Page 17 of The Bratva's Forced Innocent Bride

Max reached for my hand, squeezing hard enough to grind the bones. I was so pissed off I almost disputed it, but then it got through my muddled head that this was a ploy to get out of here.

“That’s right,” I agreed, maybe a beat too late.

“Like hell,” Luca said. “When’s the big day, then?”

“Tomorrow,” Max answered instantly. “We’re eloping tomorrow.”

At that point, I thought I wasn’t understanding correctly because of the drug, but things got even more outlandish when Luca refused to believe it.

“You’re much too vain to elope,” he jeered. “You love being the center of attention and having the best of everything. There’s no way you’re not having a huge society wedding in Dubai or some shit.” He looked pretty pleased with himself, asking why he wasn’t invited. “Since I’m one of your oldest friends and all.”

“We were never friends,” Max snapped. He squeezed my hand tighter, and got stone quiet for a long moment, glaring at Luca. Then he finally spoke again, in a low rumble that had my knees quaking. “I’d be happy to have you stand up as a witness for us, though.”

It was then that my eyes dropped to notice Luca had a gun tucked into his waistband. My eyes shot to Max, and saw a suspicious lump under the side of his jacket. Holy crap, I’d been worried about punches flying, not bullets. Was Max putting up this ridiculous story to get us out of here without firing any shots? That made some kind of sense, because surely, he was as averse to the police as I was. Hell, he was a mafia kingpin, he’d probably do anything to keep the cops from showing up.

Even say we were engaged to get married? And the wedding was tomorrow? What the hell?

If only my head would stop swimming, or I’d wake up from this nightmare. This was no longer fun, or any kind of fantasy. I hated everything about the glamorous life of these insane rich people. I was going to book myself home on the first budget flight tomorrow, no matter how much Jenna begged me to stay.

If I got out of there alive, which was still up in the air.

All I could do was keep agreeing with Max, eyes never leaving Luca’s gun as he slowly seemed to accept we were telling the truth about eloping the next day. What an idiot.

Eventually, he begrudgingly let us leave without any more violence, warily following us to the door to see us out. Really, I didn’t believe any of it was actually happening myself, and I was there.

“What a dummy,” I said, frowning at the thick sound of my voice and the way my tongue felt too big for my mouth.

Max herded me into the elevator, keeping a hand on my arm to prevent me from melting into the floor. “No, he’s smarter than he looks,” he muttered.

The downward swoop of the elevator had me groaning, and Max pulled me close to his side, his arm firm around my waist. I closed my eyes and relaxed against his solid warmth for just a second. He’d found me, and I was out of Luca’s clutches, but I had to remind myself that I wasn’t home free yet.

Before I knew it, Max was bundling me into his car, and we were headed back to Katie’s. Or so I thought. When I opened my eyes as the car stopped, I blinked in the dim lights coming from a completely different mansion. Way too many palm trees, more steps leading up to the sweeping front entrance, and too many pillars.

Max led me inside the place, completely dwarfing and somehow outshining the grand luxury of his older brother’s massive home. Lights automatically switched on as we entered the front hall, illuminating so much opulence I almost had to shield my bleary eyes. It seemed that what Luca had said about Max liking the finer things in life was true.

“Is this your house?” I asked, too exhausted to wind myself up into a fresh ball of fear. “Or did we somehow get to Versailles?”

He smiled at me, chuckling as he answered. “Yes, it’s one of my houses. Too much for your taste? It’s about time to be redecorated.”

“Oh, no, it’s perfect.” What was I saying? And why was I wandering over to one of the carved gilt picture frames to inspect the painting in it? Oh, right, I was still hammered. “Did you bring me here to sleep off whatever that asshole gave me?”

Another deep chuckle as he took my arm when I swayed on my feet. “Sure. That’s as good a reason as any. You definitely need some rest.”

I was still none too happy with him, with anyone for that matter. It was embarrassing needing to be rescued at all, and his outlandish lie still made my cheeks burn. It was only the haze of the drug that kept me from disintegrating under my anger at everything, which was much easier to handle than the deep fear that still hadn’t left me. If Max hadn’t found me, who knew what I’d be going through by now. Or if I’d even still be alive.

Since it was better not to stagger into Katie’s and risk upsetting Jenna because of my own bad decisions, I begrudgingly let him guide me to a guest room, where I gratefully fell onto the bed, barely able to wave at him as he shut the door. Soon enough, this would all be behind me.

Seconds later, I was asleep. Alone and safe, at least for the moment, thanks to Max. But I was still booking that flight home as soon as I woke up and felt back to normal. No more lux life for me.

Chapter 11 - Max

Damn, that had been harrowing. Even though Brooke was safe in one of my guest rooms, I still buzzed with pent-up energy, disgruntled that things weren’t truly over yet. At least not the way I would have liked.

Having as much power as I did, it was easy to believe that all problems were easy to take care of. That people could just disappear when they became too troublesome. But not many people in the world were as high profile as Luca Ross. He had to be handled carefully, or a world of unwanted publicity could befall my family.

We didn’t mind attention, in fact, I reveled in it, but only when it was under our control. It was an open secret among the upper echelon of society how we operated, and anyone who was smart kept their mouths shut and turned a blind eye. Luca knew he could cause my family a lot of trouble if he leaked a little something to the press. Too much attention and the police and politicians we had in our pockets might be forced to put on a show and make an example out of one or all of us.

That would annoy the shit out of me, so I had to tread carefully, where anyone else would have already been on a one-way trip out to the middle of the ocean by now.

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