Page 40 of Captured By the Bratva

“He asked that of you because he seems to know I’m with you. That you captured me. And he thought it would be comical to compare that to the last time I was with a man he knew about—Dominic.”

“Has he always been that cruel?”

I nodded. “Cruel? Try evil.” Looking up at the ceiling to regain my composure, I turned to pace more for soothing Emily. “For as long as I can remember. No matter the evidence her case had, I am still convinced that he had my mother killed. That it wasn’t an accident and that he’d orchestrated it all. My mother was the daughter of his boss on the force, and he didn’t like him and how he tried to discipline him at work.”

“That’s a strong accusation.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, feeling this old comfort of anger. “It is. And I stand by it. I mean it when I say there is no lost love for him. He’s never cared about me. I’ve always been a burden on him, foisted off to neglectful babysitters and abusive teachers. Steven was never present, never there. And if he was, it was to belittle me or wonder how I could help him in a scam or stupid ploy to get money.”

Ivan leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he peered up at me. “It sounds like you learned your independence early on.”

“Not by choice. And I did. I learned everything the hard way because I hated him trying to have any say in what I wanted to do or who I wanted to be friends with. He scared off my boyfriends and persuaded my employers to let him harass me on the clock.”

“Scared off your boyfriends?” he asked.

I nodded. “All three of them.”

He nodded, pensive for a moment. “What about Dom?”

My spirits sank at the mention of his name.

15

IVAN

She’s siding with me. Not Steven. Not the Rossinis.

Becca wanted to stand by me and the Valkov name. By hurrying to record that call, she proved that she wanted me to hear it and learn more about whatever I could use against her father. The urgency that she obeyed, leaving her bed and coming to find me right away, attested to her commitment in her decisions. This wasn’t a whim. She wasn’t helping me with information as a fluke moment. She was considerate and smart with a kind of quick thinking that I admired.

Becca chose to tell me about that call as soon as she could.

And the ramifications of her decision hit hard. She trusted me. She’d stalwartly refused to give in to any of Steven’s demands. He’d asked her over and over to reveal her location, and she held strong against him.

Besides, she didn’t know.No one had told Becca where we were, exactly. This Valkov vacation villa was upstate, but there was no way she could’ve tracked the path here when we’d left the city. She hadn’t been blindfolded in the backseat, but her focus had been on Emily, not the scenery passing by.

When Murphy asked whereIwas, she was again ill-equipped with an actual answer. She was napping when I left, unawarethat I had taken off, and even if she had been awake, I knew she wouldn’t have asked. She wouldn’t have taken the risk to be nosy about my affairs. All this time she’s been here more like a guest than a hostage, she’d kept to herself and minding Emily. Not once did she inquire about what I did or where I went, intuitively respecting that it wasn’t information she needed to know. Maybe she preferred it that way. The less she was aware of, the safer she was in ignorance. I couldn’t fault her for that mindset, but I ignored it because considering what she did and didn’t know led me to wonder what would happen to her after Murphy was dead.

Still, the realization of her loyalty stunned me. She was loyal to me, not her father or the Rossinis.

Which made it all the more interesting why she was so quick to clam up about my single, pointed question about Dom.

Because something is there between them.A history in the past? A dream for the future? Becca was familiar with Dom. There was no chance in hell she could deny that, and it burned me to understand she had been downplaying her connection to him.

Dmitri showed me the lengthy list of calls she’d had with the most reputable number that we felt was Dominic’s. The first assumption that came to mind was that she’d dated him, but she’d rejected that.

Jealousy filled me immediately. It streaked through my veins, lighting up a unique version of rage I’d never experienced before. Women never mattered. They never lasted. I never wanted them to last because I knew every single one of them wouldn’t actually want me for who I was, a criminal Mafia man with a preference for hard fucks.

Becca was sneaking further under my skin, though. The mere idea of seeing her filled a dark, twisted corner of my heart. I didn’t know how it happened or why. She was supposed to serve the purpose of being here to lure Murphy out. She was not hereto make me wonder about love and belonging in the sense of a proper relationship that would endure more than one fling.

But maybe she is doing that, bringing Murphy out of hiding.

The call that she recorded was the first means of communication since we’d made it clear to the criminal world that Becca was captive under the Valkov family. We’d left plenty of messages for Murphy to understand we had his daughter. He hadn’t taken the bait yet. He hadn’t responded or reacted to any of the news about Becca being held hostage by us.

Until today.

He’d reached out, calling her specifically, and I was damned thankful that she'd recorded it. I already sent the recording from her phone to mine, then shared it with all my brothers and Yusef.

The fucker knew. He knew that we had Becca, but he wasn’t interested in negotiating with us. He instead decided to contact her.

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