Page 18 of Prince of Control (Bratva Heirs #1)

Chapter Eleven

Lara

I should be glad Baron gave me space when we got home, and I stomped upstairs to our bedroom.

I was at first. But then I felt strangely abandoned.

Now, a few hours later, I feel terrible about putting Denis in a bad situation. I knew he was attracted to me. I also knew I was married to a dangerous man. I was acting out without thinking about the collateral damage of my toxic girl behavior.

I’m also just hungry. I guess I’ll have to go downstairs at some point. I head down the stairs. Phoenix is working on a laptop on the couch in the same place he was when I came home.

In the kitchen, the two enormous guys, Alexei and Feliks, shovel ravioli into their mouths.

“Hey,” I greet them. “Is there any left?”

“I’ll get it for you.” Feliks surges to his feet.

The deference everyone shows Baron, and me by proxy, continues to surprise me. I can’t figure out if it’s out of fear or respect. But actually, no one seems jumpy or nervous. The inhabitants of this house are comfortable here.

Feliks dishes me a plate of food and puts it in the microwave to heat while I try to decide whether I’m relieved or disappointed not to find my controlling, apparently violent husband down here.

Is he mad at me? We didn’t speak on the ride home. I half-expected a war. Some kind retribution for making and keeping a date with another man. I was ready for it

I wrapped my anger around me like a blanket, planning to use it as a shield for whatever he threw at me, but he left me alone.

The microwave dings, and Feliks pulls out the warm plate and hands it to me.

“Get her a fork, dumbass. She doesn’t know where anything is here,” Alexei chides his younger brother.

Feliks opens a drawer and pulls out a fork. “Sorry.” He hands it to me.

“Thank you.” Not wanting to sit with them, I head out to the couch and drop into a seat near Phoenix to eat.

He glances over. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

“You okay?”

I look over, surprised by the question. Is he for real?

“No. I’m not.”

Phoenix’s shoulders round more over his laptop, as if my anger landed as a physical assault.

I instantly regret being combative. Maybe he is genuinely concerned.

“Sorry. It’s not your fault.”

“No, I get it. You’re in a new place with a bunch of strangers, and you have no idea if you’re safe or not. I know how that feels.”

Some of my walls start to crumble. “Yeah. You probably do.”

“I registered to live in a men’s dorm at Thornecroft when I’d just started my hormonal transition. To me, it felt like a new chapter. Starting college as the gender I always knew I was. But then I got here, and it was scary as fuck.

“I had this tatted-up alpha male roommate from Chicago who didn’t say much. Rumor had it the guy was in the Russian mafia. I was fucking terrified.

“Baron was your roommate?”

Phoenix nods.

A part of me that was bracing against some awful story relaxes. Baron didn’t hurt Phoenix. He wouldn’t be living here if he had.

“Turns out, it wasn’t my roommate I needed to worry about.”

I tense again.

“During orientation week, three guys accosted me in the shower.”

“What?” I shove my plate on the coffee table, no longer hungry.

“They grabbed me and forced me down on the floor. I think they were going to gang rape me.”

“Oh my God.”

Phoenix shakes his head. “They didn’t succeed. Because Baron appears out of nowhere with the plastic bag from the garbage can, which he whips over the head of one of the guys.”

My lips part in shock.

“He pulled it tight over the guy’s face, so he couldn’t breathe. There was something about the calm way he wrestled with the guy that said he’d killed before, and he’d be happy to do it again.”

I’ve killed. And I’d kill again–for you.

My heart thuds against my chest. “Did he?”

I’m not sure I want to hear the answer. It’s like watching a horror movie where you want to hide and peek through your hands at the same time.

“The guy was suffocating, and before the other two jumped Baron to get him off because they could have–I mean, it was three against one–he orders them to drop to their knees, or he’ll kill their buddy.

And they’re scared shitless because he looks like he does professional wet work and enjoys it, so they do it–they kneel.

“Wet work?” I don’t understand this English turn of phrase.

“Wet for blood. Hitmen do wet work.”

“Oh. Then what happened?”

