Page 19 of Stolen By the Bratva

One glance at my father, and I scratched that idea from my mind. He narrowed his eyes at me, disdainful as ever, but he seemed to know what I was thinking as he escorted me down the long, carpeted path.

I stemmed the tears burning in my eyes and tried my best to hold my head high. It wasn’t easy. The closer I got to Andrey smiling up there next to the short priest, the more I felt like I was walking to my death. I approached a life sentence, and I wouldn’t matter ever again. I never had mattered in this world where men ruled, but once I signed my life to that man, I would be a pussy to use. To dismiss.

I reached him at last, and I strained not to show the tremor in my hands as I took my groom’s. His flesh was cold to touch, and the simple contact sent a chill running up my spine.

“We are gathered?—”

Gunfire erupted. I gasped, stunned as I instinctively ducked down. The entire congregation reacted. Screams. Shouts. A rising din of too many people asking questions at once.

I crouched on the plush carpet over the steps of the altar, but I nearly fell face first to the surface as Andrey maneuvered me to block him. His icy grip closed on my upper arms. Digging his fingers in, he hauled me to cover his front.

He was…

He was blocking himself with my body! If I weren’t so dizzy from not eating, overwhelmed with stress, and so bewildered at the sounds of violence, I would have twisted out of his reach. I wasn’t a goddamn sacrifice. Not like this. Fury slid through my mind, chasing away the panic and astonishment at this coward of a man I was to marry.

My hair fell over my face, shrouding my vision. A strong huff of an exhale puffed the curls away, and as I wrenched my head up and tossed the hair aside, I witnessed the commotion.

People scrambled to duck or run. Guests and family ran toward the edges of the huge church, but coming up along the sides of the pews were two Valkovs. I recognized one as the man who’d come into the S.T.L. offices just yesterday. Niko? Something like that. My brain was too scrambled, high on stress and ruled with the instinct to fight or flee.

Up the center aisle that my father had just led me down was another man. Gun in hand, pointed at the ceiling, he fought off Kastava soldiers. He wasn’t alone. Flanked by other Valkov guards and men, they hurried down the aisle.

“Stop!”

So many men shouted that order, but pandemonium had filled the entire room. My father screamed demands at Pavel. Pavel and the spineless man behind me shouted at the tall brown-haired man rushing toward us.

“What the fuck are you thinking?” Pavel’s question wasn’t answered.

Andrey yelled, “Alek! Stop this right now!”

Alek.

My voice faded in the back of my throat and my heart raced faster.

Alek. Aleksei Valkov.

It was him. My eyes weren’t playing tricks on me. It was the same tall, sexy brute of a man who’d challenged me at the office. The stranger who’d elicited such a primal awareness through my body. He was here, crashing the wedding I hadn’t wanted.

He locked eyes with me, and I swore I saw a moment of surprise with his recognition. He didn’t seem to anticipate seeing me here, but he didn’t stop. Snarling as he fought back two of my father’s men, he strained and faced me again. “Get away from him!”

He was telling me to abandon my groom? At the altar, at our wedding?

I opened and closed my mouth, so shocked that I couldn’t comprehend where he’d come from. Much less what he was doing. He wasn’t aiming the gun at anyone, but he’d fired it and started all this chaos.

“Andrey, let her go!”

The man clutching me close like a shield didn’t consider Alek’s order. If anything, he pulled me snugger to his chest as it heaved with hard breaths. “Fuck you,” my groom shouted back. Spittle flew from his mouth and landed on my face as he cowered behind me.

“Let her go!” Alek ran toward me, breaking free from the fighting men, and the gunfire rang out louder and faster. Valkovs fired at Kastavas, and vice versa. The fathers were surrounded, blocked by their soldiers, and Alek ran through the thick of the bloodbath.

“Go!” He ordered that single instruction to me. It was all I’d dreamed of doing. Escaping this fate. But not like this. Not in my wildest dreams did I think this enemy would come to… rescue me. I didn’t even know if that was his intention. All I could tell was that he didn’t want me near Andrey.

He gripped me so tightly, I couldn’t wrestle away.

As Alek rushed forward and yanked me out of my fiancé’s hands, the gunfire followed. They were shooting at me, not caring for a second to spare me or protect my life.

Andrey ran, giving up and seeking shelter near Pavel, but as I looked up at Alek’s hard face, a searing slice cut through me. My arm flared in pain, and Alek swore, glaring down at the blood spilling over my pure-white dress. Crimson splattered and ran from the deep graze in my bicep, and I clapped my hand over the wound, breathing shallowly through my utter panic.

I wasn’t used to violence this close. Not when it touched on my body.

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