Page 83 of Captivated By the Bratva

“He’s gone,” another yelled back. “The Valkov is gone.”

I stood straight, perking up at my surname. Dmitri was gone? I had to have faith that he’d escaped. Maybe he’d orchestrated all of this insanity to get out.

But where the hell is Nadia?

I ran through the throngs of people, searching for her. Several men noticed me and fought, but I eliminated them as quickly as I could.

I couldn’t believe that I’d found the place where Dmitri was held. But I had to locate Nadia.

“You!” A gunshot blasted too close for comfort. I stopped and ducked, letting the chips from the wall rain down on me. As I spun to fire back, I came face to face with the man himself.

Lev. Fucking. Avilov. He looked more haggard than I thought he might. Up close and in person, he showed his age.

“Where is my bride?” He lifted his gun higher, but I raised mine at the same time.

“She’s not yours anymore,” I growled.

“She is! Shewillbe my bride!” His eyes looked crazed, and with his white hair sticking up messily, he appeared unkempt and psychotic.

He was furious. His nostrils flared as he stared at me, his lips pressed tightly together in a firm line.

“Where is?—”

A hole appeared in his chest. Red blossomed out from the epicenter of his shirt.

I furrowed my brow, confused. I hadn’t fired at him. Someone else had shot him.

All these men in here, and one had aimed at their leader. The bullet hadn’t entered through the front but the back. He went still, slowly spinning to face whoever had fired at him.

As he turned, Erik Avilov appeared behind him.

His gun was still pointed forward. I didn’t lower mine. Lev spluttered, his mouth hanging open as he gawked at his nephew.

“Go on. Go find your fucking bride,” Erik snarled. He fired twice more. Lev didn’t react. He didn’t raise his gun to fire back, too stunned to shoot his own relative.

“You old, useless fool. All you ever cared about was finding that bitch and breeding her before you died.” He shot his uncle again as he dropped to his knees. With shaking hands, the old man laid his fingers over the bloody wounds, but it was too feeble, too weak of a compression to save his life.

“Erik…” Lev shook his head, eyes so wide open with shock. Then he dropped to the floor.

Without Lev between us, I faced Erik directly. “Where?—”

He fired first, and I lunged to the side to avoid getting shot. “Where is she?” I roared.

He fired at the stack of pallets I dove behind, and I crouched lower to stay safe.

“Fuck you, Valkov. Fuck you and your brothers,” Erik shouted.

His voice left me as he ran off. By the time I turned around the corner of the stacked pallets, he was down another corridor.

An explosion blasted off. I ran after Erik, but the force of the shockwaves knocked me to the side. Grunting at the hard impact, I tried to lift myself off the floor and run, but another explosion rocked the warehouse.

The ceiling was falling. The walls were bursting apart. So many fought to escape, and I joined in the egress out of this place. Pushing past the Avilov forces, I aimed for the water, hoping a lane or path would run along the shore.

“Nadia!” I screamed her name, over and over and over. In the dusk settling over the sky, it was getting harder to see who was whom. Men fought. Children ran scattered. But I saw not a single woman anywhere.

“Nadia!”

She had to have gotten out. She had to. Lev hadn’t taken hold of her yet. He couldn’t have if he was asking me where she was and telling me to hand her over.

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