Page 47 of The Bratva Sinner

“Get the word out. Everyone needs to know she’s mine. My wife. I’m going to put a ring on her finger and my name on her life. I dare anyone to try to take her from me.”

He exhales. That one breath tells me everything.

“You can leave,” I offer.

“Fuck you.”

I smile. I was hoping he’d say that.

13

Lila

I run the brush down Outlaw’s neck in long, steady strokes. She tolerates it, which is progress. A week ago, she would have tried to bite me. Now, she just pins back her ears and gives me a side-eye. Outlaw wants me to know she’s doing me a favor by letting me touch her.

“You’re a pain in the ass, you know that?” I murmur.

She snorts and swishes her tail.

I’ve been spending most of my time out here in the stables. It’s the only place I can breathe. The house is beautiful, but it’s also a cage. A pretty one, sure, but a cage, nonetheless. I have tried to leave several times.

Each time, I’m reminded that I’m not a prisoner, but I’m also not allowed to leave. I’m not sure if these people understand what a prisoner is.

“He wants to marry me,” I tell Outlaw. She flicks an ear back, listening. “Can you believe that? Marriage. Like we’re living in a Victorian novel where men just decide women belong to them,and that’s that. My dad gave me away. I think you have more value than I do. How are we in the twenty-first century, and women are still being traded?

The brush catches on a tangle in her mane. I work it out gently.

“The thing is,” I continue, “I think he means it. He’s not playing games. He thinks marrying me will solve everything.”

Outlaw shifts her weight, leaning slightly into the brush. She pretends she doesn’t like it, but I feel her relaxing.

“All week, I’ve been thinking about what my life would look like if I said yes.” The thought gives me butterflies. “I’d be his wife. Mrs. Sokolova. I’d have his name, his protection, and his money. I’d never have to worry about where my next meal is coming from or if I have a roof over my head.”

I move to her other side, continuing to brush.

“But I’d also be his. That’s the part I can’t get past. Why do I have to belong to anyone? Why can’t I just be me? My father sold me like I was livestock. This other asshole thinks he owns me because of the deal with my father. And now, Maksim wants to put a ring on my finger and call me his.”

Outlaw turns her head to look at me. She’s probably thinking this human has lost her shit.

“I know what you’re thinking,” I say. “You’re thinking I’m being stubborn just to be stubborn. That I’m cutting off my nose to spite my face.”

She blinks slowly.

“Maybe I am. Maybe I’m so used to fighting that I don’t know how to stop. I’m so terrified of being controlled that I can’t seethe difference between someone trying to own me and someone trying to save me.”

I set down the brush and run my hand along her shoulder. She’s strong. Healthy.

“He saved you,” I whisper. “He didn’t have to. He could have let you die. But he didn’t. No one expects anything from you. You just get to be.”

Outlaw nuzzles my shoulder.

“Is that what he’s trying to do for me? Give me a life where I just get to be?”

The question hangs in the air, laced with the sweet smell of hay.

I think about the kiss. I wanted it. I wanted him.

“What if I say yes?” I ask Outlaw, giving voice to the other thought that’s been bouncing around in my head.