Page 71 of The Bratva Sinner

It’s good to have brothers.

Two hours later, I’m standing outside a house where I’ve been told Bekir lives. We’ve hit two. I want to kill the fucker.

We bust down the door. We’ve lost the element of surprise, and they’re ready for us. At least, they thought they were. They’re not. Every shot is for Lila. For what they tried to do to her.

It’s over in five minutes. Six Albanians are dead. Bekir is among them. Arlind just lost his right hand. He won't let that go quietly.

We're back in the SUV when my phone rings. Unknown number. I already know who it is.

“Sokolov,” I answer.

“You’ve made a very big mistake.” Arlind’s voice is cold. “You killed Bekir. You think killing my men will stop this? You think I’ll walk away?”

"No," I say calmly. "I think it answers your question about how far I'll go. Touch her again, and you'll find out what comes after these three houses."

“Your wife.” He laughs. “So much trouble for one whore. Why don’t you just give her to me? End this war before more people die.”

“You’re going to leave Miami. You’re going to leave Florida. You’re going to forget Lila exists. If you stay, I will hunt you down and make sure your death takes days.”

“Big words from a man who’s outnumbered.”

“Try me.”

I hang up.

Damien is watching me. “He won’t stop.”

“I know. Neither will I.”

19

Lila

I watch as Outlaw trots in a perfect circle around me. Her muscles ripple under her coat, powerful and controlled. She’s finally starting to trust me. The horse is like the Ferrari of horses. I want to ride her. I want to be the one who shows her she can trust a rider to treat her with respect. I dream about feeling all her power under me as she runs. The property doesn’t have that kind of trail system, but I’m driven just to prove I can do it. I want to do the thing no one else has been able to. I want to prove I have value.

After weeks of patient work, she lets me guide her without fighting every step of the way. She lets me know she doesn’t like it, but we have an understanding.

Iwillride her.

She’s lucky that my shoulder is still healing, or I might have tried. It’s been a week, and my road rash is pink and healing. My shoulder aches, but it’s not my first time dealing with this kind of injury.

I haven’t left the compound since the day of the shooting. It pisses me off that they scared me enough to keep me behind the tall fence. I want to be rebellious and pretend it didn’t scare me, but it did. My life flashed before my eyes. The threat of my death has kept me behind the walls. I don’t want to die.

I push the thought away and focus on the horse instead. I’m alive. George isn’t. I didn’t go to his funeral. I didn’t want to be a reminder of why his family had to bury him. Pavel’s still recovering from surgery. Mike’s back on duty, but I see him wince when he pulls at the stitches in his side.

All because of me.

“Good girl,” I murmur to Outlaw. She flicks an ear back, listening. “That’s it. Easy.”

I think about Maksim bursting into my room that day. The look on his face was like someone had ripped out his heart. I replay that moment over and over again, trying to understand it.

He looked terrified for me.

No one has ever looked at me like that. No one except...

The memory has me sucking in a breath. Mama, tied to that chair, her face beaten beyond recognition. But it was her eyes I remember most. That one good eye staring at me with such desperate fear. Not for herself, for me.

It was the same fear I saw in Maksim’s eyes.