Semua Bab Kiss Me, Bravta King: Bab 101 - Bab 110

LaraDiego tightened his arm around my neck, and it ramped up my fear. I'd never been this scared in my life. Even the kidnapping ordeal paled in comparison. I hadn't known what to expect then. I hadn't realized what was at stake.Now, I did. He would kill me, then the man I was falling in love with. He'd hurt my new friends and all these brave men fighting for our safety.It wasn't only a matter of living or dying. It became something more. This standoff was a symbol of the power between these men.Diego would buy a woman to keep her like a possession. He'd participate in trafficking humans.Anatoli and his Bratva brothers didn't. They'd released that girl. They'd cared and provided for me without question.Diego couldn't win, and it was that firm and staunch conviction that helped to keep me from locking up in terror and going numb. I remained alert, thinking back to all those self-defense lessons I did back in high school. How to turn my head for air. How to move my foot and place

Anatoli"Anatoli!"I'd never heard a sweeter sound.Oh, thank fuck. She was alive!Lara's frantic shouts for me had me dropping to my knees to find her. She'd crawled under there when Diego lifted that second gun. From my vantage point of running across the room, I couldn't see if he'd hit her.I swore my heart stopped beating from the moment he pulled the trigger. The second he did, his attention trained downward, and I shot him. Again. And again. He wouldn't survive a bullet to the brain, and if he tried to, hyped up on some will to live in his psychosis, the three bullets embedded in his heart wouldn't let that happen.He'd fired at me, too, but the searing sting on my upper arm wasn't a worry.All I could be concerned about was Lara. My woman. My love."Anatoli!" She cried it in relief as she surfaced from beneath the table. On her hands and knees, she crawled toward me. Tears slipped from her eyes and spilled over her cheeks as she hurried to me, frantic and impatient. Swinging a

LaraHis nostrils flared as he looked at me with that smoldering gaze that set me on fire.I didn't know if something was wrong with me to want him now. My addiction to this man and his love would never fade, but so soon after all that violence and danger, it seemed hasty."I love you, so fucking much," he growled as he stood.I rose with him, safe in his arms. He'd never drop me. He'd never let me go. I knew I could believe him when he promised it.As he carried me out of the bathroom and toward the bedroom, I dipped my head to kiss him softly.It wasn't enough. He groaned, dropping to the bed and covering me with the hot bulk of his rugged body. Pinning me to the mattress, he kissed me harder, with bite and more than a suggestion of hunger.He leaned back, raking his ravenous stare over me, and I drew in a deep breath of anticipation with the knowledge that he would render me into a molten puddle of bliss.I knew that look. I learned what it meant that first night we slept together.

LaraTwo months later..."Oh, honey," the older woman told me at the table out back. "I'm telling you. I devoured sauerkraut. That was my craving. Nothing sweet like cake." She licked her lips."Sauerkraut?" I grimaced but smiled as I snacked on a second slice of wedding cake. "Really, Violet?" I wouldn't call this cake my craving. It was just too good and I didn't want to pass it up. I only planned to ever have one wedding day and one wedding cake, so I'd enjoy as much as I wanted when I could.She nodded sagely. "It was all I could keep down.""Well, I'm doing better now." Morning sickness wasn't confined to the first trimester for me, but I was getting the hang of managing it better. A routine helped—that and never letting my stomach be completely empty, like it had in the beginning."Goodness, no," Margie exclaimed from the seat to my right. She'd come as a guest to the wedding, and I loved to see her mingling with us like this. Ever the mother hen, though, her personality remaine

DesmierZakh sighed, looking over the guests at the party. Even though we were over here talking about business, we all three tried to keep our expressions as neutral as possible. Alisa, Zakh's wife, was sentimental and emotional about this wedding. Both Alisa and Lara were prone to the effects of hormones wrecking their bodies and minds. They'd cried throughout the events of the day, and I knew those pregnant women would be even more upset if they knew we were talking about missions and hard jobs over here."I'll contact Yusef," I told them both, eager to wrap up this conversation. It wasn't the time nor place for it. "And it doesn't matter what that fucker is planning with whoever he wants to pretend he's friends with." The Ortez Cartel wouldn't mess with us anytime soon. The Aslanov Family had been cut down with the death of their leader. If Vasiliev wanted to bring me into some stupid plan with the Rossinis, so be it. "Regardless of any plans Vasiliev's making, he'll always be the