Page 55 of The Bratva's Innocent Bride

“I don’t know what that means,” I say, struggling to keep my voice level. Now is not the time for my brother’s fun facts.

“It means that this just so happens to be the kind of bomb that the Corsica are fond of using.”

“Allard,” Viktor breathes. I blink, feeling sucker punched. I thought the thing with Allard was done. And now they have Fiona. I look to Viktor, waiting for him to say something about her going willingly, about her liking to be kidnapped. Just last night, he was busy telling me that I had given her too much responsibility. That it was one thing to keep her around, another to give her a leadership role. I wait for him to call me a fool, to say good riddance.

“We have to get her,” he says, finally, which causes Anya and Anton to look at him, surprised. “Let’s go. We can take your car, Boris.”

“Uh, what’s happening?” Anya asks. “I thought you hated Fiona.”

“I don’t hate her,” Viktor says. “And I didn’t realize—I didn’t know, Boris.”

“Didn’t know what?” I ask, moving quickly beside him, already more than onboard with going to rescue her.

“I didn’t know that you were in love with her,” he says, rounding to the passenger side, his gaze traveling to the ground. “I thought she was just a good time to you, something interesting.”

“Oh my god, Boris, you’re in love with Fiona?” Anya says, “I mean, it’s totally obvious, but you told her that?”

“No,” I snap, “I haven’t told her that.”

I should have. I wanted to a million times, but I couldn’t get the words to come out for some reason. Maybe it’s because my parents were never affectionate with me. Maybe it’s because I’m afraid it will be taken from me if I love something too much.

I don’t know the reason, but I know that the second I see her again, I’m going to make sure she knows how much I love her. That I’m desperately, hopelessly in love with her.

“And now the Allards have her,” Anton says from beside Viktor, waiting for me to unlock the doors. I do, then turn to Anya.

“You are not coming.”

“Throw me out. Go ahead. Waste valuable time we could be using to go after Fiona.”

I growl in frustration and get into the driver’s seat. I throw the car into reverse and peel out of the parking lot, kicking gravel up behind us.

It’s a gorgeous night. Las Vegas is a shining jewel, glittering as always, and now it’s washed in rich golden light from the sunset. Any tourist arriving on a night like this would be pleased with the view despite the chilly weather.

But my girl—the love of my life—is in danger. This sunset is not for me.

“Someone call Roman,” I say, then I realize I have no idea where the hell I’m going. “Where are we going? Did we figure out where they’ve taken her?”

“I’ll have it in just a second,” Anton says.

“Wow,” Anya says, “how did you figure it out?”

“Oh, easy,” Anton says, looking up from his tablet. “I implanted a tracking chip in her.”

“Oh my god, Anton, that is such an invasion of privacy!” Anya says, despite the current situation. I frown at him, trying to figure out when he might have done something like that.

“What? No—she was awake. She asked me to. After that little run-in with the Allards at that club, she said she wanted us to be able to find her if they ever came after her again.”

“Holy shit,” I breathe, my chest expanding with pride. Fiona is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met.

“Maybe we should all have fucking chips,” Viktor says, practically yelling.

“Jesus, brother,” Anya says, covering her ears. “You can use your inside voice.”

“What?”

Anton sends the coordinates to my navigation system as Viktor and Anya go back and forth, their volume rising higher and higher.

I speed along the roads, taking us out of the city and further into the desert, thinking about all the ways I’m going to make James Allard pay for daring to touch my girl.

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