Page 18 of Kidnapped Bride

I tried to step back, but the wall was right there and he was already on me.

His hand slammed against the wall beside my head, his body close enough that I could feel heat radiating off him.

His other hand found my jaw and held it firmly, tilting my face up toward his.

"I don't have to play nice with you," he said through clenched teeth. His grip wasn't painful, but it was tight enough to make the point. "I've chosen to because I'm not the monster your father is. But don't mistake my courtesy for weakness, Kira."

I gathered everything I had left in me and spat in his face, but the asshole didn't even flinch.

The spit ran down his cheek and into his stubble while he glared at me, but his grip on my jaw did tighten.

It made a shiver run down my spine as I remembered the way he choked me while he fucked me.

"My father will never stop coming," I told him quietly, and I was confident of every word I spoke. "He doesn't know the meaning of the word quit. He will find me and he'll bring me home, and when he does, whatever territory you're fighting over won't matter anymore because there won't be anything left of you to fight for it."

Nikolai wiped his cheek slowly with the back of his hand.

Then he let go of my jaw and stepped back, straightening his lapels like I'd wrinkled them.

When his eyes grazed down over my body, then back up to my face, I shivered.

"It's a shame you're so mouthy," he said in a smoldering tone that made my stomach flip despite everything. "You were actually good in bed. I would've liked to enjoy that a little more."

Heat rushed up my neck and flooded my face before I could stop it. I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. He saw it. The bastard saw it, and the corner of his mouth twitched just enough to let me know he'd won that round.

Then he turned and walked out and slammed the door, and I heard the lock mechanism click.

I stood there with my back against the wall and my heart trying to punch through my ribs, furious at him and furious at myself for the flush that wouldn't leave my cheeks.

He was my captor—my father's enemy.

And he was the worst thing that had ever happened to me.

And I hated that his words still made my body react like that.

5

NIKOLAI

When I got the call at three in the morning, I was on my feet before I was fully awake, stumbling through my office where I'd been sleeping toward the door.

I hadn't heard back from Markin after that message I sent him yesterday concerning my having his daughter, but it didn't appear that he cared much.

I struggled to the car, rubbing sleep out of my eyes, and Yakov drove me to the warehouse on the east side where my men were regrouping after Markin's latest hit.

This on the heels of the convenience store strike yesterday, and my head was spinning.

Apparently, they hit our shipment of drugs headed north out of the city and I had to know how bad it was.

"How bad?" I asked Tyren the second I got out of the car and walked into the old defunct bottling plant.

The warehouse teemed with activity at night, but tonight there was an angry and somber mood to the place.

"They took everything, Boss," he snarled, not even trying to hide his rage. "They hit the truck on the bridge approach. Two trucks boxed them in and they started shooting before anyone could get a weapon clear." His forehead was creased with angry tension, which probably mirrored mine. I couldn't believe what he was telling me. How did Markin even learn when we'd move product or what route we'd take?

"Everything?" I stopped in the middle of the floor and let that word just hang there. Three hundred kilos… That was north of a billion rubles once it moved. I needed that in my distribution pipeline by morning or my infrastructure would start weakening.

Without product to move, men got angry and started hunting, and without that exchange, my pocketbook started to dry up.