My prison guard didn’t put up much of a fight. He stepped out of the office and closed the door. Where was my anger? I wanted it back. This would have been a hell of a lot easier with it.
“You wanted to see me, Charlotte,” he said.
He didn’t get up from behind his desk. He sat back in his chair, and I saw the band on his finger that declared him my husband.
“Am Ia prisoner?” I asked.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
Ive smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
In the back of my mind, that old reliable voice that had been a waste of time against my father, tried to yell at me to stop being angry, to stop making stupid accusations, and to just calm down. I never ignored the voice back then, and I followed her advice. The beatings I got, the slaps, the pain-I should have totally ignored her.
Glaring at Ive, I folded my arms across my chest.
“I can’t go anywhere without Hubert asking you. I’m locked in that apartment and if it’s not at the apartment, it’s your home. There is no freedom. I’m your wife and I have sworn loyalty to Ivan Volkov but I’m still a prisoner. Why? Why marry me? Are you going to kill me? Is this some stupid messed up play to take out Rage? To take out the Evil Savages MC? Why not just do it? Why do this?”
My heart started to race, and I felt sick to my stomach. I wanted to stop but there was a pesky problem. I wanted answers a whole lot more.
Ive got up from his place behind the desk. He seemed a lot taller than I remembered, which was crazy, seeingas I just saw him last night. I stood next to him, and even last night, he’d kissed my cheek. I’d loved that, him kissing my cheek, which was so stupid.
Pressing my lips together, I looked at him and waited.
“You think Ivan Volkov and myself have time for these elaborate games?” Ive asked. “That we would arrange this marriage, pay all the unnecessary expense, to just kill you?”
“Why not? You’re the Volkov Bratva. You can do whatever the hell you want.”
I didn’t step back.
“And so, if that is what you think makes you a prisoner, then so be it, that’s exactly what you are. I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe, but if you would like to experience life as my prisoner once again, say the word, and I will show you the difference.”I heard the threat, but the truth was, I was kind of focused on something else he said.
Ive frowned. “They have the best hash browns. I wanted to see what you thought of them.”
And just like that, my anger evaporated. He wasn’t keeping me prisoner. He was taking care of me.
“I loved the hash browns and the bacon. Also the mushrooms.”
The smile that didn’t reach his eyes before, finally did. I liked making him smile.
Ive
OneMonth Later
Hank and Benjamin hadn’t come out ofhiding, but that was okay. I happened to locate several of their workers, and in fact, I smiled as I watched the man before me who was hanging upside down. I’d captured him a month ago, on the very day my wife had come to the office at my casino and asked me if she was a prisoner.
No, my wife wasn’t a prisoner. I wouldn’t treat her like this.
The man before me, David Butters, was a known thug. He was one of the men who carried the girls out of my nightclubs. He helped to round them up, and from my information, he’d been the one to purchase the grounds. Here are the sticky details: the man was broke and had no money. An amateur thug who collected money for Hank. He wasn’t even that high up in the ranks. He was nothing, and yet, he suddenly had the funds to buy property. Again, I couldn’t help but believe that Hank and Benjamin were working for someone else. So far, Vlad hadn’t been able to locate any information that backed up my theory, which pissed me off big time.
“Please, let me down. I’m going tobe sick,” David said.
He’d not eaten in a week.
“Then be sick, and don’t worry, I’ll be sure to feed it to you.”
In the past month, there had been a lot of mess to clean up in Oleg’s territory. I had to leave my own for a week to handle it, with the rest of the brigadiers. There was a threat from the fucking Irish mafia, who felt they had a claim to it.
Ivan needed to get his shit together and put someone in place. There was a rumor he already had someone in place, and if so, we were all fucked because they were doing a shit job of it.
Iwas angry. And this man in front of me wasn’t helping me feel any better. All I wanted to do was slit his throat, but that kind of death would be too easy. I needed answers.
David didn’t vomit. He got his shit back in control, and then he began to scream, yell, and curse me out. Now, thatI could deal with because that was fucking easy.
I was impressed because for ten minutes straight, I listened to allof David’s threats about what he would do to us, as well as Hank and Benjamin. How they planned to take over, and that we didn’t have a fucking clue what was in store for us, and we wouldn’t be alive to see how they intended to take over every single part of the Volkov Bratva. All you needed was a little bit of patience and a lot of fear, and people had a tendency to talk, like now.
David’s long tirade ended in tears andbegging as he knew he’d said too much. I crouched down so that I was eye level with him.
“And how are your friends going to do all of this exactly?” I asked. “I got wordthat the girls are back home with their families and it was nothing but a game gone too far. Your friends have nothing. I took that away.”
David glared at me. “But you don’t have them, do you? That’s why you’ve got me.”