Page 56 of Forced & Owned By the Bratva Boss

A chill crawls down my spine.

Very few people have this number. Fewer still would call from a private number.

The ringing stops.

For a brief moment, I convince myself it’s nothing. A wrong number. A scam call. Someone dialing randomly. But my relief is short-lived, because the ringing starts again.

I don’t answer immediately. I first spend a couple minutes wondering who it is and contemplating whether or not I should answer. Only one person has ever reached me with a number I can’t call back: Serrano. But we’ve only ever communicated through text messages, so it makes absolutely no sense that he’d be calling me now.

I’m inclined to ignore the phone, but whoever’s at the other end of the line doesn’t stop calling, and by the time the phone rings for the ninth time, I groan with frustration and roll over to grab it.

“Hello?”

Whoever’s on the other end of the line remains quiet, which I consider annoying considering they wouldn’t stop blowing up my phone, but now that I’ve answered, they’ve committed to silence.

No sane person would do that.

“Hello?” I repeat, my tone clipped.

Static crackles softly through the speaker, but the caller still doesn’t say anything.

I roll my eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. “Okay, fun time’s over. I’m hanging up.”

Just as I’m about to hang up, a voice cuts through the interference. “You disappoint me, Audrey.”

Every muscle in my body locks.

The voice is distorted, its pitch warped beyond recognition, but I’d know the cold amusement beneath it anywhere.

“Serrano?”

A low chuckle filters through the speaker. It’s chilling. “Hello there, friend.”

My grip tightens around the phone until my knuckles ache. “I’m not your fucking friend,” I bite out angrily. “What do you want?”

“Not much. We had an agreement, and I want you to hold up your end of the deal.”

The lunatic really thinks I’d still happily work for him after he tried to kill me and got me in trouble with the man who would snap my neck in two if I wasn’t his wife? Seriously, fuck him.

“I told you I’m done.”

He chuckles sardonically, the cocky bastard. “Darling, you’re not done until I say you are.”

Anger burns through me, hot enough to drown out my fear. This is what I wanted. Pretending to work for Serrano is the only way I can find out his next moves against the bratva and gather evidence to prove that I’m truly loyal to Igor.

But I underestimated how annoying this sick loser would be and how irritated I’d get just speaking to him. It’s so intense I can feel vomit claw its way up my throat, but I don’t tell him that.

Given what he’s done, it’d be unrealistic if I just jumped straight to taking up the offer. But if he knows how much I despise him, he won’t trust me when I finally agree to work for him again.

I need to keep it balanced—just the right amount of hate and docility. “I almost died because of you.”

“Almost,” he drawls. “But you didn’t. Do you think you’d still be alive if I wanted you dead, Audrey?”

The smugness in his voice makes my skin crawl. I’ve never hated anyone this much. “Do you expect me to thank you for sparing my life?”

“I wouldn’t mind if you did. Joaquin never got the chance to.”

My blood curdles and the air around me heats up to a boiling point. The room suddenly feels too small. “Joaquin…that was you?” I pause and try to get my muddy thoughts in order. “I thought…”