Page 62 of Stolen By the Bratva

Fuck.

“Guess we should get her back where she belongs,” another said as the redheaded man held on tightly.

“No.” I swallowed. “I’m not her. I’m no one.”

I’m Aleksei Valkov’s wife, goddammit!

The scream waited on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t release it.

As he prompted me to walk with him, I realized he was taking me toward a station that I’d run past. If he brought me in there, I’d have no chance of escape.

I didn’t want to go back to my father. That promised death.

I didn’t want to be tossed around or held like a prisoner. Once had been enough.

“Murphy, maybe she’s right,” the other cop argued. “She looks lost.”

Murphy? I racked my brain, thinking back to the last time I’d seen that name. I hadn’t heard it but read it. Way back when my father asked me to begin forwarding those emails in that wonky cycle of chain emails, that name had been included in the abbreviations and codes. I’d only seen it the one time, and after that, the nickname of Doc had been used.

Oh, my God!

It was him. He was the one they were referencing in all those secret emails.

A cop! Those codes and abbreviations were hiding the fact that my father was leaning on the cops to help him take over Alek’s family.

My father had gone too far, stooping so low as to work with the law enforcement to bring down the Valkov Bratva once and for all. His greed was so severe, an all-consuming drive, that he’d gone to the outside to defeat his enemy.

My heart raced faster as all the details clicked into place. I’d never been told anything concrete, but with the little I knew from managing the fake S.T.L. business, I was aware that a large illegal shipment was due in soon.

When? When is it supposed to happen? I hadn’t been at the computer for a few days now, and it seemed like those hours spent in the office could have been years ago. I’d been so nostalgic about being married off because it signaled the end of my service in the office. I’d liked having busywork to do, even though it had been undecipherable.

Tomorrow! I gasped as I realized the timeline of the days that had passed. With my wedding, its abrupt end, then being kidnapped, fucked, and married, enough time had passed that the big shipment was almost here. Whatever my father had machinated against Pavel Valkov, it was going to go down at the Colver dock tomorrow.

I have to tell Alek! I thought again to how Maxim had handed him papers that looked so similar to the emails I’d forwarded. I hadn’t thought about them enough, but Maxim must have somehow intercepted it all.

Alek wanted to oust his uncle from power, likely because he had his suspicions about what his uncle and my father were doing, working “together” on this shipment. I doubted Pavel was aware that this dirty cop was also included in that secretive and duplicitous version of teamwork.

It’s a setup. No wonder he’s been so on guard and edgy with me.

Alek wasn’t just jaded, he was sharp and determined to make sure the Valkov Bratva wouldn’t be ruined.

The cop tugged me to walk faster. “I said what were you doing out here?”

I hadn’t heard him ask me the first time, too busy connecting all the dots.

He didn’t deserve the truth from me, and I fought to wrench my arm from his grasp. “Let me go.”

He whistled, lifting his head to a man lurking in the shadows near the station’s entrance.

I cowered back, afraid to see Lev standing there, like he’d been waiting. He’d probably come as Geoff’s backup, waiting in the distance while Geoff tried to get me to heel.

“Fuck.” I shook my head, clawing to get away from the cop. “No. Let me go.”

“Oh, I’ll let you go, all right.” He shoved me forward so Lev could capture me.

“I’ll let you go right back into the hands of your handlers.” The cop chuckled, nodding a greeting to Lev. “Found one of yours.”

“No!” I wiggled, fighting to slip free, but Lev tightened his arm around me.

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