Page 63 of Unwilling Bratva Bride

“This was a stupid fucking move, Donovan. You really think you and these fucking pissants are going to do anything to the Unholy Trinity?”

Donovan’s eyes were cold, but a potent fire of rage burned in the core, making him grip his hands into fists as he stood just a few feet away from us. His men had their hands inside their jackets. It had to be a move for their guns.

A mirthless chuckle let him, and Donovan scrubbed his hand over his face. “I’m going to fucking try. And I’ll be more than satisfied if all I’m able to do is take out that little bitch of yours.”

My hand flew to my stomach on instinct. No one knew I was pregnant except Ivan. He hadn’t even told his brothers yet. So there was no way Donovan knew, which made it all the worse, actually.

Not that I believed for a second Donovan would change his mind if he knew.

“Last chance, Donovan. Get the fuck out or pay the price.”

The judge had all but disappeared at this point, using a door off in the corner to return to his private chambers. Donovan threw his head back in another crazed laugh, and I felt Ivan shove into me with the flat of his hand. He wanted me to run, to get out of the line of fire, and I knew I needed to.

But I was frozen.

Ivan was in serious, very real danger of getting shot, and I couldn’t bring myself to leave him. I also didn’t want anything happening to the pregnancy, which of course, made the situation real damn complicated.Fuck!

“Nah,” Donovan drawled, sending shivers down my spine because of his nonchalance. “I think I’ll stay. After all…”

He let the words hang as his men circled around him, moving closer to us as they pressed down the sides of the room.

“You owe me. I’ll either take that payment in cash…” Donovan raised his hand in the air, holding up two fingers, “or blood.”

With that, Tommy Donovan, Irish mob boss and rival of the Vadims, pointed his fingers right at me—like a gun.

The room erupted into chaos as guns were drawn and bullets zinged through the air. Ivan spun around, pulling me into his chest as he dove with me behind the nearest row of pew seating. The leap sent us crashing onto the cheaply carpeted floor, and I landed on my shoulder with a hard thump.

Pain ricocheted through my arm, and I pulled myself behind the wooden bench for cover from the bullets. It wasn’t going to do much good for long, however. Donovan and his men could just walk over here and shoot down at us.

“Stay down. Let me handle this.”

Ivan’s words were short jabs of fury through the air, and right now, I wasn’t about to argue with him. I may have been a self-sufficient woman, but even I knew when I was in over my head. So I just nodded.

“Good.”

Ivan reached into the back of his pants. He had a gun stashed in his waistband and pulled it out, checking the clip.

“Ahh!”

The scream stole both our attention, making us look up and over at where Vlad stood. He held one of Donovan’s goons by the arm, which was twisted so far behind the man that I couldn't believe it wasn’t broken.

Snap.

Oh, well, never mind then. It’s broken now.

My stomach lurched, nausea forcing me to blink rapidly and take shallow breaths through my nose.

As the man fell to the ground, Vlad held onto the goon’s hand, putting his foot on the man’s shoulder and pressing down. The guy cried out again, but Vlad leveled his gun at the back of the man’s head, and with a quick squeeze of the trigger, the attacker was dead.

I’d never seen someone be killed before, and I reeled backward, trying to make myself as small as possible against the wooden pew. Weirdly, I wasn’t appalled by Vlad’s actions. I knew he was defending not only himself but me from these men, and I was actually…grateful.

Then, at my side, Ivan shot up, taking in the scene around him before drawing his weapon and firing off two rounds into the nearest thug. I couldn’t see what happened, but the solidboom of something heavy landing on the floor told me enough that Ivan had at least dropped the guy.

“Goddamn you, Ustinov! You and your fucking brothers will pay! You hear me!”

I looked up at Ivan, who knelt with his arms outstretched over the top of the pew, smirking.

“You know, I missed that. Probably all the gunfire. Maybe if you wanted to stop—”

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