Page 17 of Forced Pregnant Bride

Jayden shot me anare-you-serious-right-nowlook over his shoulder, still marching forward toward the pavement.

“They don’t have Honda Odysseys,” he emphasized, like that wasn’t already obvious. “And they don’t do simple.”

Then, he halted in his tracks, allowing me to step beside his huge frame. Taking my hands in his, he let me in, permitting me to see the fear in his eyes for the first time that night.

“Look, Seri, I know this is not the life you planned for either of us. You’ll miss your kids at school, you’ll miss the house, you’ll miss everything. But none of us could have known what Dad did, the debt he owed. I promise we’ll sort out this messafterwe leave. Those goons can’t know we’re gone.”

Sniffling tears, I nodded and pulled him in for a brief hug before we got to the car. Subtly, he knocked on the window three times. It was eerie, like a secret Morse code only he and the driver understood, and when the door opened and the driver walked up to us, I blinked in disbelief.

The last time I checked, Matteo did not have enviable slender feminine curves, short wavy brown hair, or piercing hazel eyes that stared right into my soul.

Jayden wore a similar expression of shock on his face as we looked up at the fierce-looking woman. Well,Ilooked up. She was almost at Jayden’s eye level, so he didn’t have to.

This stunning stranger looked young but had a lot of fire burning those eyes of hers that told of secrets and wild experiences I would probably never have. Striking a more daring pose and glancing between Jay and me, she extended her hands, palms up.

“Your phones,” was all she said. And even the sonorous sound of her voice had the power to command the very air we breathed.

Jay and I exchanged concerned looks, our own secret code. His brows twitched, which meant he trusted her. I would have refused with a head shake, but he had already handed his phone over to her.

Her fingers curled outward and inward, beckoning on mine. Swallowing, and very hesitant, I slid my phone into her smooth palms. Silver knuckle rings glinted under the light as she fisted our devices, plucked out our SIM cards…and broke them.

I was halfway through an unbelievable gasp when she dropped the phones to the ground and crushed them with the heels of her boots on the concrete.

“Timur’s probably tracking you guys already, and you don’t even know it. Get in the car.”

Jayden didn’t flinch. I was close to hyperventilating.

They got in the front, I shut the back door, and the engines purred. From the rearview mirror, I watched her, almost flinching at the fearlessness in her gaze when she caught my eyes.

Swiftly, I looked away.

Who was this woman who made my heart churn with a pinch of annoyance, envy, and admiration? It’d been a long time since I sighted another woman and felt the desire to possess a bit of her personality. It wasn’t only the black leather jacket, matching skinny jeans, and killer boots that caught my attention. Her daring aura and bravado reminded me of all I was not.

“Who are you?”

Drumming her fingers rhythmically on the steering wheel, she shrugged. “Just an older sister looking out for her brother.” She glanced at Jayden and went back to the road. “You can relate.”

In short, she was the Italian Don’s daughter—most likely the more rebellious one between the two. And now, as I looked closer, I spotted the resemblance, starting from the stubbornness.

She was still talking, explaining her reason for coming for us instead of Matteo. Apparently, she didn’t want her brothermeddling in the Bratva’s business. Their father could have his head if he heard of such nonsense—my diluted version, because she cursed a lot.Matteo had a hard head, so he wasn’t going to back down; he was going to help his friend, upset the Russians, and then get into a truckload of trouble.

Leonara, as we learned her name was, had decided to take matters into her own hands and stick her neck into the invisible feud to keep her brother far from the mess.

“I run my own shit,” she announced, plunging the car past a red light at breakneck speed. “I’m taking you to a man. His name’s Antonio. He’ll hand you both some fake IDs, take you past some borders, and then you’re on your own. I won’t call him a friend, but you can trust him.”

I didn’t like the sound of that, but Jayden was quicker to interrupt with his own concerns. Shifting on his seat, he faced her, the trembles in his voice betraying the mask of indifference on his face.

“Take us past some borders, fake IDs…. Where exactly are we going? We have to at least know where we’re going, right? That’ll give us some sort of soft landing.”

Leonara refused to give him a hint and continued beating around the bush. But Jay, being adamant and intent on uncovering her decrypted instructions, kept on with the arguments. If my brother didn’t already know it, we’d met someone more stubborn than him and his “good friend” Matteo combined. She obviously wasn’t going to let up anytime soon. In my opinion, the sooner he kept quiet, the sooner we got to our destination without angering the Italian goddess.

Watching them bicker back and forth grew tiring. I took my eyes off them and faced the road. That’s when I saw….

“Leonara!” Her name was out of my mouth faster than I should’ve called the real legal authorities for help. “Look out!”

Thankfully, they snapped out of the heated conversation and looked fast enough to see the crazy man in a dark coat and black outfit standing in the middle of the road with his hand stretched toward us. More accurately, with a gun in hand.

We were close enough to see the faint smirk curl on his lips right before we heard a loud resounding “Bam!” A gunshot sound.

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