Page 17 of Bought to Bear Bratva Heir

She shook her head, tendrils of strawberry-blonde hair falling free of the knot to frame her face. It made her look younger. More like the girl I had lost.

"No."

The strength in her voice shocked me.

"I’m not going anywhere with you, Ilya. If you want to kill me, then you can do it here."

Defiantly, she lifted her chin. She was trying to be brave, and I respected that, but the quivering of her bottom lip gave her away.

For ten whole seconds, I just looked at her, and then I smiled.

"Okay." Moving so quickly that she barely had time to struggle, I flipped her around, and my arm went around her throat, my biceps bulging as I blocked her airway.

It didn’t take long before her knees buckled and she lost consciousness.

I let her drop, swinging her into my arms before she hit the ground. I walked back towards my car without looking back.

Leaving her shoes lying on the grass.

She wouldn’t be needing them where she was going.

Chapter Seven

Daisy

I woke up to the scream I hadn’t had a chance to scream when Ilya had attacked me. The sound echoed and bounced back at me.

My eyes flew open, or at least I thought they did. Wherever I was, it was so dark that I couldn’t tell.

Panic gripped me, locking my next scream in my throat. It was as dark as a grave.

Had Ilya?

My throat worked as I tried to swallow down the vomit that bubbled up.

Had he buried me alive?

The moment I had thought it, I lost control of my bladder completely. And the stench of urine made me gag again. This time I had no choice but to try and twist so I could vomit without choking on it.

He knew how I felt about enclosed dark spaces. I’d told him my worst fear was being buried alive. He’d laid there and listened to me. Stroking my hair and promising me that he would never let that happen. And I had believed him. But thenagain, I had believed a lot of other things he had promised back then.

It stood to reason that he would use that fear against me. He wasn’t known as a monster for nothing.

I had known from the second our eyes had met that he was going to kill me. Ilya had always been feared, but I’d never really been afraid of him until that moment. Now I wasn’t just afraid; I was terrified.

And he wouldn’t let me explain. I wasn’t even sure why I needed to explain. He had wanted me gone; he had made it clear that I was never to return.

Maybe that was it. Maybe he had been blinded with rage because I had dared to come back?

Yeah, that must be it.

Except he kept saying I was meant to be dead. That didn’t make sense.

I needed to think, but I couldn’t because the darkness was too close. I couldn’t breathe.

Finally, the vomit stopped. Breathing heavily, I rested my cheek on my hand and tried to calm my rapidly beating heart. I had to calm down so I could think.

It took maybe five seconds, although it seemed longer, before I realized that my hand was on carpet.