Page 28 of The Bratva's Innocent Sold Bride
But he was already gone.
Chapter 18 - Mat
I was in a foul mood when I returned home the day after our blowup. It seemed that Anatoli had somehow found the location of my new storage facility. This morning, I woke up to an urgent call from the guards who were relieving the night watch. Two men dead, and the place was cleaned out. After scouring the place, there were no clues to lead me to the source, but it had to be Anatoli’s people, if not the elusive man himself.
All I had was an outdated picture of his brother, which was seared into my brain at that point, as well as all my people. Anyone who remotely resembled that man was to be on our radar, but so far, we’d come up empty on that front as well. If we could have found his brother and dragged him in for questioning, either here or in Russia, we would have. It was as if the entire organization was comprised of invisible wraiths.
I shrugged out of my coat in the hall, trying to toss off such fanciful notions. Anatoli was just a man, and I’d catch him eventually. Then he’d pay.
Artem bounded in from the kitchen to greet me with a stuffed toy in his mouth. “Who’s a good boy?” I asked, laughing, when he looked at me with rapt curiosity, as if I’d share the answer if he listened hard enough.
Playing with him for a few minutes took the edge off my intense anger, but when I put him out into the cordoned-off area in the back that CJ had set up so he wouldn’t get lost on the vast property, I was still tense and on edge.
It was a couple of hours before dinner. I could have still been out, fruitlessly scouring the city, or at my restaurant, or at the club I was in the final stages of acquiring, but my mood was so dark I didn’t want to risk taking someone’s head off whenthey didn’t deserve it. It was better to be alone for a while. All I needed was a long, hot shower to wash away some of the tension gripping my neck and shoulders.
Finding CJ scrubbing the big walk-in shower didn’t do a thing to alleviate it or the bad mood. She wasn’t wearing the sexy French maid outfit at least, but her snug white tank top was damp, and her soft cotton shorts clung to her perfect ass as she reached to wipe the top of the tile walls with her sponge. She hummed tunelessly under her breath, pausing to wipe some stray hairs that had escaped her ponytail.
She was gorgeous. Everything I ever wanted. Even as the sight of her had me gripping my hands into fists to keep from grabbing her and yanking her to me, I was furious that she was still putting on her false good wife act.
“Still cleaning?” I asked, the ice in my voice betraying the heat coursing through my veins.
She jerked around, surprised to see me home so early. So, maybe she wasn’t putting on an act after all. “Well, let’s see,” she said. “I walked the dog. I answered a few text messages. I walked the dog again. Sent a few text messages. Then, even Artem didn’t want to go for another walk, so I started cleaning.”
She planted her hands on her hips, soapy water from her cleaning sponge dripping down her smooth leg. She was as ready to fight as I was.
“Why don’t you have lunch with some of your friends?”
“They’re all working, that’s why,” she instantly snapped.
“Weren’t you on some committee at one of your family’s charities?”
Her eyes narrowed. “They were happy to be rid of me.”
“I fail to see why,” I said.
She didn’t miss the sarcasm, her eyes flaring. “Why am Iallowedto work at the charity but not get a job?”
I winced at the emphasis. “Contrary to what you believe, I’m not trying to control you. You’d be able to have your security with you at the charity.”
“Sounds like control to me. I’m even under armed guard wherever I go.”
“You know what I do.” My voice was beginning to rise, but she showed no fear, not a single trace of it. She wasn’t afraid of me at all, and I loved it. I wanted to see her truly fierce. “You know how dangerous it is.”
“No, actually, I don’t. What you’ve shown me doesn’t seem so bad. You want to keep me caged here, plain and simple.”
She thought she was done with the conversation and tried to push past me to get out of the shower, but I reached in and turned the cold water on full blast. It rained down on her, drenching her to the skin.
“There’s nothing simple about it,” I said, blocking her exit.
Yelping, she started to curse me, splashing at the onslaught as she called me every name she could think of. Finally realizing she wasn’t getting out until she calmed down, she reached for my shirt, yanking me toward her. I let her drag me under the icy water, gripping her waist as she stumbled backwards.
“So now we’re both wet,” I growled.
Shivering, she looked up at me, blinking water out of her eyes. Out of nowhere, she laughed. “I guess we are.”
The sound of her laughter was infectious, and my shitty day receded into the background, fading like it never existed.Joining in, I reached behind me and lowered the cold, cranking up the hot. Her top was completely transparent, her dark nipples taut against the fabric. Smoothing away the goosebumps on her arms, she still shivered, but her darkened eyes told me it was no longer from the cold.
She pummeled her fists against my chest, then gripped my shoulders, trying to shake me. “You make me crazy,” she wailed. “I just want to—”
