Page 18 of Forced By the Obsessed Bratva

And then, suddenly, I couldn’t breathe. My pulse sped up, the rhythm of the song pounding in tandem with the rush in my ears.

He wasn’t meant to be here.

This club wasn’t his world; it was mine. It was my sole unspoiled location. My haven.

And yet…he’d found me. Of course, he had.

Matvey Yezhov didn’t wait for chaos. Hewaschaos.

My stride broke.

Marielle caught it. She stopped dancing and glanced in the same direction as me. “Z? What’s wrong?”

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t.

I just stood in the middle of the dance floor, seething and glaring at the dark shadow standing across from me.

He didn’t move, not even after our eyes locked. He just looked at me, as if I were prey that had wandered too far. As if he’d allow me to dance, laugh, pretend I was free just so he could remind me who was in control.

I was supposed to be afraid of him. I’d heard stories about how cruel he was; everyone feared him, but I didn’t.

I was furious as fuck that he’d followed me. Tracked me. Invaded the one area of my life that wasn’t already filled with shadows and blood.

“Hey.”

I turned around to see who was standing behind me. He was so close that I could feel the heat rolling off him and the smell of whiskey on him.

He was tall, good-looking in a boyish, careless sort of way. Brown hair, cocky smile, dark shirt open at the neck, and innocent-looking. Or at least acting that way.

I would usually turn him away with a look. I was not up for games. Not the lighthearted, superficial kind.

But tonight wasn’t normal.

Tonight, I didn’t give a shit about Matvey or my father or the Bratva. All I cared about was sending a message to Matvey. I needed him to understand that I wasn’t my sister. I wasn’t going to bend to their rules and live like a piece of furniture in their mansion until they decided I wasn’t worth the stress and killed me.

And more importantly, he needed to know I was never going to be his in the way he wanted.

I smiled back at the guy, flirtingly. “Hey.”

He tilted his head, his brown eyes dark with lust as he glanced at me from head to toe. I wore a simple, backless red top and a black skirt tonight. It wasn’t too revealing, but I couldtell his eyes paused on my nipples poking through my shirt for a moment before his gaze met mine again.

“Is everything okay? You looked anxious, so I assumed you might need some rescuing.”

“Maybe I do,” I replied, inching a step toward him. “Now it’s a matter of whether you can rescue me or not.”

He smiled even harder, as if he couldn’t believe his luck. “What’s your name?”

I didn’t respond.

I stepped in instead. His hand fell to my waist instinctively, fingers curling around me possessively.

Right, this was just what I needed.

I felt Matvey’s eyes on me.

Even without having seen it, I could tell he was burning with rage knowing another man was even breathing the same air as the property he thought was his to claim.

I pressed into the stranger’s touch, hand on his chest, lips at his ear. “If you want to know my name, then you have to earn it.”