The Boss’s Runaway (Possessive Kingpins)

Ivanov. Katya Ivanov. She’d lied to me. She’d played me.

My anger stewed and roiled in my chest as we drove home and headed to the penthouse. My security were too close for me to lose my shit.

Kat was quiet, and the tension between us built to a fever pitch that broke as soon as the door shut between my security team and us. I grabbed her arm as she made to scurry off toward her room.

“Going somewhere, Kat? Don’t you think we need to talk?” I growled. This wasn’t like me. Anger to me was ice cold, not this burning, flaming thing in my chest.

Kat squirmed against me, avoiding my eyes. “About what?”

The false innocence in her voice sent my fury higher, like a wildfire meeting a summer forest. I was on fire.

She wet her lips when I didn’t speak, and I remembered our kiss. I pushed the thought violently from my head.

“Ivanov is one of the most common names, and—”

I cut her off by turning her against the wall and pinning her hands by her head. “Don’t lie to me. It won’t end well for you.”

She let out a long breath. “Fine. Ivanov is my last name, and Konstantin is my brother, okay?”

My breath left me for a long moment, and I was at a loss for words.

Konstantin Ivanov was a thorn in my side. One of the most brutal bratva to take New York in decades. He had crushed his competition in the black sea and ruled Brighton beach with an iron fist. Only the Song’s alliance with the Luciano’s had protected our boundaries when it came to the most ruthless don I’d ever met. Considering the people I’d met and the man I was, that was a chilling assessment.

Now, when I looked at Kat, I saw the resemblance. The white-blonde hair and startling pale eyes.

“Why were you in Shanghai?” I asked, struggling to get my head around it. “Don’t even dream about lying to me again.”

“Kon arranged a marriage for me to a rival in Russia. I didn’t want to go. I fought with him, but he sent me anyway. I got away from the man, Viktor, in Moscow and ran. I ended up in Shanghai without a penny to my name. Your uncle found me there and brought me back here.”

“And you begged to stay in the city where your brother lives. Why?”

“This is my home too!” she shouted, suddenly angry. “Do you know what it is to be a woman in our world? A piece of flesh to be hawked at market and sold to the highest bidder, no matter how old, depraved, or sick—” She trailed off, and tears welled in her stunning eyes. “This is my home, and I don’t want to leave. I’m a person too. Why does it never matter what I want?” Her cry ran out through the quiet apartment, and I heard the snap of desperation in her tone.

It pierced through the cloud of anger in my chest and struck my heart. Fuck. I couldn’t be angry at her. My rage disappeared like a puff of smoke, and the connection remained. I knew exactly how she felt because I’d felt the same way every single day of my miserable life.

“What do you want, Kat? You want to live free in this city without Konstantin’s interference? That’ll never happen. To men like him, like me… you’re an important strategic asset,” I told her bluntly.

She flinched. Her arms trembled under my firm fingers. “You’re not like him,” she said stubbornly.

“Don’t kid yourself. I’ve warned you about making me your white knight. You’ll be disappointed.”

“I’m used to disappointment.” Kat’s voice was flat.

She wet her lips again, and my eyes fell to the plump, pink skin. I wanted to taste her again. No. Fuck tasting. I wanted to consume her whole.

“You played me, Kat, and you’ve caused a mess. You could’ve started a war,” I told her heavily, pressing closer, grinding my hard-on against her flat belly. I’d been hard since we’d kissed at the church, and it was only getting worse. “There’s a price for something like that in our world.”

“I don’t care. I’d do it again,” she said, raising her chin, daring me to bring my anger down on her.

So would I. Before she could see that truth, I closed the gap between us and stole her lips with mine.