Page 40 of Captivated By the Bratva

Despite her tendency to be defensive and stubborn, I was slowly coming to realize she wasn’t terrible. She wasn’t a problematic brat for the hell of it. I saw in the somberness of her stare last night that she truly, completely believed that she would suffer if she married Lev.

And I hated the hunch that she was probably right.

We didn’t question arranged marriages. They happened. They’d always happened, and the tradition would continue well past our time. No matter how archaic and primitive they might seem in our contemporary culture, Nadia and I were not going to be crusaders and change the status quo.

But I didn’t want to be so quick to give up on her. After that long talk last night, I saw her in a new light. I woke up conflicted because it was so damn clear how compatible Nadia was with me. She knew of the Mafia life, and she wasn’t an outsider to the politics of it. She was smart, sexy, and compassionate too.

I checked the range of motion of my wounded arm, reminded of her careful and delicate touch as she helped me bandage it up. My muscles ached, likely from this crappy mattress, but the skin tugging at the gash wasn’t unbearable.

What did seem unbearable was the possibility that I was making the biggest mistake of my life with her.

Can I actually get her out of this situation?

Could she stay with me?

How bad would it be if we figured out how to sever this engagement she’s never wanted?

It felt wrong to even think of a loophole to her being promised to Lev. If it was just the matter of Gregory fulfilling his debt to the man, I wouldn’t have given a shit. Petrov sounded like a horrible parent, selfish to the core, and if Lev killed him for not giving him his daughter in marriage, I wouldn’t care.

But now that the Valkovs were involved, it made it trickier.

Alek called last night for an update. And he’d also shared the bad news that Nadia was correct. When I found her in London, it was an Avilov who’d spotted her. My brother was confused by the report that I was stopping one of the Avilovs from getting their boss’s bride.

He was understanding. Alek wasn’t too pissed at me for defending Nadia. If I’d known who that man was, that he was there for his boss, I obviously wouldn’t have fought him.

However, Alek left me with a clear message. Lev Avilov wasn’t a man to be messed with, and I had to bring Nadia home as soon as possible so Lev didn’t misinterpret the situation, assuming I wanted to keep his woman and prevent her from going to him.

I got out of bed as quietly and carefully as I could, not wanting to wake her as I tried to strategize how I could make that happen. Now that the thought was taking root in my mind, I wanted to keep Nadia with me. I wanted to see if I could put an end to this arranged marriage while not causing hell for my Bratva.

We didn’t need another war.

Casting one more glance at Nadia sleeping so sweetly, I took my phone and headed to the balcony. I’d already spoken with Alek, but that wasn’t the brother I wanted to talk to. Instead, I called Nikolai.

He answered quickly, and after we greeted each other, I felt like I needed to stall a little longer. I’d been starting to dream about how I could avoid surrendering Nadia to Lev, but voicing my wishes out loud seemed too hard.

“What’s going on?” Nik asked, sounding a bit hurried. “Problem with your assignment?”

“No.”Yes.“Kind of.”

He chuckled. “Well, what is it?”

“I was hoping to get some advice from you.” I cleared my throat, remembering why Nik would be an ideal man to discuss this with.

“Fuck.” He chuckled again, drier and lower, like he was pained to say anything more. “Don’t tell me. Don’t tell me you want to keep her.”

I pressed my lips together, unsure what to say.

“Maxim,” he scolded with a groan.

“I wanted to hear your thoughts about such a scenario, if it was a potential idea. Hypothetically speaking.”

His sigh sounded heavily over the line. “You’re not calling and asking to speak about this hypothetically.”

“It can’t be as impossible as it seems.”

“What can’t be?”

I furrowed my brow. “Not bringing her home so she can marry that old asshole.”

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