Page 22 of Secret Bratva Twins

I shrugged. “I’m keeping her for as long as I want.”

“She’s Paul’s daughter. She tried to kill you, and she cannot be trusted,” Nikolia said dryly, as if everyone at this table didn’t already know that.

“I know who she is and what she did, but I’m not letting her go.” I tried not to sound offended, but it slipped right through me. I turned to Sergey. “Do you mind that I’m keeping her?”

“As long as she doesn’t cause trouble,” Sergey answered.

“The outfits are closing in on our territory.” Vlad’s gaze floated between me and Sergey. “Is holding his daughter captive of any advantage to us?”

“Paul does not care for his daughter. Holding her captive will not give us an advantage.” Dominic paused and took a swig of his drink. But he could use her as an excuse for the war. It doesn’t matter; the war with the Outfit is long overdue.”

The bartender filled Nikolai’s glass, and Nikolai nodded at him. “What do we do now?”

Sergey looked at me. “I heard the girl can hack into anything. Get her on our side, and she could be of help to us.”

I froze for a moment. “How do you know?”

“I had Raphael look into Paul recently.” he cocked his brows. “Found out he had a daughter and what her skills were. I tried to find her, but it seemed she’d vanished into thin air, now I know why.”

Right, he’d try to find every weakness Paul had, that was one way to take him down. “Did you also find you also find out he was abusing her?”

His silence was answer enough.

“What our enemy does to his daughter is none of my business. And I didn’t know she was the girl you were searching for,” he added. “Get the girl on our side.”

My muscles went rigid. I had to disobey my brother for the first time. “I’m not getting her involved.”

Sergey remained calm despite me refusing to execute his order. “She’s already more deeply involved than you realize.”

He didn’t get it, and I didn’t need him to understand it either. Gianna had been through so much already, and the last thing I wanted was to put her in the middle of a fight between the Bratva and the outfit.

I peered at my brother, determination coursing through my veins. “I’m not getting her involved in this.”

Chapter 9 - Gianna

A few days had passed since my father called Maxim. I hadn’t seen much of him days after that. We didn’t eat breakfast or dinner together anymore. He was out before I woke up, and I was already asleep by the time he’d come home.

I loathed myself for admitting this, but I missed his presence around the house. It felt too big and lonely without him and his sisters-in-law hadn’t visited since the first day.

To my surprise, he kept the door to my room unlocked, allowing me to wander around the house at my leisure. I hadn’t done that yet; I didn’t want to feel at home in his mansion, but I was slowly regressing into insanity, staring at the gray walls all morning and night.

After taking a bath this morning, I wore one of the maxi dresses Mariana got me. It was bright yellow. I’d look like the sun if I went outside with it, but it was really sunny today, and I needed something that wouldn’t feel too hot outside.

“You look lovely in that dress,” Ms. Popov said as I stepped into the kitchen. “Trust me, yellow is your color.”

No offense to Ms. Popov, but she always matched odd colors of clothes. Like today, she was wearing an orange top with a red skirt. I wasn’t going to take advice on what color of clothes suited me from her. I smiled at her nonetheless.

“Do you want me to fix you a quick breakfast?”

“A cup of black coffee will do, thank you.” I hadn’t been very physically active since I was kidnapped, and I would put on a ton of weight if I ate too much. Ms. Popov grabbed a mug for my coffee while I leaned on the kitchen island and watched her. Where’s Maxim? I haven’t seen him in a while,” I added so it wouldn’t be too obvious I missed seeing him.

“Out for business, as usual,” she answered over her shoulder.

“Is he usually this busy?”

“Sometimes.” She turned to me briefly as she waited for the coffee to brew. “You’re particularly more interested in Maxim this morning. Do you miss him that much?”

“I don’t miss him.” A big, fat lie. “I’m only asking because I’m bored, and there’s nothing to do around here.”

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