Chapter 27

Maksim~

"W ithout your permission?" she echoed, clearly pissed.

"I am familiar with who Janet Woo is, Katja," I informed her. "She knows better than to approach my table without permission."

"Oh, I'll just bet you're familiar with her," she scoffed, and it was clear that we were going to give Nikel an unfavorable show whether it was a good idea or not.

"If that's your way of asking me if I've ever taken her up on her services, I have not," I clarified.

Despite that reassurance, Katja's buttery-colored eyes were still shooting flames my way. "Well, she was just trying to help me."

That caught me by surprise. "And in what way would she be able to help you?"

"She was telling me which men were the best tippers and-"

I had my hand wrapped around her neck before she could finish her sentence. "And why would you be needing to know which men in here are the best tippers?" I snarled at her. "And I must warn you that your answer may very well cost you your life, lyublyu."

Instead of fear leaping into her eyes, the anger in them just blazed brighter. "Because isn't that the plan?" she spat, not even trying to remove my hand, not caring about our audience. "Aren't you planning on making me pay off my grandfather's care by becoming a bratva whore after you finally catch Klive? Isn't that why you fucked me in a room with an entire audience on the other side? That wasn't an audition to become your whore because we already knew that I didn't have a choice in that. You fucked me in that room to start the bids rolling for when you were finally done with me." Her eyes started to shine, but I knew enough to know that whatever tears were in her eyes, they were from rage and nothing more. "Well, Janet was just given me a short training course on who can help me pay for my grandfather's care the best."

I let go of her neck, but not because I wasn't furious, I let go because I was on the verge of losing her, and I knew it. "How did you find out about the room?"

"Are you fucking serious?" she hissed, not caring about my earlier warning. "That's what you have to say to me? That's what you're more concerned about?"

"Katja-"

"What kind of a monster does something like that to a woman?" she spat, and that's when I realized that she was also hurt on top of being livid. "While I was worried about Klive taking something that wasn't his to take, you were busy giving every private piece of me to complete strangers." The embattled tears finally cascaded down her face. "Not only did you take something from me, but you gave it away like a sale at the mall, and now I'm stuck walking around Port Townsend, wondering how many men on the street know what I sound and look like when I'm…when I'm…" Katja hurriedly reached up to wipe away her tears before letting out a calming breath. "Janet was just trying to help me be the best whore that the bratva needs me to be."

"I already told you that you belong to me," I reminded her. "I made that clear the other night."

"Yeah, and it's clear how you treat the things that belong to you," she shot back. "However, it doesn't really matter, does it? Whether I'm spreading my legs for you, your customers, or even Klive Simpson, I've shown my weakness, and I've made it clear that I'll do anything for my grandfather. So, what in the hell do I have to be mad about anyway, right?"

Though she was rightfully upset, I was still very aware of our audience. "We will discuss this later," I told her. "Right now, we need to do what we came here for."

"To show Klive that I've got you wrapped around my finger," she sneered. "Well, if he's watching, I guess it's time to put on another show."

Before I could ask her what she was talking about, Katja reached for my belt as she went to slide underneath the table, and I saw fucking red. Granted, I was at fault here, but she wasn't even giving me a chance to explain before making this worse than it already was.

I grabbed her by her arm to stop her from getting on her knees, then dumped her on my lap. As calmly as I could, I said, "If you ever behave like a whore in public again, I will kill you with my bare hands, Katja. That is not what you are here for, no matter how this all began. So, if I were you, I would take a step back to remember just who in the hell you are dealing with."

Refusing to relent, she said, "I know exactly who I'm dealing with. I'm dealing with a man that has absolutely no honor when it comes to women."

Livid beyond reason that she would dare question my honor, I was done with her. So, grabbing her by the arm, I stood up, forcing her to stand with me, and she barely had time to grab her purse before I was dragging her behind me to find one of the rooms that Erato's rented out to certain patrons. Knowing that Jurik would handle anything that I needed, I didn't bother checking with management for a room. I simply checked each doorknob until I found one that opened.

As soon as I found one, I flung Katja inside, then locked the door behind me. I was so fucking incensed that it was a miracle that I could even speak. She was the first person to ever call my honor into question and live afterwards, and she was going to learn to never do it again.

"If you want to accuse me of not being honorable where women are concerned, then I'll show you exactly what it feels like to be a real bratva whore," I snapped.

Instead of retreating in fear, it looked like Katja was going to dig her heels in, and I wasn't sure whether that made me angrier or if I felt proud of her. The life that I led wasn't for the weak, and though Katja had started out as malleable, she was proving to be quite the opposite. She really was just enduring all of this for the sake of her grandfather, and that pleased me, though it wasn't anything that I was going to tell her right now. Right now, I had a point to prove, and she needed to learn her place. Yeah, it might be by my side, but she needed to learn that a queen still answered to her king, no matter what.

"Is that supposed to scare me?" she sneered, anger lacing every word out of her pretty mouth. "I've already had two different men threaten to kill me or rape me all within a couple of weeks, so you think that threatening to beat me is going to make me flinch? I tell you what, as much as I love my grandfather and would obviously do anything for him, at this point, a bullet to the head sounds a lot more agreeable than wondering if a man on the street is smiling at me because he's just being friendly or because he knows what my tits and pussy look like."

"Katja-"

"At the very least, Klive was honest about what he wanted," she went on. "You? You violated me in a way that beating me or raping me doesn't hold a candle to. Unless it's done in public, a beating or rape can be dealt with privately, minimizing the shame. What you did…you might as well have just recorded it, then put it on the internet. That's how violated I feel, Maksim. That's what you did to me."

"And your answer is to fuck other men?" I spat, the enormity of my error a glaring one. "Is that what you want? To be a bratva whore?"

"That's what you made me the second that you fucked me in that room!" she yelled.

"I made a mistake!' I yelled back, finally admitting it. "But I can fix it!"

"Go fuck yourself," she seethed, telling me exactly what she felt about my admission.

Avgust's words about losing her were coming back to haunt me, and for the first time in my adulthood, I felt the fear of losing something that mattered to me but also couldn't control. Unlike my brother, Katja hadn't chosen this life, so she wasn't committed to me in a way that Akim was. Plus, even if Akim had taken a different path, our blood bonded us in a way that we'd never be free from one another. Katja was standing in this room for her grandfather and nothing more.

I stepped to her, and though her body trembled slightly, she wasn't backing down. I reached up, then wrapped my hand around the back of her neck, holding her still. "I want you to listen to me, and I want you to listen well, Katja," I told her. "Whatever mistakes that I have made with you, they change nothing. You are mine, and the last thing that you will ever be is a whore for the bratva."

"Well, since you're a high-ranking member of the bratva, it seems as if I already am, Maksim," she fired back. "It's what I've always been since the beginning of all this."

"Then if that is all that you are content to be, then so be it," I hissed down at her, no longer giving a fuck about Nikel or giving Morocco time to find him. After tonight, we were no longer going to play Nikel's game. As much as I wanted to find the sonofabitch, I wanted Katja more. "So, now get on your knees and show me what a good whore you're going to be for me."

Defiant and looking so fucking stunning, she said, "Since you obviously can't be trusted with the pieces of myself that I've already given you, if you want me, then you're going to have to force me."

"You are overestimating my character, Katja," I told her. "That's a dangerous thing to do."

"You don't deserve me," she whispered both angrily and brokenly.

"I know, baby," I replied honestly. "I do know that."

Instead of slapping me or yelling some more, she surprised me by lowering herself onto her knees. However, when I remembered why she would do such a thing after what she'd found out, I realized that this woman was a lot stronger than I had originally given her credit for.