Page 9 of Captive Vows (The Dubinin Bratva #1)

Cool yet raspy. Deep yet smooth. His voice was the whiskey-laced kind of smoky growl that had me snapping to attention.

I cleared my throat. “You? I asked to see you ?”

What the fuck?

What the hell am I saying?

I didn’t know where this ridiculous bravado was coming from. It wasn’t like the na?ve and risky attitude I used when I tried to hit on Oliver at the studio. This false courage and tough exterior weren’t me .

He didn’t stop until he stood right in front of me.

I was within reach. If he so pleased, he could snap his arm out and grab me by the throat.

He’d squeeze, too, able to end my life. Like all the others, his minions and soldiers, this guy was a killer.

The dark aura that emanated from him was unmissable, but somehow, I clung to this stupid idea that I could still be tough around him.

Stopping still to loom over me, he breathed in and out once. His chest rose and fell as his lean face remained unreadable and unwelcoming. No smile. Not a smirk, either.

“Yes.” His reply was clipped and brokered no nonsense.

“I asked for you ?” I huffed, rolling my eyes.

I was signing a death sentence, trying to mock him, but I couldn’t stop. I had to do something , and fighting like this was all I could think of.

Ever so slightly, he edged in closer. One placement of his foot toward me. That was all he did while glaring down at me. Nothing else. A single step closer and I wanted to buckle down and cower.

Instead, I forced my throat to swallow and refused to back down.

“You asked to speak to the boss.” He tilted his head toward the side as he peered at me.

“You’re the boss around here?”

“I am the boss.” He wasn’t confirming what I’d said. He told me that statement like it was a law I should know. No questions asked.

“Fine.” Dammit, that came out shakily too. “Then release me.”

Nothing. He stared me down. I wished I could claim to be stronger, but I wasn’t. Pinned under his hard stare, I weakened. I snapped. I just couldn’t take his scrutiny this directly.

“I didn’t ask for this. For any of this.”

He shook his head without breaking his glare. “You didn’t.”

Now we were getting somewhere. He agreed.

“Then release me. I don’t belong here.”

Again, he shook his head. “You do.”

“What?” I dropped my arms and gaped at him.

“No. No, I do not. I don’t fucking belong here.

You had no right to have your goons kidnap me.

I’ve got nothing to do—” I shook my head, but it wasn’t the slight movement he did.

I jerked it from side to side, as if denying what he said with vehemence would make things go my way. “I refuse to be kidnapped like this.”

“Too late.”

You asshole.

“I will not accept this.”

He raised both brows in a silent challenge.

“I won’t!” I clamped my lips shut and fought back the urge to punch him.

“Just as I will not accept your attitude or your eagerness to break my guard’s nose.”

I opened and closed my mouth, settling on grinding my teeth.

“He deserved it. I don’t deserve this. Please.

Get a hold of my dad. He’ll set this straight.

I don’t know anything about what he does or doesn’t do.

I don’t know anything about any of you. I’m innocent.

So just figure out your issues with him. ”

“Innocent?”

I narrowed my eyes once more. The way he asked that chilled me. Innocent as in untouched? Is that why Dad was asking if I was still a virgin?

The possibility that this wasn’t some random mistake quickened my pulse so suddenly that I feared I’d pass out.

Please. No. God, no. He couldn’t have…

I forced another hard swallow down my dry throat. I’d never been so scared before in my life. “Miguel Lopez.”

He nodded once. “I’m familiar with your father.”

“Then set this straight with him. I shouldn’t be here. Deal with him. Not me.”

“I have dealt with him.” He drew in a deep breath, making his chest rise high again. “And this—you—are the deal.”

“What?” I scowled, terrified but masking it to stay strong. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Miguel gave you to me.”

“I’m not a thing to be given!”

“No.” He dragged his gaze lower. “You most certainly are not. Not when you insist on fighting the truth.”

“The truth?” I gritted my teeth, fighting back the urge to hit him and to cry. “The truth is that you’ve kidnapped me!”

“Your father gave you to me.” Looking down his nose at me, he paused with his cruel honesty.

“He sold me to you?” I refused to believe it. I couldn’t. Yet, he had been so deliberate with asking if I was still a virgin.

“He gave you to me. As a payment for a debt.”

Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. Bile rose up my throat at this news. That my own parent would give me to this Mafia monster and think it was perfectly fine. That…

Oh, fuck.

No.

Oh, fuck no.

I shook my head again, furiously. “No. Fuck that shit. No. You hear me, Boss ? You’re not—” I staggered back a step. “You’re not getting anything from me.”

He laughed lightly at first. Then as he shook his head again, a wicked smile transformed his face. He was mocking me. Laughing at me and pissing me off like no one had ever done before.

“You hear me?” I shouted. Only the fear of knowing he was in charge kept me from hitting him as he turned to stride out of the room.

“Hey! Do you understand? You’re not getting anything from me!”

Not my virginity. Not my submission. Nothing. I vowed to never stop fighting.

Stopping at the door, he turned to give me one last hard look. “But you do belong here, as a payment for your father’s debt. Like it or not, you are mine.” With those last words, he exited and shut the door quietly before the telltale click of the locks fell into place.

Alone and bewildered from the experience of speaking with the Boss, I fisted my hands and growled out the scream that was trapped in my chest. I was trapped. I was well and truly fucked, captured and stuck here where no one would save me.

My dad gave me to this Mafia boss.

All this anger at him would never fade. But it was the hopelessness of being confined and kept from my dreams that threatened to break me more.