Page 58 of Stolen By the Bratva

His chest heaved at my back as he forced me to bend over so he could rape me. “The fuck you won’t.”

“I won’t be a pawn in this war.” I narrowed my eyes as he slammed my head to the counter, forcing my ass into the air. I saw red even as in my mind, I wished Alek were here to save me.

He wasn’t, though. And it was, again, up to me to save the day.

I grabbed the handle to the knife I’d planned to use for preparing a meal, but instead, I aimed it at Geoff. He lost his hold on me as I twisted at the hips. Before he could shove himself inside me, I reached low and gripped his dick hard—then I sliced it off with one hard, forceful hacking motion.

He released me, screaming and falling back, and I ran.

I didn’t stop to check whether he would chase me. I didn’t slow to grab shoes.

As he screeched and let out morbid wails of pain and rage in the kitchen, I sprinted out the still-open door and ran like my life depended on it.

25

ALEK

Ididn’t go far from Mila. A couple of blocks down the street, my men waited in the basement level of a warehouse. Office suites had been renovated down here, and it was where my brothers and several other soldiers stood around and paced. Hiding and working in the shadows offered no pride, but until we took over, we would operate however we could. We weren’t cowards, tiptoeing around Pavel and his men, but rather, cautious men at war.

I called them my men because they were. My brothers would always stand by me. These others were loyal to the Family, not Pavel himself.

Ivan and Dmitri nodded at me in greeting, and I went to stand with Nikolai and Maxim. He’d been treated. He had to have been, because he looked much better than he had the day before.

“Where is your wife?” he asked as I sat on a stool.

I’d already texted them to have one of our medics in attendance. I trusted Mila’s stitches on my back and shoulder, but it wouldn’t hurt to have another look at it.

“Resting,” I replied curtly. The truth was that I’d stormed away from her, bothered by how much I wanted to let her in and feel for her. Emotions like that would be my downfall.

“Hmm.” Ivan shared a glance with Nik, who failed to hide a smile.

Never mind that now. I didn’t come here to hear them give me shit or tease me about why and how I would have made her so tired as to need to rest up this late into the day.

I shot them a stern look, hoping that a breather from her would lend me more clarity of mind.

“Who stitched you up?” the medic asked as he pushed my shirt further off my shoulder to look at the wound.

“Mila,” I replied, then cleared my throat. I glanced around the room, lifting my chin as a gesture of approval. They understood that I wanted an update, not to be asked how Mila and I were getting along.

“Pavel is furious,” a soldier said. “He has been led to believe that you shot Andrey.”

I nodded. Just as I wanted.

“He’s sworn revenge. He’s placed a hit out for you.” The man glanced around at the rest of us. “And we are all keeping tabs on the soldiers he’s sending out to make that happen.”

“I appreciate it,” I replied solemnly.

“You will lead us, Aleksei,” another said. A few others chorused the same sentiment, promising their loyalty to me and that they would follow my directions.

“It was a long time coming,” someone else claimed. If anything, these men respected me more for believing that I’d killed Andrey. They weren’t upset at losing the supposed heir to the bratva. Instead, they held me in a higher esteem for seeing the dirty work done.

I reiterated the need for caution, and they explained how they were also watching the Colver dock and tailing select members of the Kastava force.

“They want to set us up,” Nikolai said. “They want to take us over with the shipment.”

“But who is helping them?” Maxim asked. “I’ve looked over those codes several times, and I just don’t understand.”

I do. On the walk over here, I pieced it together. “The cops.”

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