SWNOVELS Chapter 8
“Where were you? Why did you do this to me?” the girl spits with tears of rage in her eyes.
Blyad!
I’m on my last fucking nerve with everything that went down here. It’s been less than two hours since the attack ended, yet my world has already turned upside down.
My room is cool and shadowed after the chaos outside. A heavy stillness envelopes us, broken only by the rasping of my breath and my almost silent footfalls on the plush carpet underfoot as I pace. The thick air feels charged with tension, ready to spark.
It’s just me and her.
There is no doubt in my mind that her father was dirty. There is no other reasonable explanation for his death. It is clear that Theo Avants was selling information to my rivals. When they got wind of the fact that I had him captured, they took him out and attacked my mansion before I could make him speak. Before he could tell me who he was working for. Only an idiot couldn’t figure that out. And I am going to find the bastards who did this and gut them like pigs.
Motherfuckers will pay.
But the biggest motherfucker of them all is still none other than Theo Avants, of course. One of the longest-serving associates of my organisation. He’s been with us since my father’s time. And then, he decided to betray me and sell me out to my rivals. That led to his death.
As for his daughter, I’m at a loss. She’s staring up at me with wide eyes, tied to a black leather chair in the center of my room – Tiana. Her dark curls spill over the chair back, her breathing shallow. Even bound, she’s the picture of defiance. Her chin lifted, eyes flashing with a fire that refuses to be smothered.
Fuck it, she’s worth every damn penny I spent on her.
“Let me go! Why are you doing this to me? Why!?” The words hang between us, an accusation, a plea, a demand, I can’t tell which. Nor do I care.
“Quiet,” I growl, unable to help the way my eyes rake over her, taking in every curve, every line of her slender body. Tying her to that chair had unsettled me. Her fierce struggles as I’d shoved her into it. Then, the way she’d kicked and flailed as I’d bound her wrists behind the chair with my belt before tying her ankles to the chair legs with a couple of neckties I’d snatched from the closet. Now she’s helpless. Her chest is thrust forward, knees spread as she squirms and fights to free herself.
Blyad.
She’s fucking beautiful.
There’s no use in her struggling, though. I know exactly how to subdue a woman in this way. It’s probably why my balls are tightening as I watch her buck her hips, her lovely features twisted as she strains against her bonds. It was a good thing that I didn’t linger after I’d tied her… With all the tension that built up in me during the attack, I might not have left her untouched, might not have made it back to Dima and the others.
Of course, you would have, pizda!
I’m no slave to my needs. Control is wired into me. Still, she makes a pretty picture. Perhaps we can relive this scene once this bullshit is over. Now I have other matters to deal with.
I have to find out if she’s somehow involved in her father’s dealings.
I have to find out if she’s hiding something.
She is the daughter of that bastard Theo, after all.
“Untie me! Now!” she screams again.
Ignoring her, I turn away, images flashing behind my eyelids as I run through the images once more. Gunfire erupting around us; Theo Avants’ body crumpling to the ground, his blood staining the fine grain of my study’s hardwood floor. Rage had consumed me at the audacity of our attackers… along with a strangely urgent need to get Tiana out of harm’s way.
We were lucky – my men are well-trained. They put down the assailants with practiced efficiency, leaving only the echo of gunshots and the stench of blood hanging in the air. But luck has no place in my world. It was supposed to be impenetrable, my home, my fortress. Yet those fuckers found a way to surprise us, bold as brass, bullets flying.
Pizdets!
“Kirill!” she yells again.
Despite what just went down, her fire almost makes me want to grin. But I also sense the undercurrent of fear in her, even though her jaw’s still out. I know she’s in shock from what happened, though I don’t really care. If anything, it works for my advantage. I know my silence is also unnerving her, much more than if I’d been yelling and threatening her. That also suits me. It will make her more malleable when I start questioning her. Torture is ultimately a mental game.
Torture?
You think you could ever torture her, dolboyob?
“Kirill!” Her voice is strident. I am not sure at what point she started thinking it’s acceptable to call me by my name, but I decide to let it slip. I think I like her saying it. It is strange to hear it, though. Everyone I know either calls me Mr. Vyronov, boss, or pakhan. Only my closest allies and family members are allowed to use the name my mother gave me.
“I said quiet!” I snap again, the memory of the attack still thundering through my head. I’m running through every minute of it, committing details to memory, even as the taste of iron and adrenaline remain bitter on my tongue. She flinches slightly at my tone, and her body goes stiff. But those damned eyes never waver from me as she glares. I wish she would look away. She’s distracting me. The fire and the defiance in her are making my cock hard.
My hands clench into fists, the urge to touch her battles against the need to remain unyielding. I’m here to get answers from her in whatever way I need to, and there’s no getting around it.
The Bratva does not forgive weakness.
Neither do I.
