Page 61 of Secret Bratva Twins

“I want to help, Max. Don’t stop me.”

After a second and an approving nod from Sergey, he moved aside, and Nikolai offered me his seat. Vincent continued the conversation, sending crypted messages to the rest of his brothers in Russian, but Maxim noticed my discomfort and responded in English.

It didn’t help much. Sitting there and watching them strategize like I wasn’t in the room made me feel restless. I shifted uncomfortably on the accent chair and voiced out before I could stop myself: “I can track him.”

The room fell silent again. I was beginning to think they’d actually forgotten I was in the room—except for Maxim, who had his eyes on me the entire time he spoke. I gripped the table's edge, blunt nails digging into the wood. “I can track him,” I repeated, unsure if they heard me the first time.

Vincent sagged in his chair; his body language conveying that he had little or no faith in the suggestion.

“We tried that already,” Sergey pointedly stated. “And it didn’t work.”

If I had to fight to be relevant in this war, then I would without backing down. The lives of my children were involved. “We tried once. Once. If you asked me, I’d say that doesn’t qualify as an attempt.”

“You gave it everything you could,” entered Nikolai. I lifted my eyes to his. “I saw you, Gianna. We all did. You tried, and it didn’t work. Now we have to find another way.”

I shot a look at Maxim, pleading with him to help me persuade them. I felt like if I didn’t do something, I would explode.

Not looking the least bit convinced, but with his eyes still holding mine, he said, “Let her give it one more shot. We still have some time on our hands to try other alternatives. “

The others hummed in coerced agreement and folded back their arms while I set to work on the laptop. I went through the familiar processes again, exploiting the system's weakness, port-scanning, network mapping, and fingerprinting to gather information.

I tried brute-forcing password and using backdoors to bypass security again, and finally implored the help of a few hacking tools to gain unauthorized access to the security system. I held my breath, a tiny part of me replaying the harsh buzz of “access denied” like it had done the first time.

It loaded and loaded, and it was a wonder I hadn’t passed out from all the suspense. Just when I thought we’d lost, again, green horizontal bars halved the screen. I couldn’t believe it. My eyes went wide, and I gaped.

“Oh my God...”

My hopeful expression reeled in the others, and soon, they were all peering over my shoulder.

“Shit!” Nikolai let out a breathy laugh. “Shit, you did it!”

“We always believed in you,” Vincent joked, earning an eye roll from Maxim.

Sergey took over, navigating through the pinpointed location with a map while we watched him display some genius skills of his own. An uncomfortable feeling settled in my chest. I had done nothing different from what I did that day. So, what changed?

“Found the fucking cunt,” Sergey’s hiss distracted my thoughts, and I ignored the gnawing nab at the back of my mind. They rose from their seats, Maxi heading out the door first and me following immediately after.

His steps halted, and he pivoted on his heels with an arched brow. “Where do you think you’re going?”

I laughed because that had to be the most ridiculous question I’d been asked all day. “What do you mean? I’m coming with you.”

He took a menacing step forward. “No, you are not.”

“Yes, I am.” I glared at him with gritted teeth. “I am coming with you, Maxim. They are my children too. There’s no way I’m staying behind, I’ve already said this.”

The look in his eyes softened. “Gia, I just want to keep you safe. Why can’t you fucking help me do that?”

“With you, Max, I will be.” I stroked his arm, hoping he didn’t put up with trying to deter me. “What I care about right now is rescuing our sons. I can’t sit back and do nothing, please... please understand.”

There was no more fight left in him; I could tell with one glance. He knotted his fingers with mine and pressed his lips against my forehead. In that second, I experienced solace more than I’d ever felt before.

“I guess there’s no stopping you.”

I smiled and followed him to the car parked at the front steps. Maybe Maxim couldn’t stop me, but something else should have—the silently gnawing foreboding that something was about to go terribly wrong.

Chapter 24 - Maxim

Fuck!

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