Page 81 of Forced & Owned By the Bratva Boss

My hands lock onto her arm and I yank her forward, keeping her firmly pinned against my chest as I force her to look directly into my eyes. “No.”

“I won’t let you dictate this, Igor. You can’t stop me! I’m going to save my brother, and this is the best chance I have of doing that.”

Unrelenting, I shake my head. “Over my dead body.”

Audrey begins to twist in my grip, trying to pull away.

The rigid composure she’s been forcing herself to maintain completely breaks, and it gives way to her real desperation. “If I go to him, Simon walks free! That’s the deal! And I want my brother to live, Igor! Why don’t you understand that?”

My jaw tightens until the bone aches, and I grind my teeth harder against the sheer madness of her words. “And you think a snake like Serrano will keep his word? You think he’ll let either of you walk away? Then you don’t know him as much as you claim you do.”

“But I have to do something!” Her voice cracks.

“Audrey, you’re not thinking. You need to fucking calm down and think with me. Going to Emiliano is shooting yourself in the foot.”

She jams her palms against my chest, pushing futilely against my weight. “I can’t just sit here, waiting while he dies! I can’t let him kill my brother!”

Anger and fear collide violently inside my chest like a dark storm.

I’m furious, but not with her. My anger is channeled at the world for forcing her to this edge. The thought of losing her, the image of her walking into Serrano’s slaughterhouse because she genuinely believes sacrificing herself is the only solution, turns my blood to pure fire.

“You’re going nowhere, and that’s final,” I growl, my fingers digging deeper into her arm—not hard enough to hurt her, but to anchor her. “I’m not letting you make a stupid mistake.”

The tears in her eyes are on full display as they roll down her cheeks. She’s trembling in my grasp, biting on her lower lip to try to stop the flow, but nothing is working.

She looks at me with sad eyes, then sniffles. “What if you’re wrong this time?”

“What if I’m wrong about what?”

“Serrano killing me,” she says with a tired shrug. “What if he doesn’t? He might torture me, yes. But he’ll let Simon go. And that will give me peace.”

I shake my head sharply. “You walking into his hands isn’t a solution. It’s surrender. And I don’t surrender what’s mine.”

“That’s exactly what this is about. It’s this sick game of control and possession between you two. He knows that and he wants to hurt you through me,” she cries.

Her eyes grow wild and shine with a terrifying mix of panic and grief. She twists violently in my hold, her breathing coming in shallow gasps.

“If that’s what he wants, then let him take me. If his obsession is with punishing you, let him have me! I just want him to let my brother go! Simon doesn’t deserve any of this.”

“No, he doesn’t.” My voice drops into a hoarse growl. The fury inside me hardens into something cold and dangerous. “No one touches my woman or my family. And your brother is my family. No one is allowed to use either of you for leverage, revenge, or anything else. You belong to this house, Audrey. You belong to me. And I won’t trade my wife’s life for anyone’s sick satisfaction, certainly not Serrano’s.”

Audrey doesn’t relent. She pounds her fists weakly against my chest. “You don’t understand. He’ll kill Simon.”

I catch her wrists gently but firmly, then lower them between our bodies to stop her movement. “I understand. That’s why I’m not letting you destroy yourself over this.”

My tone softens as I release her wrists to brush a stray, damp strand of hair from her tear-streaked face.

I wipe a hot tear from her cheek with my thumb. “You stay here with me, Audrey. You survive. That’s the rule here. I’m not letting you sacrifice yourself when I’m still standing.”

I pull her tightly into me and wrap an arm around her waist, cradling her against my chest and allowing her to feel my strength.

With my free hand, I send a message to Sergei, telling him to immediately send out a memo to summon all the men to the private room where we’ll have an emergency briefing.

I turn back to Audrey, cup her face in my large hands, and force her to hold my gaze.

The panic in her eyes is still there, but it’s slowly fading, and I hope that it’s because she believes I can do this.

She nibbles on her lip and lets out a shaky breath. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean what I said earlier about…about you doing what you do best. That didn’t come out right, and I was—”