Page 40 of Forced Bratva Hostage

That’s what’s pulsing through me right now. Intense fear. And it’s making it hard to get my thoughts to settle down.

Andrei turns away from the door and walks back to his desk as though I don’t exist. He refuses to look at me, and his eyes are on his laptop.

He slipped up. He never intended to let me know about his connection to my brother, and now that I know, I can’t help but wonder if that puts me in danger.

All this time, I thought he was one of my brother’srivals—an enemy. I just assumed that this was over business. Maybe Boris stole a client or interfered with one of Andrei’s shipments—but if he used to work for my brother, that means this is far more personal.

And when it gets personal, it gets a lot more dangerous.

There are so many emotions involved.

What did Boris do to Andrei to make him kidnap me?

It’s obviously much worse than stealing a client.

Nervously, I step away from the door, walking backwards for a few feet before I turn and hurry up to my bedroom.

A nauseous tension builds inside me, because I realize now that Andrei is just being ‘nice’ while he bides his time until something he has planned. Something bigger than just marrying me to annoy my brother. He wantsrevengefor something.

And that might involve a lot of pain for me.

He might have something very cruel planned for the future. Something that he thinks will hurt Boris.

But he hadn’t known that Boris hardly cares about me, not until I told him just moments ago.

In my room, I pace up and down, trying to figure out what I should do. For the first time since I got here, I am worried that I’m in real danger, that my life might be on the line. The mafia world is incredibly cutthroat, and when people piss other people off, they tear each other apart. I’ve heard Boris talking about what they’ve done to their enemies. I’ve seen some of the things Van is capable of, and I can never get those images out of my mind.

There must be some way for me to find answers. Or maybe I should make a better effort to reach out to my brother and ask him to rescue me. If I can figure out a way to tell him where I am…

Would he even send help?

He would.

Stop thinking like that.

He’s your family.

Of course, he would want to rescue you and get you back home.

I chew at my lip, hoping I’m right despite the tight warning in my chest.Boris doesn’t care about anything except his business.

Okay, that’s true, but maybe I can rely on his ego. He won’t like the fact that someone got one up on him—for that reason, he might rescue me to prove a point.

Anxiety bubbles inside me. I wish my dad were still alive. He would have sent someone to save me as soon as I went missing.

***

Over the next two days, I put a lot more effort into my escape plan.

I try to get access to Andrei’s computer or a cell phone, but everything in the house is locked down with passwords that I can’t crack. I guess I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. Boris had ridiculous security on his devices. It was only by accident that I got through his locks after hundreds of tries over the years.

I need to getout, but there is no way past these damned guards. There are so many of them.

Even though I’m on their good side after all the pranks I’ve pulled, they’re friendly with me, but they aren’t exactly going to let me walk past and escape while they turn a blind eye. They still have a job to do.

Frustrated and running out of ideas, I play the last card in my hand.

I storm over to Andrei, who is sitting in the living room, reading the news on the sofa. He doesn’t acknowledge me in any way.

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