me. Mila had a good heart under the tough exterior. I just wanted her to trust me with it.

“However, like I was saying. If she means that much to you…” He shrugged. “Rip up the contract and forget it existed.” He opened the door to his car and glanced at me before getting in. “Forget that she came here as a slave you bought and move on to being grateful she’s in your life.”

I shoved my hands in my pockets, fuming—but not at him. “I’m unwilling to risk anyone interfering with what I consider my responsibility. Including her.”

He paused, frowning. “Are you worried that if that contract doesn’t stand between you, she would leave?”

I clenched my jaw so tightly, my molars could crack.

Once more, he’d zeroed in on the variable I couldn’t control, the link I couldn’t predict.

Without answering him, hating how much that one question could make me feel so out of control and powerless, I strode toward the house and tried to rein in my anger.

And fear.

Until Mila could open up to me and fully submit—in body and heart—I would worry about precisely that.

20

MILA

After the last “adventure” of trying to get information about Gregori and Yusef Antonov, and where they might be to set up surveillance of them, it seemed like Lev and I would both need to let off some steam. All the Volkovs and Bratva men who accompanied me and Lev were probably just as frustrated with the lack of intel. It didn’t matter who they talked to or which informants they wanted to question. No one knew where Gregori or Yusef Antonov were hiding and operating from, thus hindering the Volkovs from being a step ahead of them.

Every time the men meeting with the Volkovs noticed me and asked where they could find a sidepiece like me, my renewed anger lit hotter. It would never be someone seeing me and asking how I had found Lev. It was always the other way around.