Page 15 of Forced Bratva Wife

Chapter 8 - Parker

I shot upright in the bed, panic gripping me. I’d overslept! I had rotations! I needed to—

Wait, no, no, no. You have two days off. You’re fine, Parker.

Relaxing, I laid back in the bed, my head hitting an especially plump pillow, and then the next realization hit like a damn Mac truck. I wasn’t home. I was in…in Lev’s. Oh, shit. Where is he?

I looked around the room, oddly expecting to see him lying in bed next to me, but he wasn’t there. As my eyes adjusted to the weak light coming in from the cracks in the shades, I noted a lump on the far chaise across the room that hadn’t been there when I fell asleep. A shaky breath left me as I tried my best to be silent. I didn’t want to wake him and risk everything that came with that.

Slipping from the bed as quietly as possible, I took my phone to the bathroom and closed myself in behind the door that cut off the toilet from the rest of the space. I didn’t bother turning the light on; I just pulled up the dean’s office for my college and dialed.

“Dean’s office.”

I didn’t recognize the voice that answered, but that wasn’t uncommon. Trying to keep my voice low, I spoke quickly.

“Hello, this is Parker Kozlovsky. I wanted to—”

“Oh, Parker. We’re so sorry to hear about your family’s crisis. But I can assure you that your professors and the residency director at the hospital have been made aware of your situation. They’ll keep your program temporarily paused until you return.”

My stomach lurched, abruptly clenching and then falling straight through the floor, taking any appetite I may have had with it. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Oh, yes, no need to worry. Your leave has been granted. We have you out for two weeks, but if you need any extra time, just let us know.”

“I—”

But I stopped myself. I wanted to rebut her, explain my situation, and get help getting the hell out of here, but clearly Lev was just as powerful as he made it seem. His people had already called my school and gotten me excused. He’d already planned for this—for me needing a reason to get out of rotations without it looking suspicious. Holy shit.

“Great. Thank you. I just wanted to check.”

“Of course, dear. Take care, all right.”

I clenched my fist around the phone. “I will. Thank you again.”

With that, I hung up. My stomach was still in knots, fear and rage swirling in equal parts to create quite a noxious combination. He’d done this. Lev had done this to my life. The one I’d worked really damn hard to build.

Padding back out to the bedroom with my phone in my pocket, I remembered the letter opener stuck in my sock. I wanted to use it. I really fucking did. This asshole had kidnapped me, ruining the shaky hold I had on my life and making it feel like everything I’d done to get away from my father didn’t matter.

As I passed in front of the bed, I moved closer to him, studying how he lay on the chaise. He wore a t-shirt now, and more of those interesting tattoos were visible. That doesn’t matter, Parker. That’s not what you need to be thinking about right now. Focus.

But I couldn’t stop myself from examining them further as I approached. I’d always been a curious person, and it was certainly getting the better of me at present. I still couldn’t see what was on his chest, but up either arm were several pieces, all done in black and gray colors. I could see more of the overly long rosary on his right, the crucifix decorated with that skeleton. It crawled up his forearm—extremely realistic beads looking like they glowed—until it disappeared behind the short sleeve of his tee at his bicep.

His other arm was filled with photorealistic versions of animals. There was a black widow near this hand, skittering overtop of beautifully drawn roses that continued as the background for the entire sleeve. Farther up was a snake of some sort, the venomous kind if I had to guess, and then a scorpion tail poked out from behind his other sleeve.

Either hand had those Roman numerals I’d seen earlier, but I couldn’t guess what the numbers might mean. A date? Probably, but I didn’t have a clue.

They’re…beautiful.

All things considered, they were. The tattoos were extremely well done, and Lev had clearly taken the time to let each piece be planned out and heal properly. For a tattoo virgin, I knew a fair bit about them because I’d always been interested. They were strictly forbidden by my father, however. I was lucky to have my ears pierced.

I leaned forward, testing how much of the detail I could see of the rosary’s crucifix on the back of Lev’s hand.

“Can I help you?”

Soaring backward and onto my ass, I fell to the floor when Lev’s voice scared the shit out of me. My heart was a frenzy behind my ribs, and as I looked up at my captor where he was sitting up from the chaise, I could see him holding back a laugh, a smirk touching the corner of his mouth.

My breath was shaky, and as the adrenaline faded, I realized my ass hurt from landing on the hard floor. Sighing and clearing my throat, I pulled myself up and took a few steps backward. I needed to put some space between Lev and me, and when he stood up from the lounger, it just made it more challenging.

“I…I was—”

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