Page 45 of Arranged Marriage to the Brutal Bratva King
I want to argue. Want to demand he take me home, let me handle this myself, stop acting like I’m his responsibility.
My legs give out halfway through forming the words.
Dimitri catches me before I hit the floor, lifting me easily despite my weight. He carries me into the penthouse, past the living room where we’d kissed, past the windows overlooking a city that suddenly feels hostile and dangerous.
He sets me down on a couch in what I think is an office, and I curl into it immediately, pulling his jacket tighter around myself.
“I’ll have clothes brought up for you,” he says. “Food, if you can eat. There’s a guest room down the hall.”
“Don’t leave.”
The words escape before I can stop them. Pathetic. Weak. Everything I swore I wouldn’t be around him.
Dimitri pauses, something unreadable crossing his face. Then he sits in the chair across from me, close enough that I can see him but far enough that he’s not crowding.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“You killed them.” My voice sounds distant, disconnected. “You didn’t hesitate, either.”
“Yes.”
“Have you done that before?”
“Yes.”
“How many times?”
“Enough that I stopped counting.”
I should be horrified. Should be running from the man who just admitted to being a killer.
Instead, I’m grateful he was there. Grateful he knew how to handle violence I couldn’t even process.
I’m broken. Have to be broken to feel anything except horror right now.
“Why did you save me?” I ask.
“You’re mine.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.” His voice is absolute. “Whether you accept it or not. Whether I want it or not. You’ve been mine since the moment you walked into that warehouse four years ago and looked at me like I was worth knowing.”
“That’s insane.”
“Probably.”
“So why—” My voice cracks. “Why do I feel safer with you than I have in four years?”
Dimitri leans forward, elbows on his knees, and for the first time since I’ve known him, he looks almost vulnerable.
“You know what I am. What I’m capable of. You know that anyone who tries to hurt you has to go through me first.” He holds my gaze. “I’m a monster, Janice, but I’m your monster. Monsters are very good at protecting what’s theirs.”
I close my eyes, exhaustion crashing over me in waves I can’t fight. Blood on my clothes. Bodies on the pavement. The memory of gunshots and Dimitri’s expressionless face as he killed without hesitation.
My life just shattered again.
The only person left standing in the wreckage is the man who destroyed me once before.
