Page 70 of Captivated By the Bratva

The pizza place was calling this new phone, and I answered right away.

“Maxim. What the fuck is going on?”

“I think we’ve all been bugged.”

He cursed. “Yes, we fucking have. I don’t know how or when. All of us think we’ve been hacked. Nik’s phone was acting up. Then Ivan’s.”

“Don’t let them use them. None of the lines. The house too,” I advised.

“Yes. That’s what we’re doing. Yusef is starting up new lines for all of us, new phones.” He sighed heavily, and I hated that he was stressed about this on top of everything else. My oldest brother handled stress well, but he would soon reach a point of being overwhelmed. If he hadn’t already.

“We don’t know when everything started going to shit, but as soon as Yusef mentioned it, I was suspicious.”

I knew he was saying it to update me, but the way he worded it filled me with guilt. Like he wished that I were there, at the house, manning all of these technological and communication issues myself—as I should’ve been.

“I know. You’re probably wishing I’d stayed behind the scenes and kept working at the desk,” I said.

“Shut the fuck up. That’s not what I mean. And I don’t think that at all.”

“If I hadn’t insisted on getting a job and leaving to do something else, though…”

“Then something like this still would’ve happened, Maxim. I know that. And you should too. I only wish I knew how long ago this shit started.”

“I think the last time we spoke, someone was listening in.”

“Why? Why do you think that?” He grunted. “And who? Who do you think did this?”

“The Avilovs.”

He hesitated to reply, and when he did, it was a question. “Not the Kastavas?”

“No.” I furrowed my brow. “The last time you and I talked, it was when I said I wanted to keep Nadia for myself.”

“Right,” he agreed. “And I said I had suspicions about Lev Avilov.”

“Yes. Then you texted me, suggesting that we come to the property in Chicago.”

“Did you?” he asked.

“We did. And someone came right up to the penthouse and took Nadia.”

Again, he released a long length of profanity. “Where were you?”

“I stepped out to speak with the security supervisor, and within the five minutes I wasn’t with her—when she was locked in the penthouse and told to stay put—she was gone.”

“Gone because she ran? Or because she was taken?”

I hated that he asked it. I’d wondered that right away too, whether she’d taken off. Alek asking me that seemed like another example of his doubt in me when I said I thought Nadia was the one woman who’d be mine for good.

“I saw signs of a struggle. I don’t think she would’ve run. I’ve got everyone looking here. Yusef got someone to hack into the nearby surveillance and search for her too.”

“Shit. I see what you mean. We talked about your wanting her for yourself. I said I was going to investigate more into the Avilovs. We mentioned Chicago…”

“And once we arrived, someone was waiting to get her.”

“Fuck, Maxim. Just when I think nothing will get worse. We’re still hitting dead ends on finding Dmitri, and the shit that I’m learning about what Sergei Kastava’s been up to is making this more complicated.”

I tensed. I hated this constant dread gnawing at me that my brother was still held captive. “How so?”

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