Page 21 of Bought By Sin

All the assessments felt like exams I couldn’t fail, but afterward, when I would see how well I could hold up among the other Bratva soldiers, I was rewarded with the realization that I could. That I was good enough—if not better—at managing the duress of being a Bratva employee.

Lev, along with his brother and cousins, all of whom I’d been introduced to over that first week, tried to integrate me not as a thing to own and dispose of, but as a person they might rely on for specific services. They wanted to know where I’d been before, but not in any way that made me suspect they were using me as a source of intel. They wanted to know who I’d worked for, but not to the degree that I felt like they had singled me out for what I knew.

No matter what they asked me, I walked a fine line between cooperating because I had to, being owned by them, and also keeping my mouth shut because that was all I could do sometimes to keep any semblance of power or control.

Now, as he drove me into the city to put me up to another test, another exercise of seeing how well I could perform under pressure, I wondered if he was trying to prepare me to be his assistant.

That was how often I was with him. Glued to his side. Expected as a sidekick.

“Ready?” he asked after he parked. He killed the engine in front of a tall warehouse and turned to face me. The slow smirk on his lips taunted me, but I knew I’d get better at forgetting those stupid ideas. Those lies that he could be attracted to me and want me not as his slave in the field and on the streets, but in his bed.

Since that first day, he hadn’t touched me, hadn’t made a single move on me. That was how I knew he was only taunting me and leading me on to think that he desired me. That was why I knew I had to keep my wits and never lower my guard for a ploy of seduction from someone like him.

“Ready for what?” I asked.

That was often how it went. He’d ask if I was ready and I’d throw it right back in his face that I had yet to be informed of what I needed to be ready for.

Still, as he gave me that smug almost-smile and beckoned for me to get out of the car with him, I knew he wasn’t teasing. He wasn’t playing games with me. If he was, he probably would’ve gotten bored with them—or me—by now.

Instead, as I followed him into the warehouse, I realized that he seemed this serious about treating me like a real employee. Not a thing at the bottom of the ladder as a slave, but an honest-to-God employee like the rest of the Bratva members.

A Bratva soldier approached us. He nodded once at Lev. “It’s arranged.”

“Good.” He dismissed him and faced me. “An envelope has been left in a safe here.” He strode in front of me, holding his hand up to vaguely gesture at the empty industrial building. An open central space showed several levels above us, hallways as a perimeter on the upper floors where people could look down into the foyer.

“Find it,” he instructed, “and bring it to me within five minutes.”

Another scavenger hunt. I’d never admit how much I enjoyed them.

“That’s it?” I asked.

He arched one brow, seeming to take my reply as a cocky statement, like I was saying that wasn’t hard enough. I meant it as a question, if he’d give me any other details about this test.

I took off, searching the building for a safe or anything that might resemble it. It wasn’t only the urgency to please Lev, as my master and owner. It was the thrill of the hunt that drove me, too. If he wanted to see what I was worthy of and how fast or stealthy I could be, that was far better than actually being on smuggling runs and treated like crap, like the Cartels did.

I ran through the building, I looked in all the abandoned rooms, and I scanned all the walls and shelving units that I came across. All the while, he walked behind me, from a distance, not giving me a clue but trailing along to see how much progress I'd made.

Before I could dash down another hallway, he grabbed me and pushed me off to the side. His arms locked around me as he tackled me, and we tumbled into a harsh fall together. I held my breath, surprised at the sudden hit and drop, but it didn’t escape my notice that he tried to cushion my fall. His hands braced the back of my neck as he prevented me from smacking it.

I blew out a hard breath and peered up at him, lying partly under him off to the side.

“The floor,” he said, slightly out of breath as well. He released me slowly, and as I sat up, I saw how my foot had sunken into a weathered floorboard.

I could have crashed through. Clear down to the next floor down. Or more.

It would’ve been impossible for me to anticipate it, but he must have sensed danger.

And he wanted to… protect me.

I wasn’t expendable to him. I wasn’t something he’d bought that he could replace.

Blinking up at him and disoriented with this push to feel something like gratitude toward him, I was forced to accept this strange safety he insisted on. His controlling nature didn’t leave anything to chance. And he didn’t want to chance anything with me.

Because the time was ticking, I pushed at him to let me up, then proceeded to run along the edge of the hallway, watching my steps more closely.

I found the envelope and handed it over to him, proud to have passed yet another test.

He accepted it and nodded once. “Not bad. Two minutes to go.”