Page 52 of The Bratva's Virgin Bride

He always has his phone with him. He would never miss a call from me. Oh God, what if something is wrong? I hurry to his office and sit at his desk. I shouldn't rummage through it, but I can't shake this sinking feeling that something bad might have happened to him. I open the drawers and go through them. I don't find anything. I open his laptop, and a password screen appears. I bite my lip and consider what his password could be. I start by entering the digits of his birthday. It gets rejected. I try his family name, but that gets rejected as well. I think about it for a few more moments before I type in 'Riley Milov' and hit enter. The screen unlocks, and the first thing I see is a tracking app that is open. I look at the phone numbers he's tracking, and I don't recognize any of them. I scroll through the app, then I open his documents. I find a folder called Riley, and curiosity gets the better of me, so I open it. There are several documents saved in it.

I open the first one and read through it. My eyes widen and my mouth falls open. He's been tracking the Vultures all week. Another document is an invoice for explosives. I find another folder and it's filled with photos of a warehouse. Viktorhas gone after the Vultures and he hasn’t come back. Something must have gone wrong and now he's captured or hurt.

I panic and rush to the bedroom. I dress quickly and run downstairs. “Martin!” I shout as I run out of the house.

“Yes, Mrs. Milov?” Martin says, killing a cigarette he was smoking.

“I need to get to Gwen's house immediately.”

“Right away, Ma'am,” he signals to two guards to follow him. We get into the car and we drive toward Gwen's home. The guards seem hesitant to wave us through, but after Martin threatens them, they open the gate and we drive up to the house. I get out and run inside.

“Gwen!” I yell as I hurry upstairs. “Gwen! Roman!”

They come out of their bedroom as I reach the top of the stairs. Gwen hurries to me. “What's wrong? Are you hurt?”

“No, it's Viktor,” I say breathlessly. “He went after the Vultures and he hasn't come home. I think something's happened to him.”

“It's okay,” Roman says. “Don't worry.”

“What do you mean, don't worry? I thought we were lying low.” I all but shout.

Gwen takes me by the shoulders and looks at Roman.

Roman looks awkward as I start to cry. “If they kidnapped and tortured me, then imagine what they will do to an actual Milov.” I turn and hug Gwen, sobbing into her shoulder.

“Don't cry,” Roman says softly. “He's okay.”

I look at him. “How do you know?”

“Because he's predictable,” Roman says. “We knew he'd do something like this, so we kept tabs on him and I sent Anton to run interference. He's with Anton right now, I promise. Anton would have called me if anything went wrong.”

I wipe my eyes. “You couldn't lead with that?” I snap.

“Sorry, you didn't give me a chance, really.”

Gwen frowns. “Roman! You could have told her before he did something stupid.”

“I'm sorry. We didn't want him to know we knew what was going on. Anton has his own plans for the Vultures’ meeting spot today, but it's not going to be enough. We need to cut off the head of the snake. Jimmy, who's been following you, Riley. He's bad news. He wants to take you. He wants to destroy us. And he's not going to stop. Rigor is finally seeing that and has given us the go-ahead to deal with him.”

“So why don't you?” I ask. “Just take him out. Isn't that what the family does?”

I can see Roman suppressing a smile, but I don't think it's funny. I glare at him.

“It's not that simple,” he says, losing the smile. “Jimmy is hiding. He is sending others to do his dirty work for him. Right now, we need a reason to draw him out himself. Something he can't resist. And the only times we've seen him is when you are out.”

Gwen shakes her head. “You're not using Riley as bait.”

“We need you, Riley. We need to get you out somewhere where Jimmy thinks he can take you.”

“He won't approach me while I have guards,” I say.

“You can't seriously be considering this,” Gwen says to me, looking at me, shocked. “You can't entertain this.”

“I want this to be over,” I say. “I want to be able to go out and do stuff. I want to go to campus. I want to go to the shops without thinking someone is going to attack me. You're damn right I want to do this, but we can't have guards or he won't try to grab me.”

Roman considers me for a moment. “Okay, we will keep the guards back while you shop at the mall. He might just buy it. But if he sees you crying or upset, he's not going to approach you; you need to be strong.”

I nod. “Can I use your bathroom?”

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