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“Oh,” I breathed.
“Do you know what this means?” He asked.
I blinked up at him. My skin tingled and the morning air crackled around us.
“It means that even if you want to leave, even if you want your freedom, I'll never grant it to you.”
I looked him over and saw only iron resolve, like nothing else made sense except for those words. Like it was a no-brainer.
A sane person would have shuddered and shoved him away, preserving their own pride and dignity at the thought of losing their freedom. They would have wailed and begged for their life back— to be released unharmed to try and forget all the trauma.
But it seemed I was insane because wetness pooled low in between my thighs and I swayed towards him, my body seeking out his touch.
“Good girl.”
His mouth captured mine and I jumped to meet him. His fingers slid up the back of my thighs and I wrapped my legs around him, inviting everything he had to give. With Yuri, I never planned the way I reacted— never knew the heat that would course through me. His touch, his presence, lit me up and I wanted to be his good girl. I loved the way he kept me and called me his.
I was his. Had been for longer than I wanted to admit.
My fingers raked through his damp hair when he broke our kiss, his gaze flicking toward the gravel road that curved below the horizon. “What is it?” I asked, breathless.
“Time’s up.”
A cloud of dust rose before a car appeared and headed straight toward us. Yuri pushed me behind him and shielded me with his body. My arms looped around him as he pulled the gun out of his waistband. “Stay behind me, baby.”
The vehicle crackled to a stop, and I couldn’t look, choosing instead to keep my eyes squeezed shut and my forehead against Yuri’s searing back. He was my salvation, my protection, he was everything. My heart thundered in my chest as the driver's side door opened but I wasn’t afraid for myself.
He wouldn’t let anything happen to me. I knew it in my bones. I was afraid of what this meant for him. For us.
Like he’d said— we’re the fucking cartel.
As if the first car brought in the whole cavalry, the one I’d grown used to seeing scattered around the grounds of the mansion, a dozen more vehicles skidded over the hill. Each one with doors opening on both sides and soldiers flooding out, strapped with automatic weapons pointed directly toward us. I peeked around Yuri’s back, but he pushed me further behind him, ensuring that no inch of my skin was visible to anyone.
“Yuri,” I recognized Matteo’s voice and sucked in a breath. I couldn’t see what was going on and it was killing me. I strained against Yuri and listened to boots on the gravel, assuming it was his brother stalking toward us. This was it— he must have been sent to kill me. To kill both of us once he finds his brother’s resolve.
“It’s dad.”
Yuri’s shoulders dropped.
Something was wrong. “Yuri?” I asked, dread settling thick in my gut.
“He’s gone?” Yuri asked.
“Passed early this morning.”
His pointer finger tapped on the barrel of the gun. I realized I didn’t even know Yuri’s father was alive— or sick. This whole time he’d been suffering through that in silence and from the tension in the air, this death shifted things within the family. I wondered who now held more power. The man protecting me or the man threatening me?
“You brought everyone here to tell me this?” His hand waved at the armed soldiers, some of them fanning out to surround us. “You could have called.”
“I brought them here to do what I fear you can’t.” Matteo continued on, “And to stop you from making any more mistakes.”
A growl vibrated from his chest and his free hand wrapped around my back, pulling me into him. “You’re not going to touch her.”
“You’re right. I’m not.”
The men around us lifted their weapons and stepped forward, closing in on us from all sides. I was behind him fully, hidden from his brother, but the men to our left and right could see me and if they shot, I didn’t doubt they would have the accuracy to take me out and leave Yuri unharmed.
Yuri stepped back and rolled his neck. “Never thought this day would come, brother when we’d be on opposite sides.”
