Page 78 of Forced Virgin Bride of the Bratva
Stupid, but I’m not stupid anymore.
Except, neither is she.
I pass the main hallway and head for the small medical room we keep behind the south wing. I patch the wound myself, sterilize the blade before sewing it shut. Four stitches. Clean, efficient. I don’t wince. Pain is nothing new. It’s the betrayal that digs deeper.
Once the bleeding stops, I change shirts and pour a drink I don’t taste. The liquor burns on the way down, but it doesn’t help. My head’s too loud. My chest too tight.
I stare out the window, toward the city glittering like nothing’s wrong. Somewhere out there, she’s hiding. Lying low. Trying to breathe through the fire she started.
Chapter Twenty-Five - Kiera
The car ride back to the Ortega estate is a blur of streetlights and pounding blood. My whole body aches—deep bruises blooming beneath my skin, raw cuts along my arms and ribs—but it isn’t the pain I can’t stop thinking about. It’s the failure. That hollow, jagged kind of shame that chews at your chest and leaves nothing soft behind.
I’d had my shot. My moment, and I didn’t take it.
Maxim’s face haunts me even now—bloody, furious, that glint in his eye that said he saw through everything. Not just the betrayal, but me. Every twisted emotion I’ve tried to smother beneath rage and revenge.
Worse—he let me go.
He could’ve killed me. Should’ve, probably, but he didn’t. He let me run.
Somehow, that makes this hurt more.
When I stumble through the estate doors, my legs barely hold. The night air clings to my skin like sweat, and the moment the lock clicks behind me, I sag against the wall, exhaling slow. The adrenaline’s gone. All that’s left now is trembling.
Tiago’s waiting for me in the hallway, already pacing, a storm building beneath his skin. When he sees me, he stops cold. His eyes sweep over the blood on my shirt, the bruises on my jaw, the split in my lip. The anger hits fast—sharp and immediate.
“What happened?” His voice cuts like a blade. No concern, no softness. Just fury held on a leash.
I lift my head slowly, jaw aching as I force the words out. “He knows.”
Tiago steps closer, close enough that I feel the heat rolling off him. “What do you mean, he knows?”
“I mean he caught me. In the study.” I breathe in through my nose, slow and steady, trying to keep the tremor out of my voice. “He found the burner. The files. I tried to fight—”
“You fought him?” His eyes go wide. “Are you insane?”
“I didn’t have a choice,” I snap. “He was going to kill me!”
He turns away with a curse and slams his fist into the wall hard enough that plaster cracks. The sound makes me flinch despite myself.
“Goddamn it, Kiera!” he roars. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
I stare at him, throat tightening. “I did what you asked. What we planned. It just didn’t go the way we thought.”
“You were supposed to dismantle him,” he hisses, voice low and venomous now. “Slow. Quiet. That was the deal. That was the entire fucking point.”
“I tried.” My voice breaks. I hate that it does. “I got close, too close, but Maxim isn’t like the others. He doesn’t break the way you think he will.”
“Everyone breaks.” Tiago’s eyes are wild. “Everyone has a weak point.”
“Maybe,” I whisper. “But he saw mine first.”
Tiago goes quiet for a beat, then shakes his head like he can’t stand the sight of me. “So now it’s war.”
The words fall heavy in the room, final and cruel. He paces again, dragging both hands through his hair.
“There’s no walking this back,” he mutters. “He’ll retaliate. We won’t get another window.”
