Page 37 of The Bratva's Forced Innocent Bride

Surely, he didn’t lock away his phone, and he certainly wasn’t thinking about it when I threw myself at him again.

Ugh, again. Pushing aside a wave of disgust at myself over my continued lack of self-control, I slowly and quietly rolled out of bed and began to search his abandoned clothes on the floor. Nothing, just his money clip and cardholder. Since I couldn’t buy my freedom, I left them where they were and grabbed my robe.

There was still the rest of the house. Tiptoeing downstairs, I searched the front hall, where he might have tossed it on one of the side tables or in a drawer. Nope. The kitchen and the back deck turned up nothing either, and I began searching in rooms he hadn’t even been in since we returned home. Maybe I didn’t notice since I was busy tending Dima’s wounds.

Not a trace of it anywhere, and eventually, I gave up, defeated and hating Max more than ever. He was always thinking about locking that damned phone away, even when his brother was nearly killed, even when we were in the throes of passion. That was always his first priority.

I wracked my brain but just couldn’t remember when he snuck away to do it, which turned my anger to myself for not being more alert. It was easier to handle than the unwarranted pain of knowing he didn’t trust me one little bit. I really was just his captive, no matter how many sweet anniversary dinners he planned or how he convinced my body to betray me.

Since there were always guards outside, there was no chance of making a break for it. The other day, I swam a bit further up the coastline than I normally did, surprising myselfat how far I’d made it. When I turned to the beach, Pavel was waving wildly at me to come in.

As if I was trying to swim to Mexico or something. If I had ignored him for a minute too long, I was sure he’d have come in after me, finally making use of the swim trunks he was forced to wear to remain incognito in case some joggers passed by.

Escape was impossible, and so was catching Max off his game. To keep myself from bursting into frustrated tears, I manically paced back and forth at the foot of the stairs, the smooth marble making a soft slapping sound beneath my bare feet.

“Come back to bed.” Max's voice's infuriating tone of laughter as he stood at the landing above me stopped me in my tracks. “You’ll wear yourself out,” he said.

I whipped my head up to say something scathing, but he was clad in low-slung pajamas pants and no shirt, with dark hair tousled to make him look more adorable than menacing. I could count every ab muscle that rose above his loose waistband, and my traitorous hands curled as I remembered the feel of his hard chest under my palms.

God, I hated him. I hated everything. But as he turned to go, I followed him, and got back into bed.

Chapter 23 - Max

The following day I had a message from my brother saying he had new information for me, and there were some things we needed to discuss that couldn’t be said in front of Brooke, so I hauled my ass out of bed and got on the road as dawn was breaking.

It wasn’t that I didn’t think I could trust Brooke. I just didn’t want to upset her. She liked to think she wanted more excitement in her life, but it was better to take things slow. I didn’t know what to expect last night, and my feelings had been dinged a bit when she was disappointed in my dinner surprise, so I decided to throw caution to the wind and take her along instead of calling her guard to take her home.

And Dima nearly got blasted to dust by an exploding building right in front of her. That was a lot of excitement for anyone, and way too much for someone who hadn’t grown up around such things. It had all worked out, and as great as last night had ended up, Brooke still wasn’t settling in like I hoped.

After a month together, I wanted to give her more freedom, maybe even be a normal couple, whatever in the hell that was, but she seemed as determined as ever to break free from me. As if I didn’t snap to the fact she was scouring the house for a phone after I fell asleep.

I hadn’t heard anything about Luca from any of my contacts who were keeping their eyes on him, and he hadn’t shown his face since his meltdown on that talk show a couple weeks back. His public relations team was probably making him lay low before his next big film premiere, but just because he wasn’t around didn’t mean his fixation on Brooke was over.

More and more, I wished I’d just found a way to get rid of him in college, but in my mind, he was just a garden-variety asshole back then, not the psychotic pervert he’d proven himself to be today. If I went around ridding the world of plain old assholes, the population would drop far too dramatically.

After I picked up Max, we drove around the city, scoping out the area we were trying to establish. At first, we went up and down part of the vast shoreline enjoying the view and discussing property values. I was pleased with the house I’d chosen, not just because Brooke clearly loved it, but because it was only going to soar in value. Not that I was thinking about selling any time soon. On the contrary, I could picture myself settling down there.

Lev had found his place up in San Francisco, the first of us to permanently leave the Los Angeles area. It was a quick flight so we still saw him for major gatherings, but he had missed out on a lot of impromptu family dinners. He’d confided he was worried that Aleks and Katie’s daughter might not be as close with their new baby when it arrived, but I assured him that was hogwash and encouraged him to either buy a plane of his own or consider mine on call for whenever he wanted it.

Now, I wondered the same things, finding myself about to laugh out loud at such thoughts. But the idea of having a family with Brooke was worming its way into my being and taking hold. Wherever that happened to be, we had to stay together, which meant keeping her safe from lunatics.

“So, tell me this big news you dragged me out of bed for,” I said as we settled in at a deli for lunch.

Dima grew serious and put down his sandwich. “Okay, so we thought dealing with the cartel was going to be rough. It turns out they’re not interested in us, not really. As long aswe don’t get involved with their business down at the border, they’re willing to keep the peace.”

“I have no interest in what they do at the border,” I said. “So why go to the trouble of demolishing that warehouse? Just their idea of a joke?”

Dima shook his head, pulling out his phone to show me some surveillance photos. “It’s a new Italian group, fresh from Venice.”

I coughed, my coffee nearly spewing across the table. “Fuck,” I said. “Northern Italian, like someone else I’ve been having trouble with.”

“Do you think so? Would he have called in backup?”

“I want to know how he even learned we moved down here. I had that info on lock, bought the house with a corporation that Aleks doesn’t even know about yet.”

My stomach sank, remembering how powerful Luca was. That level of fame and fortune came with perks, and finding out things he shouldn’t be able to could have been one of them. The untouchable bastard probably had just about as much access to information as I did, if he wanted it badly enough. And I knew how badly he wanted Brooke. I swore and shoved my half-finished sandwich away. My appetite was gone. This was bad.

“Let’s do some sleuthing before we jump to conclusions,” Dima suggested. “If this intel is good, I think I know where this new organization might be headquartered.”

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