Page 43 of Kidnapped Bratva Virgin

I want to protect Ethan. I can’t let him go to Dimitri. No. I just can’t. “I don’t know what you’re talking about because Ethan was born premature.”

That brooding energy has metamorphized into white-hot rage. “Stop with the fucking lies, for fucks sake!”

Bracing myself, I hold on to the car door as Dimitri spontaneously starts the car driving off, alarm bells ringing in my head. No. My baby is back in the hospital. Fuck!

“Dimitri! Stop!” I yell as his jaw clenches like steel while he hysterically laughs. “Slow down, you’re going to get us killed!” His foot jams on the accelerator as the SUV hits a dip on the road out of the hospital. He speeds through a red light, cars leaning hard on their horns, his face in a menacing snarl.

“Nope. Ava, I’m not slowing down until you tell me the truth!” I feel part of myself wanting to detach from my body. I don’t have to experience this trauma, but I white-knuckle it, quickly putting on my seat belt as I watch the odometer click up.

“Okay, okay Dimitri! I had Ethan when we were separated.”

“Is he my blood?” Dimitri asking me this question spirals me back to the day I left his mansion heartbroken and my life in complete tatters. He still thinks I slept with another man. Years have passed and he’s had the time to dig deeper and find out the truth, but he hasn’t. He’s just in his own head believing whatever he believes.

A small voice inside me tells me to protest, to fight him tooth and nail to listen to what I have to say and remind him that I told him the truth as plain as day, but he didn’t want to hear it.

“You know what, Dimitri?” I spit out bitterly, a lump lodging in my throat.

“What, Ava?” he cuts back as he lets off the gas a little.

“For a man who has access to so much, and with so much power, you still only see what you want to see. I don’t give a fuck anymore; you believe what you want to believe,” I tell him, giving up in defeat. Whatever he’s going to do to me, he can. All I want to do is protect my son and get back to him in one piece. I haven’t figured out the rest, but if I can get back to Ethan, then everything’s going to be okay. “Even if Ethan is your son,” I stipulate. “You better stay the fuck out of his life. He doesn’t have a place in yours.”

I realize Dimitri’s driven us in a wide arc around the hospital as we re-enter the parking lot.

“Then you’re going to give me a DNA test, and then, Ava, I’m not going to stay away from my son. No, you have one week to pack your stuff. He’s coming back to Chicago with me where he belongs amongst his family roots.” Dimitri’s used to dishing out commands and controlling everything and everyone around him, but not this time. I will fight tooth and nail for my son, even if it means putting my life on the line.

“No. You’re not going to do that. I refuse to give my son away to the dangerous playground you live in, Dimitri. What’s he going to become? A ruthless fucking bloodhound like you.”

The corners of Dimitri’s eyes crinkle into a devastating smile as he chuckles, stopping the car and facing me, his eyes chilling me to the bone. “You don’t have a choice,” he concludes arrogantly. “You might think your fancy law degree is going to get you somewhere, but you have no idea of what strings I can pull to gain custody of Ethan.” His eyes glower as I take the gut punch, winded, knowing it’s true. My hands are being tied behind my back, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

“You wouldn’t—” I shake my head, tears stinging at the back of my eyes.

“Oh yeah, I would. I’m a monster, don’t you remember how I got Raven’s Peak.” Tears slowly roll down my cheeks. I’m trapped by a monster and one I can’t escape from. I’m horrified by the thought of Dimitri having the power to take my son from me, and if I want to see Ethan again, I’m going to have to answer Dimitri’s commands.

Chapter Twenty- Four - Dimitri

One week later…

There’s a light breeze in L.A., but there’s redemption coursing through my veins as I stand on the tarmac, the sweet revenge I wanted for Ava, falling right into my lap. Together, we’ve got a son, and that’s one thing she didn’t lie about.

I had the DNA results rushed through using my connections.

“Yes. I want the results from the lab rushed through, and I will pay extra under the table. I don’t care if you have to work overtime to do it. Get me the results and get them back to me in the next three days or else,” I advised the head of the pathology lab.

He overdelivered, producing the results in less than forty-eight hours. Viktor delivering the news with an envelope. “Here, I think you’re going to be pleased with the result.”

I’d taken the envelope silently from him in my Chicago office, the wait for the results—agonizing as I replayed the movie of Ava betraying me over and over again on loop. What if it wasn’t my kid? But again, the evidence was too great. I saw Ethan with my own two eyes. The kid was a doppelganger for me in the flesh and my seed was not going to stay in some condo in L.A. with Ava as a single mother. No. I would give him the world, and he would live like a king.

I opened the envelope staring at the results again and again searching for the right information, my name in the fine print in the bottom right-hand corner.

Father: Dimitri Utkin. Confirmed. I’d thrown the paper on my office desk, standing, fuming that Ava would add another knife in my back, keeping my son from me without my permission.

“Ah, Ms. Knight. You have no idea who you’re dealing with. I’m going to make your life a living hell on earth.”

“Sooo, not okay with the result?” Viktor chipped in, but I’d forgotten he was standing in my office. Grinning, I turned around to him, his smirk mirroring mine.

“No. The opposite. This is fucking too perfect. Revenge has fallen right into my lap. I want you to track Ava for the rest of the week, and maybe give her a shove in the right direction if you smell anything fishy.”

“Already on it, but my dibs are on her coming with Ethan to Chicago.”

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