you. I guess I could tell you you’re taking her, but I’d rather you just fucking agree. It would make all of this easier.”
“I’m going to go…” Gabe takes a couple steps back, as if he knows he should get out of here before shit hits the fan. He’s smart to do so. I’m fuming mad that Ivan is talking to me like he fucking owns me, like I’m one of his fucking men.
“You might be able to boss these fuckers around, but you can’t boss me around,” I growl, clenching my hands into fists. I want to punch this asshole in the face. He doesn’t have the slightest clue of how bad of an idea this is.
Everything my hands touch turns to shit—everything. The last thing I need is some broken girl coming into my life. I’m not the fucking man to save her, or even help her. I’m the kind of bastard who will leave her worse off than she is right fucking now.
“Roman…” Ivan’s features soften, but frustration lights in his eyes. “I know you’ve got your own shit going on, but I don’t have room for her. I can’t have Violet stressed out during her pregnancy, and I don’t want to just send her somewhere. She’s going to be terrified and will most likely end up talking about this place. We paid the other girls off so they would keep quiet, but she obviously doesn’t care about cash. You’re the next best thing—hell, the only thing that can keep this from taking a turn for the worst…if that’s even fucking possible.”
I grind my molars in anger. Fucking Christ, I am not the man for this job, and I don’t know any other way to tell him other than to prove it to him, and the girl, she doesn’t fucking deserve that.
“You know I’m not capable of caring for someone else. I barely have my own shit together.”
“I know, but it won’t be forever. Just until I can figure out somewhere for her to go, maybe a woman’s shelter or something, but I need to make sure she’s not going to off herself as soon as we send her off. I can’t have this on my conscious—it’s already maxed out. I don’t know what else to do with her.” Ivan shrugs. Tension riddling his body. With all the new changes taking place here, he’s spending more time here than at home, and when he is not around Violet, he gets irritated.
I look back at the nameless girl in the cell. She needs someone—anyone—anyone but me. If I’m all she has, if I’m the only fucking thing that can help her right now, I guess I’ll have to be enough. With a nervous twist in my gut and a sheen of sweat on my hands, I nod my head.
“What’s that mean? Yes? No?” His eyes bore into mine.
“Yes, I’ll fucking do it,” I grit out, wishing I didn’t have to fucking admit it aloud. Ivan smiles, a real smile, each of his sparkly white teeth showing. Why the fuck is he so happy?
“Thank you, brother.” He clamps a hand on my shoulder, and I have half a mind to shrug it off. He shouldn’t be thanking me. He has no fucking idea what he just condemned this girl to. I’m an asshole on my best days, and a bastard, a crazy asshole, on my really, really bad days. If she’s afraid of Gabe, I can’t imagine how she’s going to feel when she sees me.
“Yeah, whatever, let’s get her up and out of here. I’m sure she’ll be just as excited to be hitched with me as I am with her.” I roll my eyes. I'm not prepared for what's to come—not even a little bit.
Ivan unlocks the cell and opens the heavy door. It creaks as it swings open, and I move my gaze to the woman on the mattress. She doesn’t even flinch as we enter the cell, and I'm stuck wondering how this is all going to go down.
What is she going to think when she sees me and Ivan? She’ll probably be scared out of her mind. Grown men fear us, so I imagine this tiny woman is going to lose her shit. I suppose it's only going to get worse when we tell her she’s going to be coming with me.
I see this going fucking marvelously.
Shaking my head, I squat down right next to her mattress. Anger rushes to the surface when I