Page 25 of Gilded Shackles
My mother turns that ice-cold gaze on me. "You lost your right to opinions when you climbed out of your tower last night, Raphaella. Now you will do as you're told."
"And if I don't?" I push. Because screw it. What's left to lose?
"Then Egor Barinov will learn what happened," she says simply. "And your one-night stand's family will pay for it. Blood for blood. That's how it works in their world. As for you, there'll be another Egor to marry you off to."
Their world?
It clicks. Hard. Violent. Obvious.
The tattoos. The scars. The guns.
These men aren't businessmen.
"You're... you're with the mob," I whisper, feeling the room sour around me.
Nikolai's eyes meet mine. Regret flickers for half a heartbeat, then goes dead.
"Bratva," he corrects quietly. "Not mob."
Holy. Shit.
I slept with the Russian mafia.
And my mother is negotiating my hand to keep Manhattan from becoming a bloodbath.
This is insane.
This is horrifying.
Something inside me trembles, and I clamp it down. This is the moment I should scream, throw a vase, start a tiny revolution. Instead, I do the math in my head like a bored accountant.
This is... also a door.
Option one: marry someone my mother picks. Probably someone old and slimy and smelling of cigars, like Egor. Stay in the cage. Just a different cage with a worse lock.
Option two: marry the silver-haired Russian who just took my virginity like it's Black Friday and I'm on clearance.
Both suck. Both lock me into something I didn't choose.
But the second one at least lets me breathe.
I raise my head.
"Fine," I say. "I'll do it."
7
NIKOLAI
My uncle sent me to do the recon on the building. He told me he was interested in who lived here. But I suspect he already knew.
He used me. Did he want me to run into Elle? Did he set this up? I look at him and can’t read his expression. I look at Gayle who looks way too smug.
And Elle just agreed to marry me with little fight. Why? Why do I feel like I’m the butt of the joke?
“When?” Elle asks her mother. “When do I get to leave your cage?”
I don’t know what I thought the answer was going to be, but I sure as hell wasn’t expecting the backhand across Elle’s face.
