Page 42 of Captivated By the Bratva

I grinned, rubbing my jaw. “Yeah. Man, I’m telling you. Love at first sight has always seemed like a bunch of sappy bullshit, but the second I saw her…”

He groaned. “But then again, Brother, sometimes, sex is just sex.”

I wasn’t commenting on that. I’d fucked many women, but Nadia was the only one I was starting to think I wanted for the rest of my life.

“You would know the difference, right?” he asked. “You would be able to tell the difference between a quick fuck and finding the future mother of your children.”

I didn’t know what to say. After talking with her last night, my feelings were deepening so quickly that I couldn’t keep up with them. When I fell asleep and then when I woke, that fact remained the same. It was happening fast. I wouldn’t argue that. But that didn’t mean it was wrong.

With Nadia, it felt good. It seemed right to plan a future with her.

“Listen, I can’t stay on the phone long,” Nik said. “Dmitri’s still missing and I’m catching up with Yusef to look somewhere else?—”

“Yeah. I know.” Guilt barreled through me. Here I was trying to devise a way to avoid finishing this job, the first one Alek gave me, and I could’ve been spending all this time helping my brothers find Dmitri. “I’ll call later.”

“Good luck,” he advised, almost vaguely, before he disconnected the call.

I sighed, feeling more twisted and conflicted after that conversation. I’d hoped he’d shed more insight or offer support, but I understood the obstacles in my way.

When I returned to the bedroom, I stopped short, not believing my eyes.

The bed was empty.

The bathroom door was wide open, showing that room was vacant too.

She was gone.

Just when I was coming around to the idea of trying to keep her with me, she took off again.

16

NADIA

The second I heard the balcony doors shut, I opened my eyes.

For several minutes, I’d felt the weight of Maxim’s stare on me. That was what initially woke me up, but I wanted to appear as sleeping and free to bask in the warmth of his affection. He was a gentleman to let me sleep in. A considerate… friend. I was sure there were many other layers to this rugged man, but I was running out of time to peel them back and really discover him.

His phone was missing from the nightstand, and that told me enough. He was out there, where I couldn’t hear him, likely finalizing the plans to fly back to the States. Even though I felt so different about him, closer somehow, after staying up late and just being with him, talking for hours, and listening to him share about his family, nothing had changed between us.

He’d been tasked with retrieving me.

And I was still determined to avoid marriage to Mr. Avilov.

Yesterday, when Maxim told me that he’d bring me back today, he meant it. Now that I knew that he was eager to wrap up the assignment of taking me home to my dad because he wanted to hurry and help find his brother, I felt bad to hold him up. I didn’t want to restrain him from finding his sibling he obviously loved.

I refused to feel guilty about running away, though. I was betraying his trust to attempt it again. He had to assume that I would stay put here, sleeping in, but the survival instinct inside me wouldn’t cease.

But I had to run. And while I had an opportunity to do so now, I would.

Slipping out of bed, I kept a hawk-like stare on the balcony door. If he came in and spotted me snooping around, he’d be suspicious. I couldn’t allow it. I needed to run like hell.

First, I grabbed a sweatshirt from the small pile of new clothes Maxim had arranged to be delivered here. Then, after I made sure my feet were in the sturdy, strapped sandals, I crept to the dresser where he’d set his wallet. It wasn’t thick, but I knew he had what amounted to a large slice of wealth in there. Taking a card wouldn’t work. It was traceable. But the rest of the cash…

I slipped it all into my pocket. Guilt flogged me. Shame battered my soul, but this wasn’t a fight between what was right and wrong. This was a war between staying alive and free or being captured and abused.

It wasn’t selfish to want to be independent. Casting a glance at the sliding door that remained closed to the balcony he stood on, I worried about how selfish it was to want that man for myself.

To wish that I could banish all the obstacles and conditions that prevented me from being able to simply approach Maxim and admit that I was falling for him.

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