Page 33 of The Bratva’s Captive Flame

Sergei lets go of me instantly, backing away with instant acknowledgement of Demin's expression. Both of his hands rise up and away from me, and the slick, easy smile slides right back onto his face like nothing at all has happened. "Boss," he says smoothly. "Good timing. I was just walking her down to her father. Got a little spirited on me, this one." He acts like he's joking around, like I'm a horse that spooked in the yard.

And I don't even wait to see how Demin reacts. I slip past both of them and throw myself at my father's door, fumbling the handle. I don’t even care that as soon as it shuts, I'll be locked inside with my father. I just want away from that sick monster.

Behind me, I feel rather than see Demin's stare stay locked on Sergei, and I rush right over to Papa where he's already reaching for me.

"Mija?" My father is halfway out of his chair, alarmed. "What is it? What's wrong, what happened to you⁠—"

I fold into his arms and I fall apart in tears as he wraps around me, one hand on the back of my head and the other flat on my back, holding me the way he did when I was small and the world was smaller too.

"I have you," he murmurs into my hair. "I have you. You're safe. Whatever it was, you're safe now. Breathe, Mija. Breathe for me."

I can't get words out. I can't tell him about Sergei, about the hallway, about the things that man said, about how close it came before the footsteps. I can't tell him about the roof, either, about how tangled up I've gotten, about how the one thing standing between me and that hallway becoming something so much worse was Demin Roshin appearing to end it. None of it will come, so I just cry, and my father holds me.

He rocks me a little, the way he used to, as he keeps talking against my hair. "You're alright. I'm here. Your old Papa is right here. Shh…" His voice cracks, and I realize he's frightened too, holding himself together for my sake the same way I've been trying to do for him. "Whatever they did to you. Whatever this place is doing to you. We'll get out. Do you hear me? We'll get out, you and me."

I nod because I can't speak, and I hold on tighter.

My God, I need out of this place before it destroys me.

18

DEMIN

Ithrow Sergei into my office and slam the door behind us, and he's still turning to face me when my fist catches him across the jaw and snaps his head sideways. He stumbles into the edge of the desk and catches himself on it, and I'm on him before he finds his feet, fisting the front of his shirt and driving him back into the wall. The pictures rattle on their hooks.

"Explain to me," I say. "And think before you open your mouth, because I'm deciding right now how much of you walks out of here."

Sergei's body is stiff as he takes my wrists, gently prying me off his chest. He's bigger than me, but with how I'm feeling, I'd lay him out cold in a heartbeat. The fucker touched Isabela, and I don't tolerate men touching what belongs to me.

"Demin. Brother. It's a misunderstanding."

"I don't think your hand on her tit is a misunderstanding. I understand perfectly." I rake a hand through my hair and take a step back but stay close enough that I can pound him if he blinks wrong.

"She's a good-looking woman." He shrugs like it's nothing, but I glare at him and bare my teeth, so he lifts his hands in surrender. "I swear to you, I didn't know. Nobody told me you'd claimed the girl. I thought she was just leverage. If I'd known she was yours, I'd never have laid a finger near her, you know that."

His eyes drag over my face skeptically, like he's trying to see if I believe him. I'm beginning to see why Sebastian doesn't like the man, but one slip up does not a monster make. He didn't know, right?

"My men know not to touch her."

"Your men have worked for you for years. I've been here a week, brother. I don't know which mouths in this house are yours and which ones aren't." He sounds almost wounded, pressing one hand to his chest like he physically aches. But I haven't even touched him yet. "I made the obvious read—she's damn fine. You'd have made the same one."

I take a step back again and shake my head, wondering if I've overreacted. The instant he saw the look on my face, he pulled away. So that counts for something, right? This has to be just a misunderstanding.

But a man caught with his hands on the boss's woman should sweat a little or stumble over himself. And Sergei isn't stumbling over anything. It sends a red flag waving, but I'm too irrational now to see it for what it is. Nothing… it's nothing. He's a good man.

I've known Sergei twenty years and I called him here to help me. If I trust him this little, how can I be sure he'll do his job? I'm overreacting. I'm on edge and losing my shit because someone inside my home is a traitor. I just need to calm down.

"You thought she was leverage?" I repeat, now feeling like an idiot for how poorly I acted in that hallway.

"I'm sorry, man… I swear it. We live in a world where women are tools, you know?" His words make my brain hurt, but I know what he's trying to say. "I swear I never knew."

"It won't happen again," I tell him bluntly, knowing how dangerously close I was to killing this man, all for a woman who still wants to escape me. It's irrational that I would become so possessive and defensive over her. It's something I'm going to have to sit and think about for a while.

"It won't," he agrees. He scuffs his toe on the ground and rolls his neck. Then he changes the subject smoothly, like grown men are prone to do rather than lingering on drama. "While we're talking. I've got something you'll want more than my apology."

My head is fucked up right now. Isabela should not elicit such aggressive or instantaneous responses from me. I can't think straight, so I say nothing and he continues.

"Chatter." He lowers his voice, leaning a shoulder against the wall like we're old friends again. "I've been pulling threads since I landed. My contacts, the ones who owe me from the old days, say your suspicions were correct. Someone on the inside told Solano's people the night you were coming."