Page 16 of The Bratva's Arranged Virgin Bride
Chapter 10 - Nat
It took all my shredded self-control not to start breaking things. I already shouted, my throat raw at Kolya’s audacity in locking me up like a prisoner. I had to stay calm or risk blowing the whole thing, and I was nowhere near finished yet. I hadn’t gotten any kind of revenge at all, and the upper hand was firmly his.
I knew from the beginning that he was trouble. Okay, not really. I knew from the beginning that he was bad news, but it was the kind that was scintillating, exciting, raw, powerful, and…
I fell hard and fast for his charm, and he’d left me in the dust, with nothing, not even my pride. Especially not my pride.
Turning from the door, which was as sturdy as iron despite fitting right in with the bright and breezy aesthetic of the place, I scoped out the room. It was on the second floor, and both the high windows were locked up tight and clearly fitted with some sort of wiring that would surely set off an alarm if I did manage to open one. Probably bulletproof as well, so it's not worth hurting my hands anymore than I’d already done on the door.
So much for revenge.
In actuality, I had bigger fish to fry and much more to worry about than being Kolya’s temporary prisoner. Putting all thoughts of my plan on the back burner for the moment, I took out my phone and turned it back on. It was time to assess the damage.
The thing took forever to fire up, and my stomach was in knots by the time I was able to enter my code and see what was waiting for me. Like a tiger waiting in a cave to pounce, the messages poured in.
It was bad. Worse than I feared, and I was pretty fearful. Just skimming them, I could see how angry and worried everyone was. I kept scrolling until one message jumped out at me. It was from Mila.
Very simple, hardly even a line of text. Just a simple apology.
So, she really did know all along that the man I had asked her and Arkadi to help me find was her husband’s brother. Did I ever have any doubts once I learned Kolya’s true identity, or was I just shielding myself from the pain of her betrayal?
Mila and Arkadi were wildly, madly, sickeningly in love. They would never keep the smallest secret from each other, so Mila had to know that Kolya was her brother-in-law the whole time I was pleading with her to help me get revenge. It made me shudder to think I’d told her everything, so that Arkadi knew how much his brother had hurt me. Was it a joke to them? Were my feelings so unimportant that they let Kolya run free all this time?
We were friends, closer than friends, closer than niece and aunt. We’d been raised like sisters, inseparable. Even when I moved to Milan for art school, she was my closest confidant. The friends I made there were merely acquaintances compared to Mila. No one there knew who I was related to, and I liked it that way, but it also meant I couldn’t really open up about how I’d been raised. My father wanted to keep me out of the family business at all costs.
And I’d put myself right in the middle of it, and they were pissed.
I scrolled away from Mila’s message, unable to look at the meaningless words anymore. The pain was as bad as when I walked into my gallery that morning to find it empty, completelycleared out, along with my bank account. I was seconds from blocking her number, erasing my supposed best friend from my life forever, but I stopped. I couldn’t do it.
Anger swiftly crowded out the pain. It was so much easier to deal with than heartache, so I gathered it close, taking a deep breath to clear my thoughts. I could still make this work and regain the upper hand. If I ever had it to begin with.
But no, Kolya wanted me. Of that, I was certain. Maybe not the way I wished—or used to wish. Being so close to him again wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. I didn’t expect to be whisked back to those sunnier times, where I didn’t know just how dangerous he was.
He was much more intimidating now, no longer the carefree rogue with the easy laugh whenever a problem arose. Nothing seemed serious to him back then, but now he had some kind of agenda that involved my family. There was a hard determination in his eyes.
Oh my God, those eyes. It was like Kolya could hypnotize me. It was much too easy to lose myself in those dark depths, forgetting everything as I puzzled over what he was thinking. Twice now, I’d been seconds from kissing him. It was a dangerous game to pretend I wanted him. Ha, who was I kidding about pretending? As much as I wanted to see him squirm in agony, the man was scorching hot. There was no use denying that. Could I stay on this path, or was it too great a risk?
What choice did I have? I was here now, married to him, but who knew how long until my father brought down the hammer and called for me to be taken away by force. I’d never know how they dealt with Kolya, never heard his cries for mercy. The only other alternative was for Kolya to hold me as a prisoner here until he enacted whatever plan involved anarranged marriage into my family. A family I was about to be cut off from if I didn’t answer one of them soon.
I wasn’t up for that yet, and sat on the bed, staring at a pretty painting of the ocean on the cream-colored wall. A quick peek through the dresser drawers revealed nothing, as they were all completely empty. Same with the walk-in closet with neat, empty shelving units and unused racks. The adjoining bathroom was decked out with plush towels and a white robe, and there were full-sized bottles of designer body wash and shampoo in the shower, but nothing else in the closet. It could have been an upscale hotel suite; it was so devoid of anything that showed someone had ever lived there. Did Kolya buy this place solely to bring his new bride?
It gave me a little shiver of apprehension, not just for myself, but for Masha if she’d been the one to go through with it. It meant he had planned this all out, meticulously, and long before any of us even knew he was in LA.
But I already knew he was dangerous. And I was the one who had gone through with it.
A little more than an hour passed when Kolya returned, flinging open the door and just about devouring me with a look that made my knees go weak. I wasn’t even sure why. Lust or fear, or a little of both.
“Come with me,” he commanded, already turning and heading back down the hall.
After the briefest second of stubbornness, I jumped up and followed, not daring to get too saucy until I knew what he had planned. I told myself I was only going because I wanted out of that locked room, but in truth, I was powerless to resist him for long. When did he get so fearsome?
Downstairs, there was a nervous-looking man in a suit, running his hand over his nearly bald head as he bobbed back and forth. He looked like he was about to be put in a boxing ring with someone twice his size, but determined to go down swinging nonetheless. A briskly efficient woman with her hair pulled back so tightly it looked painful stood near him, a briefcase at her side.
As soon as she saw us coming down the stairs, she nodded and moved to the end table in the hallway. Shoving aside the ceramic catchall dish and a crystal vase of flowers, she put her case on it and snapped it open without a word. Seconds later, she was shoving some papers at me.
“Sign on the bottom of all of them,” she said. “And initial the last one next to the date.”
I only took the sheaf of papers because they would have fluttered to the floor if I hadn’t. The brisk woman moved her briefcase aside to make room for me to sign.
