Page 54 of Forced Bratva Wife

A tiny slip of paper was placed on Parker’s pillow. Running over, I snatched it up. Scrawled in sloppy writing was a brief message and a phone number.

“You want her so fucking bad. Come and get her.”

I crumpled the note in my grip, looking at Pietor. “He’s ransoming her.”

A beat of silence passed before I grabbed the bedside lamp off the nightstand and hucked it across the room. The sound of glass shattering was nearly music to my ears, but it wasn’t the crack of bones.

That’s what I really wanted—to hear Pavel’s skull crunch under my boot.

“Fuck!” I looked at Pietor. “Get the men downstairs sorted. Call our fucking doc, then let Sergey know the play.”

He just nodded, leaving me to fume. I reached into my pocket and retrieved my cell phone, which I must have subconsciously remembered to put there. I opened the keypad and dialed the number. I stared at it on the screen for a few moments before I hit the green button and let it ring.

Putting the thing on speaker, I gripped my phone with white knuckles as it rang—once, twice, and then it clicked open.

“Lev. Good to hear from you.”

Pavel’s voice was damn nails on a rusty chalkboard, and I clenched my jaw.

“What the fuck did you do with her?”

“Tsk, tsk.” He chuckled, and it took everything in me to not throw the fucking phone across the room. “You can come and get your little tart. We’ll call it a trade.”

I had to force myself to take a deep breath through the nose. “What do you want, Pavel?”

That annoyingly confident chuckle sounded out of him again, and I looked up at the ceiling. I promised anything that was up there watching this unfold that I was going to tear the fucker’s tongue out with my bare hands.

“That’s easy. You.”

My internal functions stopped, skipping a moment in time before I blinked, and the world came back into reality again.

“I’m sorry, what?”

Pavel must have moved somewhere because suddenly, his voice was echoing on the other end of the line.

“You’re quite the prize for a new up-and-comer like myself. I imagine there would be few who’d be so willing to fuck with me if I could boast about taking you out of the game.”

“You want to use me as a fucking stepping stone. Get fucked, Pavel.”

He sighed. “I mean, it’s up to you. You want Parker back to your place unharmed? Then, you come alone, no weapons, and you hand yourself over.”

My jaw ached from the strain of squeezing it shut so damned hard.

“She’s your daughter, you piece of shit.”

With a scoff, Pavel sighed—like he was bored.

“She was a fucking accident, and her mother wouldn’t get an abortion, so don’t think I’m holding onto the feels.”

He was a disgusting excuse of a man, but there was nothing I could do right now. I’d been outplayed, and as much as I hated to admit that, I needed to at least go along with this part so I might have success later on.

“Deal.”

“Wonderful.” His tone was chipper, and I swallowed down the bile rising in my throat. “I’ll text the address to this number. See you soon.”

With that, he hung up. I stared at the phone until I saw the location come through.

My guts twisted as I looked at the screen. I had to go. I had to get her back. So, I walked to the closet to do a little changing of my own. Unarmed was one thing. I wasn’t stupid enough to go in unprotected, however.