Page 104 of Bratva Knight

Two years ago

“So, as you can see Mr Cliveson, I have more than enough inventory to meet your needs.”

It took a conscious amount of effort not to roll my eyes. Sitting across from my father and I was Delano Campos, the fucker who had been selling guns in our territory. We had suspected it was him, but he’d just confirmed it, and in doing so, signed his death warrant. He didn’t realise he was sitting at a table with the Pahkan of the Bratva. He thought we were just a couple of drug runners looking for weapons to protect ourselves and our product. Not his competition.

My phone vibrated in my pocket. I took it out and glanced at the screen, my jaw locking up tight.

Tatiana.

I ignored the call.

I wasn’t ready to talk to her yet. Not after everything. I didn’t want to hear her tell me what an idiot I was being, how I was overreacting. She just kept trying to invalidate my feelings. I heard that fucker Kurt, with my own ears, explain in great detail about their ‘time’ together. Heard him describe the tattoo on her ass that she had gotten withme. The timeline matched. I didn’t need to know anything else. The baby wasn’t mine, just like with Galina. I wasn’t going to go and get my hopes up again just to have them and my heart crushed into oblivion. I wasn’t.

Still, there was this tiny voice in my head that kept saying, “What if?” What if she was telling the truth? What if it was all just a big misunderstanding and the baby was mine? What if she didn’t betray me? That voice was slowly getting louder and louder, more prominent. More demanding.

I wanted to believe it, to listen to it. What I felt for Tatiana was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. A blazing love as powerful as a supernova. All-consuming. She was everything to me. It was why the idea of her betrayal hurt so much.

My phone vibrated, Tatiana trying to call me again. I ignored it. Again.

I told myself I was ignoring her calls because I was dealing with Bratva business, but deep down, I knew the real reason. It was because I just didn’t want to deal with any of it right now. I needed more time. Needed to figure out exactly what I was going to do about our situation. Whether to believe her and run back to her, or let her go.

After the third call, I switched my phone off and focused back on the meeting.

Delano was running his mouth, trying to make himself seem all Alpha dog, like he was the big man and we were nothing. It was getting harder and harder to sit at this table with him and not put a bullet in his brain. But, Father wanted to wait. We had confirmation it was him selling guns in our territory, but Father wanted to knowwherehe was getting them from.

You had to take out the supplier, as well as the seller to truly stop it. Otherwise, another person could easily replace Delano and we’d be right back where we started.

After what felt like hours, we were finally done, and said our goodbyes with arrangements to meet in a few days, us with the cash and him with the inventory. That was where we’d attack.

Father and I exchanged a few words before he got in his car and left. I climbed into the driver's seat of my own vehicle and took a deep breath, my hands curling around the steering wheel.

I feared what I would find when I turned my phone back on. Most likely Tatiana, cursing me out for ignoring her. Something I probably deserved. I’d been ignoring her attempts to talk for months now.

I don’t know how long I sat there, my car running idly as I worked up the courage to deal with my problems. I couldn’t ignore them any more. Ignore her. We needed to talk and resolve things, no matter how much I dreaded the conversation.

I turned my phone back on. An influx of text messages overtook my device, as well as several voicemails.

Panic set in when I read them. Oh, dear God. What was going on? I opened up one of the voicemails and placed the phone to my ear.

At first, I couldn’t hear much. I thought perhaps it was a pocket dial, but then I heard it. Heard Tatiana, crying, sobbing, calling out for me.Beggingfor me. My heart literally broke, pain burning my insides.

I’d never heard her like that before. Never heard her voice filled with so much pain. So much desperation. So much agony. Something must be wrong. Something must have gone horribly, horribly wrong. Tatiana was the strongest woman I’d ever known. For her to beg for me…

There were other voices. A man telling her to push. A woman asked if there was someone else she could call for her. All while in the background Tatiana cried…for me. She said my name over and over again, each time like a knife through the heart.

She was in labour? Fuck. She was in labour, and she called me and…Iignoredit. What had I done?

I started the car and sped down the road, my tires screeching. One of the text messages said she was at Saint Royal Hospital. It was only a few hours away.

As I drove, I tried calling back. Relief filled me when she answered.

“Tatiana? Tatiana, are you there? I’m on my way. I’m coming.”

“H-hello. This is Maureen.”

I swerved erratically through traffic, trying as hard as I could to get there fast without killing myself. “Where is Tatiana?”

“She’s…here.” When she said nothing else, I exploded.

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