Page 135 of Bratva Knight

“How could Talon possibly know that though?” my dad asked.

The answer came to me in a lightbulb moment.

I touched the back of my neck. “Their trackers,” I whispered, running a finger along the small scar. I looked at Mikhail. “Is that possible?”

He pursed his lips in thought. “It could be. Especially if they knew what frequency the trackers use. It’s safe to assume that Talon and Dominik are in league with each other. Dominik knows about the trackers. He cut it out of Dimitri before kidnapping him. All he’d need is the serial number from it and then he could use that to hack into the system and track the others. The ones in Aleksandr, Lukyan and Illayana.”

“So Talon used their trackers against them and waited for the opportune moment to kidnap them?” Drea frowned. “Why? What does he want with them? Isn’t his beef with Dimitri? It makes no sense to take them. He has what he wants: Dimitri in chains.”

“Could be any number of reasons,” Mikhail answered. “Maybe to use them to torture Dimitri. It’s well known how much he loves his children. Maybe Nikolai was discovered and Talon decided to capture the others to ensure they don’t interfere in his plans.”

“Or?” Arturo pressed, stopping his pacing to stare Mikhail down. He clearly sensed what I did—that there might be another reason Talon kidnapped them. A reason Mikhail was hesitant to voice.

“Or…he wants to use them in his games. Think about it. Having the heart of the Bratva in such a thing? It would be the game of the century.”

Anxiety, worry, fear…they all gripped me at once and I clutched my chest, struggling to breathe. Iknewsomething was wrong. I’d felt it in my bones, in my soul. And I ignored it.

Arturo cursed in Italian and went back to pacing, his footsteps thumping around the room. His brother tried to offer him support, but he didn’t want to hear a word of it, slapping his hands away when he tried to comfort him.

Drea exhaled, rubbing her temples, her shoulders tense with stress. “I’m leaning towards that.”

A chorus of agreements rang throughout the air, everyone nodding along.

“Alright.” She pushed through the apprehension I could see in her eyes, sitting up straighter and projecting an air of strength and confidence. “So, we need to come up with a plan to—”

“I’m sorry, but why are we listening to you?” It was one of the high-ranking Bratva soldiers. Peter? Paul? No, Perry? Fuck, why was I always so crap with names? “You’re not thePakhan. You’re just married to him. Just because he’s gone doesn’t mean we have to take orders from you—”

Drea whipped out a gun and shot him in the head with zero hesitation. His body thumped to the ground, blood and brain matter spraying across the wall. Smoke billowed from the barrel of the gun, curling into the air. Nobody moved a muscle, the room going deathly silent. She placed her elbow on the table and leant forward, letting the gun lull in her hand as she lazily pointed it around the room.

“Was there anyone else?” She moved her eyes from person to person, daring them to step forward. Daring them to question her right to be sitting in that chair, to be giving orders.

“No.”

“No.”

“Nyet.”

“No.”

She nodded, satisfied. “Good.” She placed the gun down but kept it in arms reach. “Now, we need to come up with a plan.”

“Any plan we come up with is pointless unless we find the location of that island,” Mikhail said, his voice layered in frustration. “That was the whole reason we sent Nikolai undercover.”

“And there’s no other way we can find out where it is?” Vincenzo asked.

People started chucking out ideas, all of which were crushed by Mikhail. The tension in the room built higher and higher with every suggestion he knocked back, and I felt the hope inside me diminish by the second. I didn’t like feeling so helpless, like there was nothing I could do. The people I loved were in mortal danger and all I could do was stand there and listen despairingly as every idea was squandered. Deemed too risky or with no chance of success.

This couldn’t be how it ended. There had to besomethingwe could do. Talon couldn’t win. He couldn’t be allowed to just come into our lives and take those we loved with no consequences.

“Are you okay?” My gaze cut to my dad who had moved to my side. He watched me with concerned eyes as everyone continued to argue amongst themselves about what to do.

“No, I’m not,” I answered honestly. How could I possibly be okay? The man I loved was going to die…if he wasn’t dead already, that is. Pain squeezed my heart, constricting it to the point that I felt like I was going to collapse from the agony of it. I couldn’t live in a world without him.

My dad laid a hand on my shoulder. “It will be okay. We’ll find him.”

“I thought you’d be glad Nikolai was gone.” It was a mean thing to say. I knew that. But I had a tendency to lash out when I felt cornered, useless.

“How could I be, knowing how much pain it would cause you?” He gave me a small, sad smile. “I don’t like the man, sure. I’ve made that more than clear. But I know how much it hurts to lose the one you love. It’s something I would never wish on my worst enemy, let alone my daughter.”

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