Page 59 of The Bratva King's Auctioned Bride

It took all my effort not to break down while I was held captive in my pigheaded brother’s house, but inside, my heart was breaking into a million pieces.

Chapter 41 - Arkadi

As soon as I landed in LA again, I was able to track someone down who had Ivan’s address, but of course, he lived in a place that rivaled Fort Knox in terms of security. Pulling up outside, it was now well past dark, and it was only a matter of time before someone phoned in a suspicious car sitting outside the gates.

Staring at the high brick wall didn’t make it crumble to the ground and give me a nice path to the front door. I could gather a team and try to storm my way in, but then the promise of no bloodshed would be shattered. And I wasn’t stupid. I’d end up worse for it.

There was a time not so long ago that I would have reveled in watching any of the Fokin brothers suffer, but now that would only hurt Mila, and there was no way I could do that. The whole situation was shit, and I couldn’t figure a way out of it that didn’t involve shooting. Talking to an enemy? Unheard of. Shooting was so much easier.

I called my second in command to make sure the plans for the attack were canceled. The few men I didn’t trust to keep their word were being followed, and so far, everyone seemed in compliance with my wishes. Now I had to get them on standby for a fight I didn’t want to start, but how the hell could I get Mila back otherwise?

As disappointed as I was that she left in the first place, I couldn’t actually blame her too much. After all, I had been needlessly stubborn about letting her make a simple phone call. I knew how fiery she was, how important her independence was. But I had a reason that had seemed solid at the time.

Probably because I knew something like this would end up happening. But that was in the past, now. Going forward, things would be different, more the way she wanted. I would listen to her, really listen, and share more. I never should have plotted those attacks, but what was surely going to seem worse in her eyes was the secrecy. One word of my plans and she would have exploded, but our fights always ended in such a nice way.

The time to change had come, and it would be easy, because if I made it out alive after this confrontation, there would be no more plots against her family. How to make it out alive and still get her out of there?

“Damn it!”

With a long groan, I hit the steering wheel and grabbed my phone from its holder on the dashboard. My only option was to call Ivan and lay it all on the line. Not knowing my number, he answered with suspicion, but he answered.

“Who is this?” he growled.

“Arkadi,” I said, just as tense. “I have something to tell you.”

Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t happy to hear from me. “Arkadi?” he bellowed, loud enough to make me pull the phone from my ear and put it on speaker. And turn the sound down. “Are you fucking joking? You dare to call me and make demands?”

Well, I had called to try to have a conversation, but the Fokins weren’t very well practiced in the art, either. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him to go fuck himself and call in my backup, but I heard Mila’s voice in the background.

Wait, was she demanding to speak to me?

Could it be that she wasn’t running from me after all? Perhaps she was only trying to do what she said she wanted, which was to talk to her brothers. I’d made her go behind my back, and she’d still left, but the fact that she wasn’t completely done with me eased the iron band around my chest. She wanted to talk to me.

“Is that Mila?” I asked, trying not to sound like I was about to blow up his house. “Put her on the phone.”

“Go fuck yourself,” he snapped, stealing my own sentiment from me.

That and the fact he wasn’t letting Mila get on the phone pissed me off enough to go straight to plan B, which was to storm the castle and get my queen back. Before I ended the call, I decided to force what little bit of calm I still managed to cling to and ask him to let me speak to her once more.

But there was a ruckus on his end, what sounded like a chair scraping, and then a sharp cry from Mila, as if she were in pain, all while her brute of a brother continued to swear up a storm. Did he dare strike her? I shouted at him, listening for her voice, any sign that she was all right. But the line was dead. Ivan had already ended the call. And ended any chance at diplomacy.

That was it. No more, Mr. Nice Guy. I was getting my wife back no matter what the cost.

Chapter 42 - Mila

Had I somehow never progressed beyond twelve years old and just didn’t notice it? No, I graduated from high school, went to college, traveled extensively, and even ran a business, however short-lived it might have been. My brothers certainly treated me like the adult I was when they wanted a favor from me.

But now? Back to being twelve. When I heard Ivan shout my husband’s name, I burst out of the library, unconvinced that Arkadi had shown up there. Unless he had an army behind him, that wasn’t the smartest route, but he’d thrown himself into the fray for me before. If he did it again, I had to find a way to save his life, because I wasn’t looking forward to being a widow like Ivan promised.

Out in the hall, I looked left, right, and over Ivan’s shoulder into the entry area and the adjoining living room. He wasn’t there. Ivan was only on the phone with him and basically telling him where to go, which wasn’t exactly a step in the right direction.

“Let me talk to him,” I said, getting completely ignored as usual. I said it louder, reaching for the phone.

Ivan turned away, blocking my attempts with his much bigger form, disregarding my simple request to speak to Arkadi and possibly end all this right now. No, little Mila could never accomplish such a thing as peace between our families. Once again, I was regarded as a child.

Oh, they loved me. They loved me so much that they refused to accept that I wasn’t their baby sister anymore. Hadn’t been for a long time. It was time to put a stop to that. Pouncing on Ivan’s shoulders, I made another grab for thephone. Throwing up his elbows to block my hands, he ended up knocking me to the hard tile floor. I landed on my side, nicking the side of my head on an end table on my way down.

Grabbing my ear, I yelped in pain, jumping back up to try for the phone again while spitting out a string of swear words. Ivan looked apologetic, for a split second, until he told Arkadi to fuck himself and ended the call.

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