Page 3 of The Bratva King's Kidnapped Bride

“Come on,” she said. “Go put on something cute, and we’ll buy you the first round to celebrate.”

It was nice that they were happy I was back, and they were a pretty fun group to hang out with. I remembered Jenna’s words to me. Live life while I was still young. Or sort of young, since twenty-one was somehow ancient in Jen’s nineteen-year-old eyes.

“Fine,” I said. “That sounds great, actually, thanks.”

Layla squealed and told me I better not bail on them. By then, I was getting into the idea of letting off some steam for once. Let’s see how many shots it took to get over the blow of having to start all the way back at the bottom of the barrel again.

Chapter 2 - Aleksandr

I pulled up outside the currently empty building downtown and waited for my younger brother—my second in command—to join me. If everything was going according to my plan, the meeting should have already been underway upstairs. Not that they were expecting me, but that was the most important part.

Lev pulled up only a few minutes after me, but I still scowled at my vintage Rolex. He grinned at me, our faces so similar that we used to be confused as twins when we were kids. While his hair stayed the sandy blond of our mother, mine went dark, and I was always an inch taller than him, a fact he tried to desperately make up for by working out to a ridiculous extent.

He rolled up his sleeves and flexed his impressive forearms, forgoing an apology for not being on time. “What’s so important?” he asked as I strode toward the building, forcing him to trot to keep up.

“You’ll see,” I told him. The building was under construction and being completely renovated, with soon-to-be upscale offices and a very nice tax shelter, but now it was still gutted, and the elevator wasn’t working. Because of the late hour, the work crews were long gone, leaving the place dark, lit only by the ambient light coming in the bare windows from outside. “They’ll be on the eleventh floor.”

“Of course, they will,” he grumbled but good-naturedly pulled open the emergency stairwell door. “Even when every room is vacant, you couldn’t possibly have a meeting without going up eleven flights of stairs.”

We traipsed up through the dark. “You should focus on cardio as much as you do lifting,” I said, making him laugh.

Lev was far more happy-go-lucky than I was, probably the most carefree of the seven siblings. Our four other brothers and I had all fallen victim to his practical jokes when we were younger. The only one to grow up unscathed was our baby sister, who the six of us adored and doted on. She had begged to be part of this operation I had to set up, but I still didn’t want her doing anything so dangerous yet. Mila was our parents’ late-in-life surprise blessing, and I often treated her more like my own daughter than my sister, something she didn’t care for at all.

Despite his laughter, Lev paused when we reached the eleventh floor, catching his breath and looking to me for instructions. “You’ll see,” I said again, leading the way to our destination.

Mila was the only one I had confided in about this. She thought I was full of it, but had agreed to keep her silence and not say anything to Lev.

I held up a hand just outside the closed office, waiting a moment to listen to the voices coming from inside. A light shone along the bottom seam of the door, from one of the generators the construction crew used. The rest of the hallway and the other offices were dark and deserted.

I held up a finger to Lev, my other hand on the door handle. As soon as I heard the voice I was waiting for, I busted it open and stormed inside.

Jakob Pavelka, someone my family had trusted for years, was there, doing a deal with some terrified members of a rival but unthreatening organization. They were unthreatening because they mostly stayed in their lane and understood not to mess with the Bratva here in LA, of which I was king. I didn’t blame them for jumping at what they saw as an opportunity. They wouldn’t be punished tonight. Jakob was the reason Lev and I were here tonight.

With a snap of my fingers and a tip of my head, the three terrified opportunists scampered past Lev and me, clattering down the stairs as fast as their cowardly legs would take them.

“What the hell is going on?” Lev asked.

I studied his face well. The brother closest to me in age and confidence was shocked to see Jakob, someone he heavily relied on, associating with our enemies. It was clear he knew nothing about this little ruse I set up once I caught wind that Jakob might have been doing deals behind our backs and weakening what had to be, at all times, a united front.

I quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Lev hadn’t betrayed me.

“What the actual fuck?” Lev asked, angry now. He lunged forward, cracking his fist into Jakob’s face.

“Tell him what you’ve been up to,” I urged Jakob. If he didn’t lie, I might have shown mercy.

But he proceeded to spew nothing but nonsensical falsehoods through the blood streaming out of his mouth and nose. He stupidly believed I didn’t know everything he’d been doing behind our backs, and this was the first time he’d been caught. He was still trying to talk his way out of tonight’s meeting when I grabbed him by the throat and backed him over to the window.

“Ah, I get it now,” Lev said, hurrying over to open the window, then shaking his head at me. “But the eleventh floor? Fifth or sixth would have sufficed, no?”

I shook my head as Jakob started to blubber. “Not for rats, no,” I said.

We had him hanging out by his ankles, and he finally confessed everything I already knew.

“You have to forgive me, you have to!” he shouted, arms flailing.

Far below him were piles of construction debris. The nearest building was empty and closed for the night. Any security guards working there weren’t paid enough to investigate if they heard anything.

“Do we have to forgive him?” I asked Lev.

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