Page 51 of The Bratva's Forced Bride

When the relentless beating didn’t work, Yaro glanced over his shoulder at Elias. “Get him up.”

With a single nod, Elias did as he said and left my side to move behind the man. He grabbed his bound hands and hoisted him up, simultaneously kicking the chair out from beneath him.

The captive was forced on his bad leg, and the moment the pressure sank in, he cried out. Face bloody and bruised; tears streaked down his broken skin, not given any relief from the pain.

More blood began to seep into the bandage.

“I’ll talk, I’ll talk!” He screamed as his face drained of color. “Please, I’ll talk!”

The desperation in his voice echoed off the walls, making a shiver run down my spine. Seeing the man so horribly beaten and in pain was hard to stomach, even if he was my husband’s opposition by association.

Yaro nodded once, and Elias returned the chair, dropping the man onto it.

There was immediate relief as the hostage sat down with his head hung. He wheezed out those shallow breaths as he tried to calm himself after that shock.

He swallowed thickly. “I’m…I’m a sort of scab worker.”

Yaro and Elias exchanged a look before focusing on the man again.

At last, some progress was being made.

“Who hired you for this job?”

The captive dropped his shoulders, likely aware of how much trouble he would be in if anyone found out he was talking. “Me and the guys were contracted to help Sergio and Pietro Bruno. They wanted to stay under the radar and avoid having any of the blame come back to them.”

Yaro tensed at the mention of these Bruno men. With his arms crossed, making his biceps look even bigger than usual, he scowled at the captive.

“Why? What was the purpose of hitting the club?”

“They wanted us to try and eliminate as many members of your family as possible, hoping it would seem like a random attack from a different group. They hoped the grief and less manpower would help make future hits easier to accomplish. The goal was to crumble the empire as close to home as possible.”

Raw fury crossed Yaro’s face at the explanation. While he seemed to get the answers he needed, I could tell none of them were simple fixes.

“And Pietro is leading these attacks?” He asked, keeping his voice as level as possible.

The man nodded, looking paler and worse than he had initially. His wound seemed to be catching up with him.

I didn’t know who the Brunos were or why they wanted the Levovs to be eliminated, but it seemed to be in our best interest to have them taken care of. How exactly that would happen, I didn’t know. But I could only imagine the kind of decisions Yaro would have to make when it came to them.

With a sigh, Yaro shook his head absently.

“It was always the Brunos. They’re trying to wear us down by spreading us thin with these attacks,” he mumbled, reaching for his holstered gun. Seeing it made my skin grow cold. “But no more. It’s time to send Pietro a message.”

Looking exhausted from it all, Yaro raised his gun at the man, who immediately began to shake and fight against it. He pleaded with him not to shoot.

My heart raced at the expectation of watching the hostage get shot through the head, but everything came to a halt as Yaro looked over his shoulder at me. He seemed to remember himself, and the fact that I was in the small room too.

I watched as that resolve broke, and he lowered his arm with a deep breath. He handed the pistol to Elias.

“Take care of this, and make sure he’s delivered somewhere the Brunos will find,” he mumbled to his best friend, who took the gun and seemed to understand.

“Will do.”

Like a shield from the brutality of what would soon unravel in the interrogation room, Yaro approached me with an arm resting against my lower back.

“We’re done here,” he said softly, guiding me through the door and down the hall.

Wordlessly, I followed, silently grateful for the decision. Watching Yaro beat the man for answers desensitized me to the point where I would have watched him be killed if it meant toughening my skin. But that was a slippery slope. And one I didn’t know how to navigate without destroying myself.

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