Page 53 of The Bratva's Virgin Bride

Roman nods. “Go get yourself cleaned up. There's no time like the present. We'll do it this afternoon. I'll have the cook whip up some breakfast so long.” He heads downstairs.

Gwen stops me. “Riley, this is dangerous.”

“Life is dangerous, but I am no longer going to be a victim.” I grab her arms. “I need you to trust me. I won't get hurt.”

“You better not,” she says. “You're my family.”

I smile at her and nod before I head toward the bathroom.

Chapter 25 - Viktor

Anton doesn't give me a chance to recover from the explosion. He grabs my arm in one hand and the duffel bag in another and drags me off. I follow him, completely confused.

“You did that?” I ask when we get in the car. “How did you know they were there? What are you doing here? I thought you couldn't move because you're injured. Seriously, what the fuck?”

“Calm down,” Anton says coolly. “We knew you'd try something stupid. I just had to be one step ahead of you.”

“You bugged my computer,” I say after a moment. “You little fucking shit. We agreed never to do that.”

“These are exceptional circumstances, although I will give you credit. It was a nice disguise and a good ruse. Booking a ticket to Russia and doubling back. I wouldn't have thought of that. I was so confused when you went to the airport.”

“How did you see through my disguise?”

“Bought a ticket and followed you. You really should be more observant,” Anton chuckles as though this is some fat game.

“I didn’t think my brother would be following me,” I say grumpily.

He drives us back to his apartment, and we leave the duffel bag in the car. When we get to the penthouse, he pours me a whiskey. “Were you hurt by the explosion? I can call someone.”

“No, it just threw me back. Nothing broken.” I sip my whiskey. “Although I should crack your skull because I could have been killed.”

“I was there the entire time. I would never have let you near the warehouse.” He sits down with a sigh. “Besides, Rigor finally agrees it's time to put an end to this.”

“So he sent you instead of me? What bullshit is that? I'm the one with someone at stake.”

“We all have something at stake, and your actions seem irrational. I'll give you this: you did thorough research, so you were genuinely planning it out.” He leans back and rests his arm on the back of the sofa. “I never would have thought about approaching it by tracking their social media and then their phones.”

“People should be careful of what they put on the internet.” I sit down opposite him. “I need to get back to Riley.”

“She's fine. I have guards watching her. First, we need to discuss what we're going to do about this Jimmy character. Roman has a plan, but you're not going to like it.”

“Why wouldn't I like it?” I ask.

“Because it involves Riley,” he admits.

“No.” I stand up, putting my glass down with a thunk. “You are not using Riley as bait to draw this guy out. She could get hurt, or worse, taken and killed. The guy is a psychopath with an agenda.”

“Exactly. He's not going to stop until we do something, and unfortunately, the one he's after is Riley. She's the most likely to draw him out.” He downs his whiskey. “Sit down and we'll discuss it.”

“What do you propose we do? Send her out without any guards and hope we get to her in time?” I stare at him. He stares back at me and I shake my head. “Absolutely not.”

“They won't approach her if she's protected. Or if one of us is with her. Now, they think Riley is helpless, but I know for a fact that you've been teaching her to defend herself. She brags about it to Gwen all the time.”

“So what? That doesn't mean I should put her in danger. Only that she can protect herself if she's in danger.” I get up and start to pace. “Rigor cannot agree with this. Surely, he knows what Riley has been through with the Vultures. What if she freezes and can't defend herself? If they take her, I'll never forgive any of you.”

“We'll keep a tracker on her so if anything does go wrong, we can follow them. We have a feeling Jimmy himself will pick her up. He's arrogant and irrational, a little like you. Just not as nice.” He gets up and approaches me. “This is the best solution.”

We spend the rest of the evening arguing about this. Eventually, Anton calls Rigor, who promises to see me in the morning. Anton swears that Riley isn't going to do anything tonight, so I reluctantly sleep on his sofa. It's a fitful sleep. I keep dreaming that Riley is just out of my reach, being pulled back by an invisible force. Only I'm being held back from saving her. Definitely my subconscious bringing up my worries.

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