Page 22 of Caught By the Bratva Boss

“Thank you for coming to meet with me, Daniil.”

The asshole didn’t even get up from his seat. Maybe he thought that put him in a position of power, when it didn’t. Signalling for a waiter, I took the seat opposite him and steepled my hands together.

He tried to stare me down, probably to show dominance, and failed. He was the one who looked away first. They always looked away first.

“What can I help you with?” flashing a smile at the waitress, I waited for her to retreat before speaking again. “What do you need?”

He had the audacity to look put out. “I was going to ask after, Lily? How is she?”

If he thought I was going to fall for that, then he was a fool. He hadn’t asked me for this second meeting to ask about her, and we both knew it.

“She is,” I sipped the vodka, “perfection itself, but you already know that, don’t you?”

He nodded his head like he was agreeing with me. Fool.

“But of course, if you were really worried about her, you would have called and asked her yourself. So let’s not waste any more time. Tell me what you want.”

He garbled something under his breath that I couldn’t make out. “I hope she is being—”

My eyebrows shot up. You hope shes being what? Accommodating?” Throwing my head back, I boomed out a laugh loud enough that people glanced in our direction. “Lily is—” Rolling my lips, I mulled over my next words.

Part of me wanted to smash the fingers, which were inside his woman only the night before, in his face and ask him if he could smell her on me, but at the last minute, I decided not to. This goon in front of me might deserve that humiliation, but Lily did not.

“You don’t need to worry about Miss Ridgeway,” I said smoothly, staring at him over the rim of my crystal glass. “I am taking very good care of her needs. All of her needs. I added because I couldn’t stop myself.

For a moment, his eyes blazed with anger, a touch of jealousy sparking to life, but he quickly blinked it away.

“But what about your needs, Greg? I’m assuming you brought me here because you have something else you need from me?”

He tried to look offended, but failed. “I mean, I don’t want to ask, but you have Lily, and that’s what you wanted and—”

My sigh rattled my chest. “How much?”

“It’s not about the money.”

I rolled my eyes. “How much? I have plans this evening, and I don’t want to waste my time here with you when I can—” be buried balls deep in Lily, I added silently.

“A little under forty thousand dollars to the Chrissy Mech—”

My head snapped up. “You owe money to my casino?”

“I didn’t know it was yours, but yes.”

Shaking my head, I stood. Downing the burning clear lid in one. “I’ll have them wiped. Now, if that’s everything?”

Greg didn’t answer me. It was only when I had taken a step away that he called out after me. “I really do care for her, you know.”

I couldn’t help it. I laughed. He said cared for. He didn’t say love. I doubted he had ever loved her for even a second. He sure as hell didn’t take care of her needs like a man should. Like I was about to.

“Oh, course you do. I chuckled heading on toward the door. “That’s why you gave her to me.”

“He doesn’t deserve you.” My fingers trailed down her face, against her smooth skin. “I don’t see what you see in him at all.” My fingers tiptoed down further, spanning her slender neck and then snaking under the covers.

I’d never, not in a million years, understand what a woman as beautiful and passionate as she was see in a low-life scum-bag like Greg.

It wasn’t like she didn’t have options. She could choose any man in the world to be hers, and she had chosen him.

“Daniil.”