Page 50 of Captured By the Bratva

“I was drugged.”

I narrowed my eyes, waiting for more.

“Not here.” She licked her lips again and stepped closer while lowering her voice. “Not at your family’s clubs. But at another place.”

I shrugged. “And?” That was the nature of what happened when someone played in places like this with the people who liked to come here.

“It was either at the place uptown with the triple code check to enter or that newer little club closer to the river.”

I knew which ones she meant. That triple-check place was something we’d recently sold to another company, no longer wanting the high costs of running a club in that area. We’d never made enough profit to keep it going there. The small and new place by the river had only been open for a few months. It paid for me to keep abreast of the competition out there, and it had been my suggestion to Alek to sell that club uptown.

“Okay…”

“And it was bad, Ivan. Bad.” She gripped her fingers together and wrung them. For the first time in the years that she’d beena regular in these kinky crowds, she looked her age. Feeble, scared, and weak. Most of all, worried.

“What about it?”

She shook her head. “I’ve been roofied before. I’ve asked to be drugged up. All kinds of things. You know. You know how I like to push the limits and be extreme.”

I nodded.

“And I’ve done a lot of stupid shit in my life. Back when I was younger, younger than you are now, I did it all. Crack, LSD, hell,everythingon the market, Ivan. I’ve lived a wild life.”

“Then what’s wrong now?”Why the hell are you tellingmeabout it?

She swallowed. “It was bad. I’m telling you. I’ve never taken anything that messed me up like that. I was life-flighted. I died three times on the way there.”

“Fuck.”

“Whatever they gave me was not some simple recreational pill, all right? It’s some bad shit.”

“But you didn’t get it here?”

She shook her head. “No. But something is going on, Ivan. I’m ninety percent certain it was something I was given at that place uptown. That you used to run.”

I narrowed my eyes, wondering if this was something I needed to worry about.

“It wasbad, Ivan. And I just thought you might know something about what’s going around and all. Because that shit can kill.”

Thinking back to the concern about the pair of young women who were intoxicated at LeVant’s, I considered the possibility of this being a pattern. If these stronger, different drugs had been used at LeVant’s, then that wasn’t good for us. We didn’t want bad product there. And we didn’t want anyone thinking that the Bratva-operated sex clubs were places to avoid.

You’re older, though.Veronica wasn’t a youthful woman like the two Kenneth had seen at LeVant’s. Then again, Veronica was nimble and fit, disguising her age with a toned body.

“I hate that you had to deal with this,” I said sincerely, “but that place is under new management. New owners. If they’re pushing shady shit, that’s not associated with me, with the Valkov name.”

She shrugged, shaking her head as she looked away, clearly uncomfortable. “Technically, yeah. It isn’t one of your clubs anymore, but what if that crap was going around when it was?”

I wouldn’t have any way of knowing. Clients stayed loyal to clubs. Even though the Bratva no longer operated it, some people might not realize it yet. We checked everyone who came inside the doors. Security was tight, but things slipped through. It happened.

Is someone setting up the Bratva to take this hit? Planting drugs on our turf and making us look bad?

We had too many enemies to single anyone out. And it was a fine-lined dilemma. We pushed drugs. We sold all kinds of product, but nothing out of the norm, nothing that couldn’t already be obtained elsewhere. Peddling crap that killed wouldn’t help us at all, and I tried to consider what we’d be facing if someone were coming after the Bratva like that.

“Thanks for telling me,” I said, reaching out to set my hand on her shoulder.

“Yeah. Sure.”

Damn, she was really off-kilter about this. All that seductive and sultry attitude out on the floor was just a ploy to convince me into this room alone.

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