“Baron keeps suffocating their friend with the plastic bag, right up to the point he almost passes out, and then he lets go. The guy slumps on the floor, gasping. Baron’s still totally cool.

Not mad. Not like he almost killed someone.

He doesn’t raise his voice when he calmly tells the three of them if anyone so much as looks at me again, he’ll tie them to their beds and burn them alive. ”

I let out a shaky breath I didn’t know I was holding.

“And then he tosses me a towel and helps me up. He asks if I’m hurt or want to file charges. I’m not interested in guys, but if I were, I would’ve fallen in love with Baron right then.

“I mean, I guess I did anyway–bromance-wise.

“After that, word got around that I was under Baron’s protection, and no one has ever fucked with me again.”

My lips tremble, eyes burning for Phoenix. “I’m sorry that happened to you.”

I catch the pain in his eyes before he drops his gaze. “Yeah, it sucked. But it created this” –Phoenix waves his hand to indicate the house– “so I guess I can’t complain.”

I cock my head. “What do you mean?”

“Baron decided he needed his own Thornecroft society house, so he could keep the people under his protection safe. That was why he cooked up the plan to purchase and donate this property to the University under his father’s name.

I stare at Phoenix. “Baron bought this house?” I had definitely assumed his dad bought it for him.

Phoenix nodded. “Well, he worked out something with his dad to front him the money, but he makes payments every month. He’s also figured out ways to generate income to cover most of the occupants’ room and board. Plus a full-time cook and housekeeping. He’s a genius.

I stare at my half-eaten dinner, letting it all sink in. “A dangerous genius.”

Phoenix nods. “For sure.” He peers at me. “Are you scared of him?”

“He did something today,” I say, not elaborating.

“Yeah, I saw you looked pissed when you came home.”

Phoenix is too respectful to pry, which I appreciate. But he just shared a vulnerable story with me. It feels like I could trust him.

“I was meeting with this Russian guy who said he was homesick. It wasn’t a date–he’s just a dorky kid. I wasn’t going to cheat on Baron or anything.”

Phoenix winces.

“What?”

“I’m already sensing where this is going.”

I throw my hands in the air, some of my ire returning. “Yeah, so Baron shows up–I don’t even know how he knew where to find me–and he just sits down with us and starts eating Denis’ food.”

Phoenix’s lips twitch.

“Then I get up to go to the bathroom, and when I come back, Denis is gone, and there’s a puddle of blood on the table in front of where he was sitting.”

Phoenix winces again.

“Blood!” My voice raises, and I throw my hands up. “I don’t even know what Baron did to him.”

“Well, in my experience, anyone Baron hurts has it coming.”

“ Nyet . This guy did not have it coming! He’s just some new student like me, who happened to invite the wife of a bratva prince to have a drink with him on the first day of school.”

Phoenix scrubs a hand over his facial hair. “The thing to know about Baron is that he’s ultra-protective of the people he cares about or feels responsible for. And he believes that in order to keep everyone safe, he needs to control everything around him.

“I’m sure having a wife to protect is next level for him. Here I was afraid he was going to drive his little sister crazy this year.”

“I didn’t need his protection! I don’t need his protection.”

“Yeah. Well, maybe in the future, communicate with him when you’re meeting with someone, so he doesn’t go off the deep end.”

I frown, and Phoenix holds his hands up in defense. “I don’t mean to butt in or give advice. I’m here anytime you want to talk. I can give you my perspective, or you can tell me to shut up, and I won’t say a word, I’ll just listen.”

The defensiveness rising up in me softens. Phoenix really does seem like a good guy. “Thank you.”

A door opens, and Benjamin emerges. It’s a door to what I thought was a closet, but now I see the flash of an inner door guarding the entrance to stairs descending downward. A secret staircase!

Was he in the dungeon?

With that girl?

But no one else emerges.

His gaze flicks over to the couch, but he doesn’t acknowledge either of us, he just walks up the stairs.

There’s a heaviness in his walk. Strain in his expression. For a moment, I don’t see an aggressor–I see a young man with far too much weight on his shoulders.