Page 24 of Captured By the Bratva

“Not to be a doting grandpa. As leverage. Since the kid is Dominic Rossini’s.”

I shrugged. “I guess so.”

He gave me a hard look. “No guessing about it. Your kid would be an important leverage if Murphy wanted to mess withthe Rossinis. The baby would be another member of the Rossini bloodline.”

I twined my fingers together, wringing them anxiously. “Please, I beg you. No, I demand. You have to keep her safe. If I’m stuck here to lure Steven out, then can you bring her to me?”

I couldn’t understand how or why Emily would matter in this mess. Dom never acknowledged her. That dimple-cheeked infant wasmineand no one else’s.

“You can’t go. I need you to stay here and be a part of my plan. Your father needs to be stopped.”

“But can’t you bring her to me?” I stood, getting into his face. “Please! I’m not asking to leave for the sake of freedom. I’m not asking you to look the other way. I just need to know Emily is all right. To see her and hold her andknowno one has used her as any kind of leverage.”

He grabbed his shirt and unwound it. “This isn’t a fucking daycare.”

I stepped closer, not caring about my nudity. Rage cloaked me in a fine garment, and I soaked it up as I fought back, shoving at his chest. “I didn’t ask to be here! I never got involved. I wasn’t standing around hoping I’d be taken against my will.”

He deflected my pushes, holding my hand off to the side as I fumed. “I never asked to be a part of your damn plan.”

My phone rang in the other room, pausing me from railing against him and his easy deflections of my hits. We froze, staring at each other as the ringtone reached us.

“Answer it,” he ordered, tugging me by the hand into the hall where I could see the device lighting up on the table.

He stood next to me as I answered, fear strangling me as I read the name.

Hannah.I knew she’d be worried, and I had no clue what I would even say.

“Hello?”

“Becca!” She cried, groggy but alarmed. “I—I think someone knocked me out. I opened the door and…” She gasped. “Someone hit me on the back of my head. I just woke up. I’m still on the floor next to the pack-n-play.”

“Is Emily okay?” I asked, begging her to confirm that my sweet baby was firm.

“Becca… She’s gone!”

9

IVAN

“Gone?” Becca clutched the phone until her knuckles turned white. “Hannah! What do you mean she’sgone?”

She slumped forward, her tone hysterical with this news that her baby was missing.

I reached out, instinctively reacting to guide her to fall on the couch, not the floor. Being near weakened women wasn’t anything new for me, but this deep and automatic need to see to Becca’s comfort and safety was something new.

We’d reached an impasse, her and I. In the middle of fucking her for the purpose of getting some damn answers—ones I suspected she might not actually have for me—I’d fallen into something other than doing my duty and job. With her pussy snug on my dick, her breathy moans all for my ears and her sweet surrender my reward, something bigger developed between us.

I wasn’t lowering my guard so far that I was falling for her. There was no chance of her getting to me and convincing me to give her up, let her walk free. But while she was stuck here to serve as a bait, it seemed that the lines were blurring.

Icared. I was starting to. Hearing and seeing her so distressed about her child taunted me to empathize, to try to understand and make sense of it.

I’d never considered having a family outside of my brothers. For so long, I’d been convinced there was no woman out there who’d tolerate my darkness.

But she did.

What we did was just touching the surface of what I preferred, the basics of my kinks, but Becca not only accepted it, she’d reveled in it.

I had no experience with children to truly grasp how her world was crumbling apart with the news of Emily being gone. But I could suspect how terrible it was. If my sisters-in-law had their children already, if Mila and Amy had given birth to my nieces and nephew due soon, I would move heaven and hell to secure those children’s safety.

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