Page 37 of The Bratva's Forced Bride

That was what I wanted to hear. I needed as much information as I could get from him.

His head was yanked back by one of the men, forced to look at me.

“That’s better. Now, tell me what I want to know.”

With a shaky breath, the man uttered, “Bruno…that’s the name.”

My brows furrowed together at the shred of information as I crossed my arms over my chest. “I need more than that. Who’s the boss?”

The hostage’s legs shook as he stood, likely ripe with unused adrenaline. “The young boss, Pietro, he’s planning your downfall. So far, the plans are unraveling exactly as he planned. His father is Sergio Bruno.”

“I’ve never heard of them. They must not be that important,” I mumbled, both glad and aggravated by the thought of a lesser family thinking they could take advantage of us.

“No, perhaps not. But his plans surpass anything this city has seen before.”

I scoffed at that. “Somehow, I don’t believe that. Why do they have these plans, exactly?”

The man looked weaker than he had, as if there wasn’t enough adrenaline in his system to compensate for the pain. “There’s history, but I don’t know the details.”

“And these plans, where did Pietro get his information to know where and how to hit us?” I asked, feeling like I was on the cusp of figuring it all out.

A hoarse cough moved through his chest, and the man spat up more blood. “The rat is closer to home than you know.”

While the statement made me pause, that realization clicked in my mind soon after. The very man I had my eyes on ever since I married his daughter. Somehow, he found out too much. Maybe he managed to get his own source to infiltrate our ranks.

I needed to launch an interrogation of our own men before things could get out of hand.

But with Dominic’s whereabouts being unknown, we couldn’t just show up at his warehouse and shake him down. He’d have to be tracked down, and by the sounds of it, the Brunos were the real threat.

If they thought we’d roll over and let them take what was ours, then they had another thing coming. I wouldn’t say I liked the implication that I didn’t know how to manage my position. That there was enough of a crack for the Brunos to infiltrate.

What made it all worse was how I allowed even those beginning steps to be taken.

Irritated by it all, I reached for my pistol.

Exhausted by the thought of what was ahead of me, I sighed. “For what it’s worth, thank you for your cooperation.”

A false relief flooded his features before he realized what was coming. I leveled the barrel of my handgun on his forehead and clicked the safety off.

His eyes widened, and before he could plead for mercy, I pulled the trigger.

The shot echoed within those steel walls, splattered with his blood. He slumped back and hit the floor as my men released him. Dusting themselves off, they got a head start at cleaning up.

No loose ends.

Chapter 14 - Grace

Sitting in the car silently while Vik drove gave me too much time to think. Too much time to maul over how triggered I felt by Yaro’s anger before he left the beach. It deepened my worry of finding myself in a similar situation I was in before.

Work-related things seemed to set him off easily, and I didn’t know how much of it I could handle. After dealing with my dad growing up, I didn’t want to walk on eggshells forever.

Vik spent more time changing the radio station and asking what I wanted to listen to than I cared for, but in all honesty, I didn’t want anything playing. I just wanted silence, even if that opportunity to overthink was terrifying.

The drive was somewhat awkward, but I felt surprisingly relieved to see the condo once we arrived. I followed closely behind Vik as we entered the building, aware of the eyes on us while we walked in. He carried a silver laptop beneath his arm and held the doors open for me when we approached them, offering me small smiles.

There was something about Vik that made me wonder how he worked alongside Yaro in the first place. It made me think back to when Yaro told me about their upbringing, and how he tried his hardest to shield his younger brother from their father.

His kind nature made sense the more I thought about it.

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