Page 69 of Captivated By the Bratva

Today was the last day I would ever sit back and only think of my own survival. Of my own escape plan. Until now, I ran for my own sense of survival. I couldn’t do that this time.

Because I loved Maxim. From the bottom of my heart. It happened quickly, but so boldly. My heart belonged with his, and I’d be damned if I wouldn’t try to help him however I could.

Even if it meantnotrunning until I could drag his brother out with me.

25

MAXIM

The next morning, I shot straight up from the couch when my phone rang. It buzzed, pulling me out of the shitty couple of hours of sleep I’d managed. Since the moment Nadia disappeared, I’d been doing all I could to look for her. My body crashed on me, but I was up now, instantly reaching for my phone.

By the time I picked it up, the call was dropped.

“Fuck.”

If that was something about Nadia…

It rang again, long enough that a name showed on the screen.

It was Alek. I didn’t hesitate to answer. He had to know by now that Nadia was gone. I hadn’t updated him personally yesterday. Each time I called, the reception sucked or he didn’t pick up.

“Alek?”

“Max—” Static cut him off, and I only got butchered syllables afterward. “—it then.”

“Alek. You’re breaking up.”

A faint click, then a buzz, sounded.

“What? You keep going in and out of audio,” he replied.

I ended the call and set my phone on the table. Staring at it, I gave in to the alarms blaring in my mind. There were too many red flags about this to ignore.

The spottiness of being able to call him. The gibberish words. Then those sounds.

And Yusef was talking about Nik’s phone being weird.

They had to be bugged. Or tracked. Something was altering the calls. Someone had to be interfering with our communication.

“Fuck. Just… fuck!”

If someone—likely the goddamn Avilovs—had been tracking us, that was probably how they’d found Nadia here in Chicago. Alek was the one who suggested this property to lie low and wait for his feedback on keeping Nadia from Lev. I hadn’t told anyone. No one else would’ve been able to know I brought Nadia here.

I ran into the dining room where deliveries had been stacked along the wall. With haste, I rummaged through them until I found the one holding a brand-new phone. I’d ordered it from the plane while she napped, knowing she’d need a phone and a new number.

It was already charged and activated. No one could trace it to me or the Bratva. We used a shell company name for many of our personal cell numbers. That was done by my design, and I was damned grateful that I had this new, unused number now.

Instead of calling Alek back where he would be able to pick up immediately, I called the pizza place down the road from the mansion. It was a tiny, dinky, hole-in-the wall pizzeria, but it was very valuable for its real purpose. It was a front, a business to launder money, and the workers there would know how to reach my brother.

“Yes. Send someone right now to get Alek and tell him not to use his cell phone. Now. He will know why.”

My instructions to the pizzeria worker were simple. While the worker sounded confused, the supervisor who then took the call comprehended it clearly. They’d do it. My impulse to call through a second source would work.

Still, I had to endure the wait. Someone would need to drive from the pizzeria to the mansion, get through security, relay the message to Alek, and then bring him back to the pizzeria.

I scarfed down room service just to replenish myself and keep up my energy. I had no appetite. I was too pissed off and worried about Nadia towantto eat, but I would do her no good if I were hungry and weak.

By the time I forced down the stale croissant from yesterday, Alek got my message.

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