Page 100 of The Chaos She Brings

The room drops into a suffocating silence.

Enzo and Max pale.

Anastasia’s voice is calm. "He expects his bride on her birthday. I can give you until then. If she isn’t his by the twenty-fourth, he will kill me. And then he will kill all of you."

The line goes dead.

33

I Know What I Have To Do

Tess to Kai: I wish I could keep you forever. I really do love you. [unsent]

Tess

“So,you’retellingmethat one of the most feared Bratva families’... uh...second-in-command’s... wants you as his wife, and if you don’t go, then everyone dies?” Carina repeats, her voice laced with disbelief.

“That just about sums it up, yeah. Oh, and don’t forget the whole ‘my mum’s a Russian assassin’ part.”

“How could I forget that?” she mutters.

The weight of the conversation presses down on me, and I sink deeper into the mattress, gripping Kai’s new phone. I called her the moment I shut myself in my room,needing space—needing her.

“I wish you were here,” I sigh, flipping onto my stomach and pressing my face into the pillow. The movement pulls at the wound at my side, but the pain is lesser now than it was a few days ago.

“I can leave Nate here with Cupcake and be on the next flight if you need me? Enzo told me it was safer for us to stay put; we don’t want to raise too much suspicion. Though obviously, Kai didn’t listen.”

“No. He’s right. And you have your work to worry about.”

“Maybe we need to open up a support group for runaway mafia brides?”

I snort a laugh, the sound almost foreign given the circumstances. “Do you think it would be a big group?”

“The shit I’ve seen? It’d be bigger than you’d think.”

I don’t know if that makes me feel better or worse.

A knock sounds at the door before Kai steps in, his presence immediately grounding me. My breath catches—like it always does. No matter how much chaos surrounds me, he makes it all disappear for a moment.

He moves effortlessly despite the hot pink boot Carina so proudly chose for him. The contrast between his usual brooding demeanour and the ridiculous neon colour should be comical, but somehow, he still makes it look good.

Kai sits beside me, his fingers tracing idle patterns over my back. Warm. Comforting. Distracting.

“What are you going to do?” Carina asks.

“I don’t know,” I murmur, sitting up. Kai shifts, and I take the opportunity to settle into his lap, straddling his thighs. His arms wrap around me instinctively, and I melt into him, resting my forehead against his chest.

“The options seem to be: I marry a man who will no doubt abuse me,” Kai tenses, his arms tightening around me in silent protest, “or we all die.”

“Nice options,” Carina says flatly.

Kai doesn’t speak, but his hands move beneath my top, palms skimming along my spine, leaving goosebumps in their wake. His fingers stroke, caress—gentle but possessive. Each touch sparks something deep and consuming inside me.

He presses a kiss to my forehead. Then my cheek. Then lower, his lips grazing my jaw, moving deliberately. My breath hitches as he tilts my chin, exposing my throat to him. He doesn’t hesitate, sucking softly against my skin, dragging his teeth ever so slightly.

A small, traitorous moan slips past my lips.

I freeze.