Page 85 of Forced into a Bratva Marriage
A beat.
“Sound good?”
I hesitated, then slowly leaned in. “Go to hell.”
He heaved a sigh, lowered his head, and rubbed his temples. “Unfortunately, I can’t.” His expression darkened. “We’re already there.”
At his signal, the man behind me walked over to my front and turned my cheek with a dirty backhand slap. The rings on his fingers made the impact even worse. My head snapped to the side, and for the next few seconds, all I heard was a loud ringing in my ear.
In the fleeting moments when my eyelids closed, I saw stars. Literal, twinkling stars. By the time I opened my eyes again, my vision was blurry, and the world seemed to swirl around me.
Fuck, that hurt like hell.
My eyes were heavy, my head was pounding, and that stupid ringing was still not dying down. All from just one factory reset slap?
“Hey!” The short man’s voice echoed off the walls as he tried to catch my eyes. “Look at me,” he said.
I did. But there were two of him, and I had yet to figure out which one was the real him.
“How many fingers am I holding up?” he asked, voice still echoing in my head.
I knew he had two fingers up, but because I was seeing double of everything, I saw four. Damn, that slap had landed really hard.
After blinking a few times, my vision cleared, and the ringing stopped.
“I told you I didn’t hit women,” he said, looking right at me. “I never said these guys didn’t.”
Karik, please find me on time.
I wept on the inside but kept a straight face on the outside.
“Now, where were we?” he continued. “Ahh, that’s right. I ask. You answer.”
“Whatever it is you think I know, I don’t.”
He hesitated. “Let me be the judge of that.”
Silence.
“What do you know about the Vetrov case?” he asked.
I swallowed, masking my unease with a frown.
“Don’t make me ask a second time.” It was a threat and also a warning.
I glanced at the tall man who’d struck me earlier, and the idiot was already cracking his knuckles.
“Keep your fucking hands to yourself,” I said to him before facing the short man. “I know that the man was framed for a crime he did not commit.”
“Hmm.” He bent over, hands on his knees. “What else do you know?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
A pause.
“Do you honestly think I wanna get hit in the face again? I’m telling you the truth. That’s all I know about the case.”
