Betraying The Bratva King

Liev Orlov

Briar did a final check on all the girls’ rooms. Eight girls and seven boys made up their team of fifteen senior choir members. It was a smaller choir than many of the other schools represented but what they lacked in size, they made up for in talent.

Their school had three choirs. General choir, junior choir, and senior choir. General was open to anyone who wanted to sing. Whether you had a great voice, a crappy voice or in-between, there was no discrimination. You came. You sang. You left. Junior and Senior choirs were more structured and disciplined. Of course, most of the group from choir ended up mixed in with the drama team and performing in the school’s musical theater.

This year nine of her seniors were leaving the school when they graduated. She would miss them but knew they were all destined for great things. This was why she did what she did. It was no secret she extolled the importance of holding onto your own hopes, dreams, and identity in the pursuit of goals and she was constantly reminding them there was more to life than being held back by their circumstances. If anyone understood what it was like to be all alone in the world and to have to make a life for herself, she did and she reminded them each and every day to not give up.

She gave a final wave to Romy who poked her head out her door. “They’re all settled now, I think. After the early morning we had and then the flight, I think they’re done for. I suggest you sleep well tonight because once they’re rested, the rest of the week might not be so easy.”

“I’m dead tired,” Romy agreed. “See you in the morning.”

She swiped her key card and then stepped into the bedroom, frowning when she noted a lamp, she had specifically left on was now shut off. Weird. She crossed the room wondering if the bulb burned out and tried to turn the lamp on and it didn’t come on. Had to be the bulb. She was about to reach into the lampshade to twist it when the very distinct sound of a click broke the silence in her room.

Slowly, she turned, swallowing deeply and the first thing she noted was the glint of metal on the lap of the man sitting in the chair she had walked right past as she had entered her room.

“Liev,” she whispered as the man wordlessly rose from his chair, locked the hotel room door, and slid the chain across the metal catch. Even with his back to her, his tall lithe frame, blonde, almost white hair cropped short and his very rigid posture, screamed at her it was Liev Orlov in her hotel room.

“Briar,” he spoke very quietly as he turned to face her, tucking his gun into the waistband of his pants. “Did you think you could come to Europe, and I wouldn’t know?”

“It was the plan,” she wasn’t sure how she managed to find her voice.

“I bet it was,” he c****d his head and motioned to the bed. “Sit.”

“I don’t want to.”

“It wasn’t a request.”

“What do you want?”

“Your head on a platter,” he said with a shrug. “I will settle for a very accurate description of what you’ve been doing for ten years while hiding from me.”

“I wasn’t hiding from you.”

“Liar.” He gave an exaggerated sigh, “unless you want me to have my men remove you from this hotel and we have a conversation at a location far less comfortable, you will sit.”

She moved to sit on the edge of the bed and stared at her feet, the lump in her throat growing exponentially with every breath. “Liev, please. I’m here with kids as a chaperone. I’m not here to –”

“Scam me?” he interrupted her.

She couldn’t even look at him. Her palms were sweaty, and her breath was short as she contemplated, with the sight of the weapon, Liev was definitely as dangerous as she had thought and more importantly, still very pissed off with her. It also made her realize the woman in the airport and the lobby downstairs had to be connected to him. She should have paid better attention.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered quietly.

“You aren’t yet but you will be.”

He reached out a hand and gripped her chin and lifted it, so she was forced to meet his eyes. They were still an icy blue, but the warmth once reserved for her with affection was gone. He was cold, guarded, and angry. The tightness of his grip on her face told her she would likely have a forefinger and thumb mark to cover up tomorrow. If she saw tomorrow. The thought forced a shiver down her spine.

“You ran away from me.” He accused none-too-gently, his free hand tapping against the metal tucked into his waistband. “Like a little coward.”

“I know but –”

“You knew I would be angry with you Briar and you ran and left your sister to take the fall for your actions.”

She swallowed and noted how dry her throat was. “I didn’t want to.”

“You didn’t want to run? You didn’t want to scam me? You didn’t want to f**k me?”

His words were slow and deliberately baiting her to respond and she closed her eyes against the fury in his. Each breath she took felt painful as his presence seemed to suck all the oxygen from the air.

“I couldn’t stay with Sully. I couldn’t keep living her foolish life with her plans and plots,” the words spilled from her lips. “I had to go.”

The hand under her chin slipped to her neck and closed around her throat, squeezing it warningly. “Do not lie to me. You knew what you were doing.”

“Yes. I knew,” she felt the tears rising. She had to think of Hadlee. She needed to survive this so she could get home to Hadlee. Her sweet little girl who she had spoken to only hours before could end up growing up without a mother if she didn’t play her cards right. “I’m sorry. I knew but I couldn’t go through with it.”

“You couldn’t go through with it?” he gave a mocking laugh and leaned down and whispered in her ear, “I’m quite certain not only did you go through with it, but you enjoyed every single moment of it. I seem to recall with clarity how much you enjoyed it. The way you moaned my name while you scammed me. A little pleasure with your business?”

She flushed at his words as his fingers flexed around her neck. Her breathing now hindered by his grip and her hands automatically went to grip his wrist trying to pull his away, but he was infinitely stronger.

“Tell me again how you didn’t go through with it when I very distinctly remember exactly how it felt when you went through with it.”

“I meant I couldn’t go along with asking for cash,” she whimpered as she clutched her fingers tightly squeezed his forearm. “Please, I can’t breathe.”

“Then, you were good with f*****g me, just not for cash?”

“Yes.” Tears streamed down her cheeks.

“Interesting,” he stood upright, shoving her backward onto the bed, his hand falling off her to clench in a fist at his side.

