Page 79 of Forbidden Vows

“He’s got access to everything, Eileen. I won’t last a day outside these walls.”

“We can protect you.”

She shakes her head. “No, you can’t. And I think you already know that. If I leave now, the whole thing’s going to blow up, and none of us will be safe again. Eileen, he’s amassing power within the Bratva. Anton won’t be able to protect me. Right now, he can still protect you, because you’re his wife. But I willingly, consciously, and stupidly signed all of my financial and legal power over to him.”

“Oh, Ciara…” I exhale sharply, squatting down in the doorway. I remain in the passageway, just in case I have to disappear quickly. Ciara kneels in front of me, and I take a good look at her. Puffy eyes. Slightly cracked lips. Her hair hasn’t been washed in days. “What the hell happened? How did we get to this point?”

“He… I don’t know, Eileen. I thought he was decent enough. I have no idea how he coerced Dad to sign those fiduciary papers.”

“Dad didn’t sign those. It’s not his signature.”

She scoffs and stares at her hands. “I suspected that much. I guess I wasn’t ready to admit it.”

“It will take some time to prove it, time we don’t have right now. What is going on in the house? Where is Paddy?”

“Paddy is most likely on the run. Sergei was going to terminate him and put one of his men in charge of Donovan security,” she replies. “But he’s not going to be able to do that now that Paddy is in the wind. There are still loyalists among the Donovan boys, and Sergei knows he can’t get them to submit without Paddy’s body.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“He held a gun to my head.” She begins to cry. “To sign the fiduciary papers. I didn’t want to. Even when I saw what I thought was Dad’s signature, I still didn’t believe it was real. Dad didn’t trust him.”

I nod slowly. “What can I do to help you, Ciara?”

“I’m so sorry,” she says. “You warned me, but I was too busy being angry with you. I was so hell-bent on making you miserable. I’ve always been a terrible sister, haven’t I?”

“Captivity seems to be a good time for introspection,” I mumble.

“And then some. I’ve had plenty of solitude. Hours and hours to sit on everything and retrace my steps, figure out where I fucked up. And I fucked up so many times, Eileen. Will you ever forgive me?”

“Stop talking like you’re dying, and tell me how I can help.”

She gasps and looks at me as if she’s seeing me for the first time. “Are you insane? You shouldn’t be here. Where’s Anton?”

“On the edge of his seat, waiting for a positive conclusion to this stunt that I convinced him to let me pull. I need you to focus. Tell me how to take Sergei down.”

Ciara takes a moment to think about it, her gaze darting all over the room. “Okay. I don’t have access to his quarters. He’s taken over Dad’s bedroom.”

“I’m guessing it’s where he keeps sensitive information?”

“Yes. He made me give him the security code for Dad’s vault,” she says. “I can try to get in there, but I don’t know when or how. Or if I can still use the same code. He could’ve changed it.”

I shake my head. “I doubt it. He didn’t change the locks on the access doors. He’s clearly cocky as hell. It might work to our advantage.”

“I promise I’ll try. If I can get into the vault, I’ll use the tunnels myself. I’ll escape. But I can’t walk out of here empty-handed.”

“Okay. Tell me whom he’s been meeting with lately.”

“All the big families in the Bratva. He keeps trying to bend the Fedorovs in his favor, but I hear Ivan rejected three of his offers. Sergei seems desperate to get Fedorov support,” she says, thengives me a wry smile. “I guess it was a good thing to marry a Karpov, after all. That Fedorov blood of yours seems to be working in your favor.”

“And yours, too. Every second that Sergei doesn’t spend at the head of the Bratva is a second I can use to destroy that cocksucker.”

“Oh, shit,” she gasps, eyes widening as she suddenly seems to remember something. “Paul Mattis came in really late last night. I was in my room. I wasn’t allowed to come out, but I could hear them arguing. Paul said something about Homeland Security having eyes on the Kuznetsovs. I heard them say the words ‘national security.’ That could be something, right?”

“I’ll definitely pass that on to Anton.”

We both hear footsteps approaching.

“Shit,” she whispers. “Go, now.”

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