Page 3 of The Bratva's Forced Innocent Bride

“No,” she said in such a hurry and with such ferocity that I almost took a step back. “No, thank you, I’m really fine.”

Before I could press the issue, because she most certainly wasn’t fine, my brother Lev came storming in and pulled me aside.

“Something’s up downtown,” he hissed, glaring over my shoulder toward Jenna for some reason. “We need to go take care of it without upsetting the party.”

I nodded and followed him to his car. So much for dancing with Brooke later after all the older members of our family had retired to their beds. So much for getting her out from under my sister-in-law's watchful eyes and getting to know that mysterious woman better. And so much for a first kiss under the stars that would have her trembling in my arms.

“Get your head out of your ass and look alive,” Lev told me as we pulled up to the warehouse that had been raided.

I blinked, not even noticing the time in the car passing, all my thoughts on Brooke. “Yep,” I said, snapping to attention and checking my firearm as we headed inside. “I’m here.”

It was a straightforward beatdown, with the culprits already mostly dispersed. We just had to tidy up a few loose ends, and it barely made either of us break a sweat. The only problem was that Lev wanted to really settle it, which meant going to look for the ones who had already fled the scene.

It was late into the night when we finally finished, and I was a lot worse for wear than when we started the mission. Any chance I might have gotten with Brooke that evening was lost, unless I was ready to sneak up to the house and toss pebbles at her guest room window.

Was I actually thinking about doing that? The thought made me laugh to myself as Lev rolled back into the grounds of Aleks’s place so I could get my car. My brother gave me a long look as if he could read my mind and I snickered as I headed home. My own home, alone. What was I going crazy for? I had the whole week to make that amazing woman mine.

The next morning, I showed up as soon as I could without drawing attention to myself, ready to sweep Brooke off her feet and into my arms.

But she was already gone.

I learned from a tearful Katie that she and her sister had a falling out, with her sister Jenna refusing to accept that she was now married to a Bratva kingpin. With Jenna rushing back to Berkeley, her best friend Brooke had obviously followed.

I tried to console my sister-in-law, but it was difficult with my own shock of feeling like someone I’d known a hell of a lot longer than one day had been ripped away from me. I never even got her number. Every fantasy that had kept me up the night before, tossing and turning and waiting for the chance to see her again, was gone, never to be realized.

“She’s never going to forgive me,” Katie wailed, so upset she ignored the smoke that was beginning to billow out of the oven as we sat at the big kitchen table.

Aleks grumbled and got up, taking out the burnt cookies and slapping the pan into the sink. “Yes, she will,” he said.

“Of course, she will,” I agreed.

My feelings seemed stupid in the face of Katie’s misery. I pushed them aside to try to salvage my brother and sister-in-law’s first Christmas together. I was being foolish getting so wrapped up in a woman so quickly anyway.

In my world, beautiful, fascinating women were a dime a dozen. I’d forget about Brooke in a matter of days.

Chapter 1 - Brooke

Finally. Summer vacation was here. I could only enjoy it for a short time, and already I could feel my precious free time slipping away like sand through the hourglass. It was all my fault that I had so little of it, since I’d not only signed up for the late summer session to keep my goal of graduating early on track, but I volunteered to take on extra hours at the boutique where I worked. Plus, I was going to keep doing deliveries as long as there was a breath of life left in my ancient car.

I really shouldn’t have taken time off to go down to LA with my best friend Jenna and her new husband. I should have been holding a grudge against her, but I missed her too much since she moved out to secretly marry her boss. A man who also happened to be her sister’s husband’s brother. It was a mess, and I couldn’t really blame her for wanting to keep things as simple as possible during that whirlwind of a time. I could tell Jenna missed me too, and was trying to make it up to me, so it was way too difficult to weasel my way out of the invitation.

As much as I needed every penny I was missing out on by going with her to visit her family, I needed a break, too. I was tired to the bone and couldn’t remember the last time I got a full eight hours of sleep. But my goals of being completely financially stable with a degree and a good career kept me going even when my eyes felt like sand had been ground into them and my feet were pounding from standing all day.

The last time I’d gone down to Jenna’s sister’s huge, glamorous mansion in Los Angeles was at Christmas, and that time had been cut short by some kind of squabble between the sisters that Jenna never would tell me much about. Those two days had been the last time I’d taken any time off, andthey hadn’t exactly been stress-free due to the fight and Jenna’s subsequent depression afterwards.

Now, all that seemed to be settled, and I was actually flying first class down to LA. I balked at the extravagance, but Jenna bought the ticket without telling me and insisted it was nonrefundable, so I’d better accept it. First class! Me, the kid who’d never even had her own room. Even on the short little hop down the coast, the cabin was so luxurious I would have wished the flight would never end, except I knew what awaited me when we arrived at Katie and Aleks’s place.

Jenna and Lev were in the seats ahead of me, snuggled up together as usual, but I was happy to spend the time by myself to revel in the big seat and the fancy appetizers. Since Jenna finally admitted she was married to her powerful businessman boss, I’d barely had any time to visit her in her new house. It was a stunningly beautiful place in the hills, with a view that nearly stopped my heart, and instead of making me miserable in the tiny apartment we used to share, it only stoked my fire more.

One day, because of my hard work, I’d have a beautiful home of my own and all the lovely things that went with it. I’d never have to worry about money and, most importantly, never have to be beholden to anyone.

When Jenna and I first met, we bonded almost instantly. Both of us were on our own and scared half to death, but scraping by as best we could. Before she met Lev, Jenna worried about money as much as I did, always wondering if we’d be able to share a medium pizza on Friday nights or if it’d be ramen again while we studied to keep our grades up and not lose our all-important scholarships.

That was where our similarities ended, though. Jenna might have understood scraping for every last penny, but she’dlived with a family who loved her. Her parents had died when she was young, but she still had a sister and aunt who cared and fought for her wellbeing.

Not bounced around from family to family, sometimes having to share a cramped bedroom with four other kids, having to actually fight for food or a blanket. The last family I lived with before they tossed me out on my eighteenth birthday told me that I wasn’t worth anything to them anymore now that they’d no longer get the government subsidy check for putting a roof over my head.

Happy birthday to me.

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