Page 136 of Shutter and Sin
"Twenty-two and you look this fragile?" He shakes his head in disbelief. "Pretty boy, you really should not be here tonight. This is definitely not the place for someone of your type."
His friend nods in agreement. "Yeah, you need to go find yourself a rich woman to take care of you. Don’t come die in a dirty warehouse."
"I’m perfectly capable of handling myself," I shoot back.
"Sure you are," the man mocks. He reaches out and aggressively grabs my chin. "Look at this skin. Do you use expensive lotion or something? That is certainly not a grown man’s face."
I quickly push backward to escape his grip. But suddenly, another thug grabs me firmly by the shoulder. "Wait a second, maybe this person is actually a girl, I mean he smells good"
His heavy hand starts moving slowly downward toward my chest, and panic locks my muscles in place. Before his hand reaches his destination, a loud voice echoes across the massive room.
"Attention, everyone."
All the talking stops at once. The entire room turns to watch an older man step into the glare of the lights. He wears a tailored suit, looking too put-together for this crowd with his gray hair and calm posture. I freeze. Levan. It is the exact same man from the photo.
Behind him is Dato, looking better than the last time I saw him. He has a deadly look on, with excitement in his gaze. Every single person in the room stands up straight to show their respect. I do the same alongside them, even though it irks the hell out of me. The men, together, deliver a loud Georgian greeting, and I have to be grateful that no one is staring at me right now. I cannot understand the greeting as it’s a secret even in the underworld, but the deep rumble of their voices vibrates right through my chest.
The room is filled with a heavy mix of blind obedience and fear disguised as respect.
I silently mouth random syllables while praying that nobody notices my fake participation. Up at the front, Levan steps onto the raised platform and places his hands flat on the table to look out over the crowd. Dato stands firmly by his right side with crossed arms to scan the faces in the audience.
My heart beats furiously against the tight fabric binding my chest. Panic rises in my throat as I worry about Dato staring at the back row and noticing the small recruit wearing an awful suit. Thankfully, his intense gaze simply sweeps past me to check the next section of men.
Levan finally breaks the silence. "Everyone, sit down," he orders, and every guy in the room hits a chair. He speaks with a raw power that leaves zero room for arguments. Leaning forward, his expression goes hard and cold, waiting for everyone to settle.
"Gentlemen, I have some excellent news to share tonight."
The warehouse goes quiet.
Levan offers a chilling smile to the crowd. "It seems our enemy is incredibly distracted these days," he continues. "His brand new bride has gone missing once again. The entire Russian organization is running blindly around Moscow trying to find her."
Several men around me chuckle at the insult.
"That woman is always causing massive problems for him," a guy near the front shouts out.
Another thug quickly joins the conversation. "She is probably just off spending all of his dirty money while he panics."
Levan nods in agreement. "You are right. It seems the great Alexei Romanov cannot even manage to control his own wife. What kind of powerful leader allows his woman to wander the streets without any supervision at all?"
The cruel laughter grows louder.
"A very weak one!" someone yells from the back.
"Exactly," Levan agrees loudly. "He is an incredibly weak man who cannot keep his own partner in line. We know she is pregnant, yet she continues to run wild and embarrass him in front of his entire empire. A true boss would never let a disobedient woman make him look foolish."
The men cheer and laugh even harder at the awful insults.
"Maybe she is sleeping with someone else behind his back," a man suggests with a nasty grin.
"That is highly probable," another agrees. "She definitely has that deceptive look about her. She probably acts perfectly innocent while sleeping with anyone who offers her a little bit of power."
I sit frozen in my folding chair. My fingers dig harshly into my kneecaps while the compression bandage around my ribs suddenly feels unbearably tight. I force myself to breathe slowly as Levan raises a hand to demand silence once more.
"We tried to get valuable information from her recently when we held her captive for five days," he explains with a bitter tone. "That stubborn woman refused to say a single word to us."
The blood turns cold in my veins.
"We could have ended this upcoming war before it even started if she had simply opened her mouth," Levan complainsangrily. "But she stayed silent the entire time. Now she is carrying his child and still causing massive disruptions. Her escape makes Romanov look incompetent."
