Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 32946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 165(@200wpm)___ 132(@250wpm)___ 110(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 165(@200wpm)___ 132(@250wpm)___ 110(@300wpm)
“Were you given orders to strip her on stage?”
Draven hadn’t given her enough oxygen to even answer. Maria couldn’t make out a single word she was saying.
He stepped back and the older woman, whose name Maria didn’t know, had no choice but to do as he wanted. She only stopped when her back hit the wall. Draven must have let her go long enough to gather some oxygen, but then he wrapped his fingers around her throat, cutting off her air supply once again.
Maria didn’t know what to do. This was going to be her husband.
“If you ever see my future wife again, you look the other way, or get down on your knees and you kiss her feet and beg for forgiveness, do you understand me?”
She tried to nod her head. Draven held onto her throat for a couple more seconds, and then let go. She fell to the floor.
He moved away and Maria looked up as he took her hand, and then they were out of the strip club. She held his jacket closed and didn’t make a single sound. She didn’t have on any kind of shoes, and didn’t get a chance to look down. It didn’t matter, because his car, along with his driver, waited for them.
Draven opened the door and ordered her to get inside. She did so. There was no arguing right now. This man had saved her, and not only that, he’d hurt the woman who’d been intent on humiliating her.
“No one is going to want your fat, useless ass, and when the room goes silent, and no one wants you, I get to kill you.”
All day, Maria had to deal with this woman pulling a gun on her, aiming it at her head. The threat had been real, but Maria was long past being terrified.
She’d been warned what her fate was going to be if no one claimed her. Maria had waited for it and knew when it came, she might know a sense of peace.
That hadn’t happened.
Draven had claimed her.
“Church,” Draven said.
It was the only word he had to say to his driver, and they were being driven away from the strip club.
Maria couldn’t believe this was happening. She couldn’t help but keep glancing at the man at her side. He had thick, black hair. She noticed the wisps of grey dotting each side. He was handsome. She’d heard many people talking about Draven. He’d never been married, but he had earned his place as a respectable capo and was considered one of the closest friends to The Boss.
His name alone brought fear. There were even rumors that to say his name aloud would bring your death. Maria had never tested that. Even now, she didn’t speak. If she did, would he kill her?
Some believed he was the Devil himself. That he had come down to kill, to hunt, to torture. That he looked for his victims in the flesh. Again, it was all whispered rumors and gossip. None of it was true. There was no Devil. Just a man, willing to do whatever it took to protect The Boss, and the land which they had claimed as their own. Their territories.
Maria didn’t know if she was allowed to talk. The rules of her life had now changed. Nothing was certain anymore. She had to learn how to survive.
Maria didn’t know if this was even fair anymore, when she had come to accept that she was going to die. Death would have been so much easier.
Staring out the window, she watched as they passed the city. In the light of day, it always looked beautiful, but it hid the flaws of the life she knew. The death. The greed. The true evil she had come to see that lived all around her.
She couldn’t help but think about Draven, choking that woman. Did it make her a bad person for not caring what he did?
She didn’t know what it made her. All she knew was that she didn’t mind the older woman being choked, and a part of her wanted to see her dead. Locking her fingers together, she gripped them tightly and tried not to think about what kind of person she was for wishing the death of another human being.
****
Draven and Maria were married.
The Boss had told him the location of the church, if he decided to take her as his wife. Maria hadn’t been shaking. He’d walked with her at his side, hands joined together, while the priest said all the necessary jargon to make their union absolute. There was no white wedding dress. Just Maria in his jacket, hiding her naked body.
There were a couple of capos waiting as witnesses, and they were both clearly shocked, but none of them said a word. He waited for them to speak, to piss him off, but they remained silent, which was a good fucking thing. Otherwise, he’d have fucking killed them, and it wouldn’t have been hard to do.