Page 51 of A Bride for the Mafia King

“Oh… fuck. You’re pregnant.” His face erupts in a malicious smile. “I can’t believe my fucking luck. Does Tolya know?”

I freeze.

Shit.

“No?” That murderous smile reaches his eyes as he looks down at me and I can nearly see hell in their depths. “This is rich. I’ll have to take this new information into consideration. It’s really too bad you aren’t further along though.”

I narrow my eyes as he speaks. Not comprehending his disappointment.

“If you were, I’d rip that baby from your womb and leave you both bleeding on the pavement for him to find.”

My eyes widen at the depravity of the scene he has just painted for me. Then he raises his foot. But not toward my stomach. Toward my face. I don’t even have time to scream. I see the boot coming a split second before it connects. Thick leather with a steel toe flies fast toward me.

I try to roll, but there’s no time. Pain explodes across my cheekbone—a white-hot flash that knocks me back into the dirt. I feel something tear inside my head. The impact rings through my skull like a bell.

Everything goes blurry and far away. The taste of iron in my mouth. Darkness presses in at the edges of my vision. The last thing I hear before the void takes me is his voice, low and pleased.

“Two for one. How perfect.”

The first thing that registers as I come back to consciousness, I don’t know how long later, is pain.

A dull, throbbing ache blooms at the base of my skull and spreads like fire behind my eyes. My mouth is dry, lips already chapping from lack of moisture. My head lolls forward as a trickle of something warm and sticky trails down my temple. Blood, I realize.

When I open my eyes, the world tilts on its axis and I have to close them again to stave off the dizziness. Swallowing hard, I open them again, more slowly this time.

Dim yellow light flickers overhead, casting shadows across cracked concrete and rusted beams. It smells stale like air that hasn’t moved in years.

It’s then that I realize I’m tied to a chair. Wrists pinned behind me, plastic biting deep into my skin. Ankles bound tight. My body protests every movement as I shift, trying to assess the damage. My back screams in agony. But I’m conscious. I’m alive.

For now.

Just then a shadow shifts in my periphery and Yaro steps into view. Idly humming something low under his breath.

“Thought I might’ve hit you too hard,” he muses. “It would've been a shame if you missed this part.”

I don’t speak. He circles me slowly, a predator surveying his kill.

“You know,” he says, “this was supposed to be symbolic. Two shots to the chest just like my father. But I get to erase not one mistake—” he pauses, crouching in front of me, fingers resting lightly on my knee “—but two. Don’t I?”

He taps his finger over my stomach. I flinch before I can stop myself.

He grins. “I was right.”

“Go to hell,” I croak.

He leans closer, breath hot and sour. “Already live there, sweetheart. I just make sure others get the grand tour on their way down.”

Then he straightens, walking a few paces away and spinning back around, his eyes gleaming with excitement. Now I know he’s genuinely mad, rejoicing in the thought of killing me and my unborn child.

“I am sorry it had to be you,” He stalks toward me again, crouching low until we’re nose to nose. “You are a pretty little thing. But this is about revenge, I didn’t choose you. I suppose in a way, fate did. ”

He’s breathing harder now. The fury consumed him from the inside out. “If you want to blame someone, blame Tolya. It was his fault my father died that night.”

I meet his eyes, forcing steel into my voice. “He was barely more than a child when it happened! How can you blame him! Your father was just doing his duty.”

“So was I!” he roars, taking two steps back and pacing like a caged beast. “But I didn’t have the luxury of forgetting like he did. I’ve been biding my time. Building my place at his side, gaining his trust all these years. Becoming indispensable. Waiting for the moment I could finally make him bleed.”

He pauses, spinning back to face me. “Finally, that moment has come.”