I need answers. If she’s somehow involved in this shitstorm, I must know about it. That’s what matters now. And I can’t let myself believe that just because she looks and behaves innocent, she is. I learned that lesson the hard way as a much younger man. I’d learned it practicing my craft on the idiots who’d dared to stand up to me.
It’s not like we don’t have some intel at our disposal. The men we’d captured had spilled their guts with a little persuasion. Yet still, I’m sure there is something I missed. Something that would fill in the gaps. And I’m going to find out what that is. Because extracting information is something I do well. Like the interrogation I got through after I’d left the girl bound here following our frantic race through the final moments of the gunfight.
Dima and the others had dragged away the surviving attackers to be questioned while I’d brought her here for safekeeping. And then I’d left her alone and went to have my moment with the captives. The air in the interrogation room had been thick with the smell of fear and blood while I’d stood over the last one of the surviving attackers. It would have been simple to end him – and no one would have questioned it, aside from my second in command.
“Kirill,” Dima had said, a hand on my shoulder cooling my murderous rage. “Think straight. We need information, not another corpse.”
It had been hard to restrain myself when the fucker had responded to my questioning with a defiant sneer. When he’d laughed about how weak our organization was. How easy it had been to infiltrate us. But a few broken fingers had loosened his tongue eventually. “The Petrovs! The Petrovs did it,” he’d choked out. “Bought Avants so he’d dig up details on you. When they knew you’d made him, they wanted him dead. Wanted to clean up loose ends. Make sure he didn’t expose anyone.”
“And the girl?” I’d asked. “Was she also a target?”
“Everyone associated with Theo Avants had to die,” he’d said. “The girl, too.”
Somehow, that had set my blood on fire. I didn’t realize I was planning to break his neck until I felt the bones crunching in my hands.
Looking at Tiana now, even with sparks in her eyes and hate curling her pretty lips, she still looks innocent. And maybe she is innocent. Maybe she’s clean and doesn’t deserve any of this shit.
Shit that you dragged her into, mudak.
Or did I? Was she already tangled up in her father’s business somehow? Or is she really an innocent victim in all of this?
I inhale sharply and stiffen my bearing. It had been thoughts like this that got Dima questioning my motives, especially when I’d resisted dragging Tiana into that stinking room to question her too.
“We can’t be sure if she’s involved or just collateral damage, Kirill. You’re the best one to find out the truth,” he’d insisted. A dozen eyes had fixed on me as he’d said it. Eyes that would witness her terror if I inflicted those same tortures on her in that room as I dragged the truth from her.
But doing that to her somehow doesn’t sit well with me. And Dima had sensed that when I’d insisted that I’d handle her interrogation in private, away from all of them.
“Be careful, bratok,” he had warned quietly while the men had dragged the bodies from the room. “If the devil has no power over you, he’ll send a beautiful woman to do his dirty work.”
“What are you suggesting?” I snarled, even though I knew what he was getting at.
“You know well what,” he’d retorted.
And that had been the shot that led me back here, facing a bound Tiana.
Truth is, Dima has a point. The woman may very well be sent by the Devil to destroy me. I pace some more, raking a hand through my hair as I consider my options. I’m not going to hurt her. But if she figures that out, I’m going to lose leverage.
“So, are you going to kill me or what?” Her voice has me stopping in my tracks and spinning to face her. “Because if you are, can you get it over with? I need to pee, and I don’t want to mess up your fancy carpet.”
I almost laugh out loud at the nerve of it. Fuck, this is going to be even better than I thought.
“Is there a reason I should kill you, Ptichka?” I ask. “All it takes is a good reason.”
“Do your worst, you bastard. Anything would be better than being bound to you for the rest of my life.” There’s challenge in her tone, but her eyes are shadowed, vulnerable. She just lost her father; it’s not surprising that she’s behaving so irrationally. But I can’t let that sway me. I’m here to do a job.
“Don’t tempt me,” I bark, fixing her with an icy stare. In spite of the defiance, her face suddenly goes pale. But she doesn’t cower; I’ll give her credit for that. Not many men can face me without fear, particularly when they’re bound and helpless. Yet this girl does it without hesitation.
Fuck, why do I like that so much?
“What do you want from me?” she husks out, her throat working as she swallows hard.
I take a step closer, looming over her. Her throat continues to work, and she licks her plump lips. Lips that would look perfect around my cock. I push the thought aside. Instead, I wait until I can see that fear has its hooks in her. When her breath becomes shallow, and her eyes lose that spark of defiance, I sink down and put my face level with hers.
“Let’s not play games,” I say, my voice low and even. “I’m not a judge or an executioner. But I can be. And I am the one you need to convince if you want to walk away from this.”
She swallows hard and nods mutely. Good. I’m finally getting through to her.
“Tell me what you know about your father’s dealings with the Petrovs.” I trace a finger down the line of her jaw delicately. She shudders. “Tell me everything, Tiana…so I won’t have to hurt you.”