Page 28 of Kidnapped By the Bratva

And here I am wearing a dress that Nik picked. An equally expensive dress I would never be able to afford.

I am a fool. A pathetic fool who thought fucking an extremely attractive older man, a mafia boss of all things, is okay.

I was willing to forget who he was in exchange for feeling his big, strong hands on my body. I traded multiple orgasms for my morals.

I’m disgusting.

When he gives me that heated look as I take his hand and step out of the car, I know that I would do it all over again.

“What’s that look for?” His voice is hushed and his breath grates over my ear.

I loop my arm through him as he hands the keys to the valet. “This is a bad idea. If you didn’t want me in your house, you should have just let me go home. We’re enemies and to be quite frank, even if we weren’t, I don’t belong here.”

Nik stops and invades my personal space. His eyebrows furrow and strands of his dark blond hair sweeps over his forehead. “You’re wrong.”

“Excuse me?” I take a step back from him, trying not to make a scene.

“You said you don’t belong here. You’re wrong.” He takes my chin in his hand. “You’re with me.”

I gulp and pull away from him. He glowers at me but says nothing as he leads me up the stairs. At the top, I reach up and brush back my hair.

When the hair doesn’t tangle on the earring, I touch my earlobe. I glance at the ground, searching for the gold hoop but it’s not there. Nik stops as I pull my arm out of his and turn around.

“What’s wrong now?” His tone is sharp as his grey eyes cut through me.

“My earring must have fallen off between here and the car.” I head down the stairs, searching for it.

The security guard at the bottom of the stairs looks up as I descend. He says nothing but shifts to the side.

I see what looks like a flash of gold and hurry down the steps. The earring glitters against the dark pavement. I stoop to pick it up and take out my other, shoving both into the small black purse.

I must keep my cool.

I’m not sure what I’m getting myself into. Nik is known to have many criminal connections. It’s more than likely I'm walking into a room filled with people I'd love to arrest.

But there’s nothing I can do about it.

Even if I wanted to, I couldn't get close enough to them to gather any useful information, let alone take any of them down tonight. Aside from the fact that I have no backup from my team, they don’t even know where I am.

Part of me doesn’t want to make trouble with the Bratva either. Not after being with him. He ignited something in me like no one has ever done before, and I don’t know if I’ll ever experience it again.

“Found it?” Nik holds out his arm as I join him again.

“Yes.”

“Good.” He puts his hand on the small of my back when I ignore his arm. It’s a simple gesture, but one that claims me as his as we enter the party and sends a shiver down my spine.

There is something about being claimed by a man like Nik Orlov that makes me feel like the most important woman in the room.

I hold my head high as he leads me through the long marble hallway and into what could only be described as a ballroom.

White walls with crown molding stretch high above everyone else. Some tables circle the room. A bar sits in the corner and a band is at the front of the room, playing soft jazz music.

As I look around, businessmen surround me. They stand in their nice suits with their trophy wives. To anyone else, this would look like a nice gala. To me, this is the place where shady—and illegal—business deals go down.

It’s the kind of place I hate to be unless it would be for work.

“What do you think?” He pulls me a little closer as we pass a group of women. They give him predatory looks as we pass.

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