Page 4 of The Bratva's Sold Bride

Thanks to my father, no one could count on me now. Maybe never again.

I was running just like the scared rabbit I used to be. My freedom from my father had been fleeting, but it was over now. Knowing that soon enough, no one in the Fokin family would ever trust me again, didn’t just make my heart sink; it brought stinging hot tears to my eyes.

Not that letting them fall would change anything, so I finished up my work like it was any other day and not the countdown to returning to hell. At that point, I was too exhausted to work up much disappointment or anger at my father, because I knew it was inevitable. I was lucky to have these last few months away from his iron fist.

Even though I fought it, I couldn’t help the dread that rose up in me as the days ticked down to returning. As I slowly finished my admin tasks, I couldn’t help but lapse into memoriesI’d pushed to the furthest reaches of my mind. It had gotten easier to keep them at bay with the space between us. Not so much when I was still living it every day.

When I first started working for Max in LA, I had to go home every night and face whatever cruelty he had in store for me. How drunk would he be? How angry would he be from losing the bets he’d placed? Even his good moods from the rare times he was on a winning streak could be terrifying. The slightest look could set him off. If I was lucky, it would only be words he flung at me, but I’d never had too much luck. Moving to San Diego had been the best news I’d ever gotten.

And now I had to go back.

It wasn’t always that way. When my mother was alive, Papa had mostly just ignored me. He’d been wildly, madly in love with his wife and played the dutiful father to keep her happy since she adored me. At least I had those memories, too, of the good times we shared when he wasn’t around. My mother would have torn his throat out if she could see how he treated me now, but she had died four years ago. The grief of losing the love of his life had only magnified the monster he kept at bay in her presence.

Before I could start thinking too much about my mom and really sinking into despair, I pulled myself together with the last shreds of my courage. I was going to need all of it for what lay ahead in the next few days. Finishing up the work I’d been dawdling over, I locked up the office and headed home.

Since it would be one of the last times I could, I had to stop at my favorite coffee shop on the way home for one of their frothy, decadent mochas, and I’d need the caffeine boost if I was going to put a dent in all the packing I’d been putting off. I was in the kind of mood that demanded cake as well, and I decided tojust call it my dinner and be done with it. With no one around, I didn’t always have to be perfect.

However, as soon as I walked through the doors to the cozy little place I was going to miss so much, my eyes were immediately drawn to the magnetic presence in the corner. It wasn’t like a big, handsome Russian was easy to miss in the first place, but this wasmybig, handsome Russian.

Dima.

Nope. No, he wasn’t mine. And he never would be, either, since he was one of my boss’s brothers, and the only one I couldn’t seem to ignore how utterly gorgeous he was. It should have been the most highly illegal thing about him, and I knew as well as anyone that he wasn’t exactly on the up and up.

I stopped dead, shuffling to the side as someone behind me tried to get past. Dima’s dark blond hair had gotten sandier over the last few months from all the time he spent in the sun, probably lounging around the pool at his lux hotel in his off hours, surrounded by fawning women. Right now, one of those golden locks fell forward to hide his eyes as he scanned his phone, but I knew how shockingly blue they were. The sky couldn’t rival them on the clearest day.

For just a moment, before I ducked out and bailed on my naughty dinner plan, I took in the hard, chiseled lines of his jaw, unable to keep my gaze from settling on his mouth. There was a layer of end-of-the-day stubble on the lower part of his face, but those lips…

I swallowed hard and tried to take a step back. There was no way I could let him see me, not when my emotions were in such turmoil. Not when I was getting all gooey just from looking at him. The way he’d unbuttoned an extra button on his dress shirt, his navy-blue tie from that morning gone altogether, toreveal the tanned skin of his smooth chest, and just knowing how sculpted those pecs were, had me frozen in place. That was an extra perk of being friends with the boss’s wife—getting invited to barbecues where his brother took his shirt off to swim in the thrashing waves.

Oh my God, my brain was thrashing wildly, and I realized how ridiculous I was being. Dima was a shameless flirt, so good looking it was more dangerous than any riptide, and absolutely no one to me. I liked to think we’d become friends over the last few months, but ultimately, I was just the hired help. And soon enough, I’d be an enemy.

And now he was looking up from his phone and straight at me. There was no more chance of escape, and I silently swore at myself for how relieved I was. Because I really wanted that cake, right? He looked shocked to see me, then smiled, revealing a dimple that a couple of his other brothers shared, but his was somehow more charming, more intoxicating. It made him go from dangerous to adorable in the blink of an eye.

But he was dangerous, and I would do well to remember that.

He half rose from his seat and waved me over, asking what I wanted, then smiling widely as he went to place the order. Of course, he had to be sweet, too. If he started up that playful flirting it might have just brought on the waterworks and I couldn’t have that. I was going to miss everything about the two years I worked for Max, but losing his brother Dima’s cheeky smiles was really going to sting.

I watched surreptitiously as he towered over everyone else in line. As soon as he brought me my big slab of cake and my caramel mocha, he fixed me with a long, penetrating look that gave me goosebumps all up and down my bare arms, eventhough the place was a completely comfortable temperature. I just took a swig of my piping hot drink. It was like he could see right into my soul, but I really couldn’t have that. And yet, I couldn’t look away.

“I have to confess this isn’t a coincidence,” he said, his deep, gravelly voice wreaking havoc on my system. “Something’s up with you, and I want to know what it is.”

My mouth dropped open and I tried to make my shock look like confusion. I tried to deny anything was wrong, but he wasn’t having it.

“Why are you quitting and moving back to LA?” he demanded, concern darkening his blue eyes. “You love your job, don’t bother denying it. Do you just miss your father that much?”

I dropped my gaze to my cake, which didn’t look half so appetizing anymore. There was no way I could lie about missing my dad. Even someone who didn’t know me at all would spot the deception immediately.

“Something like that,” I said, barely able to get the words out.

He reached across the table and tipped up my chin, so I had to face him again. “Come on,” he said. “What’s a two-hour drive? Should I lean on Max to give you more time off? Can I buy you a jet?”

I was pretty sure that last question was a joke, but he looked so serious I didn’t laugh. It wasn’t my imagination. We had become friends over the last few months. He cared enough to seek me out and make sure everything was okay with me, like a friend would.

And not a single damn thing was okay with me.

Once again, I was suffering because of my father’s poor decisions. His foibles were costing me everything and anger rose up. Anger that I’d been pushing down because there was no one to express it to, and nothing that I could do about it. It welled up like a burbling natural spring, threatening to spill all over the place.

I opened my mouth to get some of it off my chest, but just as quickly snapped it shut again. I couldn’t be friends with Dima because his family was going to hate mine in a matter of days.

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