“Liev, I’m sorry. Please. I knew I couldn’t take your money and I knew Sully would not take no for an answer. I knew what she was like. She didn’t care what the sacrifice was as long as she got the payday.”

“You weren’t going to collect a dime?” he stared down at her where she rubbed her throat lying on her side on the bed, tears streaming down her face.

“I was. I was supposed to take half. She told me if I went along with it, I could take my cut and walk away from the life forever, but I knew she’d never let me go.”

“You could have come to me and told me what was happening. How many times did you and I have conversations and I told you, you could tell me anything?”

She sobbed inching up the bed, trying to put distance between them. She needed to figure out a way to survive the night. In the morning she would call Marie and find a way to get home but for now she needed only to live. “I know,” she clutched a pillow as she reached the headboard, holding it to her chest defensively. “I should have told you but –”

“But?”

“I wanted it!” she cried out suddenly. Maybe the truth would set her free. “I wanted it. I wanted you. I was a stupid kid with a foolish crush, and I thought if I was going to lose my virginity for cash it was going to be with a man, I actually wanted to have s*x with, and not a stranger on the internet. My choices were you or an online auction Sully set up. I went with what I knew.”

He quirked an eyebrow. “Now we’re getting somewhere. Continue.”

“That’s it. Sully told me since she wasn’t going to collect on the prenup then I was going to have to pick up the slack. The plan had always been for me to sell my virginity the way she did. My parents set her up at eighteen and I was supposed to have done the same at eighteen. She got distracted with the club owner and then you, so I had a reprieve. The minute she read the prenup she changed the plan. She said there was no way she was staying with you in Lyon for three years. She wanted to go back to New York. She missed her friends. She said with the money we could start over. I could go to school and get my degree and live the simple life I wanted without the drama of her plans.”

“You believed her?” When she didn’t answer his voice grew deeper, “did you believe her?”

“No,” she shook her head. “I wanted to. God, I wanted to. I wanted to believe she would let me go but the minute I agreed to her plan every other conversation with her started with a ‘you know what we should do next’ and I knew I was never getting away from her.”

“Then why go through with it?” he rounded the bed ignoring how she was shaking in terror.

Her teeth were chattering now. She was freezing cold, and her fingers felt numb as she clutched the pillow tighter to her, as if miraculously the feathery softness was going to keep the gun tucked at his belt from getting to her heart.

“I don’t know.”

“You do. I want to hear it.”

“I was in love with you,” she almost shouted it and then covered her mouth with her hands. She was sobbing in earnest now. “I loved you and I didn’t care she was getting the pay day so long as I got you, even for one night.”

“Now we are getting somewhere,” he sat on the edge of the bed and yanked the pillow from her. “Stop covering up with a pillow. It’s foolish. It’s worse than the damn teddy bear you used to sleep with.”

She sniffed hating how exposed she felt, curling her legs to her chest, wrapping her arms around her shins, and resting her chin on her knees. “I’m sorry Liev. I was selfish and I took what I wanted but then in the morning when Sully gave me the big thumbs up for a job well done,” she couldn’t look at him, “I couldn’t let her take the money. It felt like I was dirtying something special. I know you were drunk, and you were sad, and I took advantage but for me it was special, and I couldn’t take the money, so I wrote the confession, and I ran.”

“Where?”

“I took a train to Paris and flew from Paris to the states on the first flight.”

“Not to New York.”

“No. I knew Sully would look for me there and I knew you would too. I knew you’d be pissed off. I used you for my own selfish reasons and I screwed her over. If one of you didn’t kill me the other would and so the first available flight was to Chicago, and I got in on standby. When I landed, I took a bus to Washington DC. I wasn’t there long because its really expensive. I ended up in Baltimore.”

“What did you do in Baltimore?”

“I got a job in a diner and started college. I left Paris in July, and I was enrolled in school by September. I had enough money in the bank to cover tuition because I’d saved a lot from my work with Sully, but it wasn’t enough to cover everything. I had to work too.”

“In a diner. Not a night club on a pole?”

She shook her head, “I was trying to get out of it, to make a clean break. I hated the life into which I was born. My parents were insane, but Sully was worse. Christ, she had me working a pole at fourteen because I was flexible and could dance.”

“You were definitely flexible,” he let his gaze travel over her.

She frowned at his words, knowing she was blushing despite herself. “I did what I had to do to survive but the minute I escaped Sully I turned my life around. I live a quiet life as a choir director. I managed to get my teaching license and I haven’t so much as had a parking ticket since I left. Please, you have to let me go.”

“Let you go?” he gave a bitter laugh. “Unlikely.”

She whimpered with his words. “Please Liev. At the end of the day, you didn’t pay the money and I get your ego or pride was bruised a bit, but nobody got hurt right?”

“You made a fool of me.”

“It wasn’t my intention.”

“What was your intention again? Oh, yes, scam me for ten million dollars by blackmail and I fell for it. Do you know who I am, kisa?”

She shook her head at the familiar word. It was one he’d used often when she’d been at the estate in Lyon. She knew it meant kitten because she’d asked him once, but she never thought she’d hear it from his lips again. It made her feel a glimmer of hope, “I know you are a wealthy businessman. That’s all Sully ever told me. I figured a politician maybe because the president had been to the house once, but I never wanted to dig too much.”

“Because you have survival instincts, and you knew better than to go looking into what you had no business knowing.”

She nodded, trying to swallow the large lump, and choking on it instead. She was going to die choking on her own spittle or lack of it. She coughed and hacked hard as he pounded her back. He got up from the bed, opened a bottle of water, and held it to her lips. She sipped it, wiping the tears off her face, still coughing intermittently.

A knock on the door made her jump and she looked at him wide-eyed. Now what?