Page 82 of Knocked-Up Bratva Prisoner

“Alright,” she says, clearly not believing me.

I follow her out of the room, down the stairs to the living room where Oleg is waiting for us. There is no sign of Alexei anywhere. He just left—he left them to deal with me.

“Let’s go, then,” Oleg says when we stand silently waiting.

Again, I follow Anya. My eyes are on the ground, my heart feels like it is on the ground as well.

I would have loved the chance to just say goodbye to Alex.

Oh well.

Whatever.

It doesn’t matter.

It can’t matter.

Sitting in the back of their car, I stare blankly out of the window.

Trees rush past my view and I don’t pay any attention.

I can’t seem to stop this sinking misery that’s taking over my entire body and all my thoughts.

We drive for about an hour. I don’t even know where we are by the time we stop at a gas station.

Oleg looks at Anya as though they both know what needs to be done.

Anya sighs after a while and turns to face me.

“Clara, this is neutral ground, between territories of various allies and rivals. We thought it was the best place to have you ‘found.’ You can call your uncle from inside the gas station and…look, the thing is that if he finds out it was Alex who took you, or that he was in any way involved in this, he will come after him. He will kill him. He might not be successful on the first or second try, but one day, it’ll happen.”

I listen quietly. I know she’s right. My uncle is a man of vengeance and he would hate to look like a fool. He will go after Alex just to appease his own ego, not even to avenge me—his temper alone would have him out on a rampage about this entire situation.

Anya is still explaining to me how she thinks Alexei was an idiot for taking me, and she’s so sorry I went through all that, but can I find it in my heart not to tell my uncle who it was that had me this whole time—

The truth is that I’m not sorry at all.

This entire experience has changed me in ways I don’t yet understand, but I think are good. I’ve seen things that have opened my heart to the way the world could be. And my time in nature was something I would never trade for anything.

“Anya." I hold up my hand to stop her long string of words that seem to have no end. “I won’t tell my uncle that it was Alexei, or—you know—anything to do with your family at all.”

Both Oleg and Anya are squinting at me. I guess they are trying to figure out if I am just saying what they need to hear or if I really mean it.

I do mean it.

They will just have to trust me on that one.

I pull the door handle and car door opens.

“Wait,” Oleg says. But then he just sits there, clenching his jaw. He looks stressed beyond words.

“Yes?” I sigh. I just want to get this over with. I don’t care about the politics and then way my uncle is going to react. All I care about, all I can think about, is that Alexei didn’t even want to say goodbye. And my heart is breaking into a million little pieces, no matter how hard I try to ignore it.

“Um…" Oleg sighs.

“I won’t say anything. You’re just going to have to take the risk.” I am getting frustrated.

“Yeah.” Oleg nods. “Okay.”

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