Page 6 of The Bratva's Forced Bride

“Come with me, and you’ll be fine. You have my word.”

While the demand in his voice was still present, he spoke those words with less of an edge. Like brief sincerity.

It didn’t make it any easier to accept that I was half his size and my fate was in his hands.

***

The man kept his word.

Sat in the back of a massive SUV, I was still breathing. Freaking out, yes, but breathing.

I could hardly see out the tinted windows, but I focused on the two men sitting in front. The one who took me drove, while the other, slightly smaller and quieter, was in the passenger seat. They looked like one another, and I had the feeling they were brothers.

While my heart was racing, the two men weren’t in any hurry. They were eerily calm, and I couldn’t understand how. They had a captive woman in the back of their vehicle, and they no more than blinked over it.

Their surprising demeanors allowed me to get a good look at the driver while he focused on the road.

Those stern eyes focused on the cars ahead while his arm draped over the wheel casually. The black gloves stayed on, leading to his impossible muscles for an ordinary man. They flexed as he drove, which made me pay close attention.

I hadn’t seen anybody like him on campus. There was no way he was even remotely a student or even close to my age. He looked at least thirty like he had an entire career in the military already.

But what would someone like him want with me?

None of it made any sense. My head spun.

He was attractive—that was obvious. But I couldn’t have those thoughts, not for someone who took me right from my dorm.

Shifting uncomfortably in the seat, I silently cursed how the duct tape pinched my wrists. I grumbled about it, wishing I could’ve at least sat normally for the ride.

“Quiet,” the driver snapped, looking at me through the rear-view mirror. “I’m sick of hearing you back there.”

I wanted to say something sarcastic, but I felt that it would be a bad idea.

“Why did you take me then?” I asked, tired of ignoring how insane it all was. “Who are you? What do you want?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” He returned, seemingly done putting up with me already.

“Yaro,” the other mumbled in a weak warning.

Yaro.

That was his name.

Yaro gave him a sharp look, but then he sighed, glanced at the road ahead, and then back at me. “Your father is to blame for your current situation. He stole from us and then went bankrupt despite owing us a big sum. You were his only means of paying us back. We were promised you’d help us one day.”

The air left my lungs at once. There was no way.

But it didn’t make sense.

I shook my head, unable to consider the idea. “There’s no way. My dad doesn’t deal with men like you. He…he rents his warehouses to big companies. He might have his problems, but he’s not a criminal. He wouldn’t steal from anyone.”

The laugh from Yaro startled me, but the bitterness lingering within it reeked of sincerity. “Don’t you get it? We are the big company, and I came to collect. It seems your father wasn’t entirely truthful with you.”

“No,” I mumbled to myself as I shook my head. We didn’t have the best relationship, but I didn’t want to believe he would do something like that. “This must be a mistake. You have the wrong person.”

“Be in denial all you like, but it won’t change anything,” he muttered, keeping his eyes on the road.

“I don’t imagine this is easy to wrap her mind around. Cut her some slack,” the other one said, quiet yet trying to be outspoken at the same time. The way he hesitated told me at least someone else in the vehicle was considering my welfare.

---