Page 59 of The Bratva's Innocent Sold Bride
“He’s fine. But the dog should stay here.”
“Not going to happen. He’ll be scared. Call your boss; neither one of you will win this one.”
He swore under his breath, but didn’t argue and as soon as I had the leash on Artem, we headed out. His car was darkly tinted, and for a split second, I hesitated while he opened the back door, not sure what I’d see. But the backseat was empty, and Artem leaped in, his tongue lolling and his tail wagging, not a care in the world. I followed, and Garik got in the driver’s seat and took off, speeding away from the office park.
“Are you sure everything’s okay?”
“Everything’s fine, Mrs. Fokin. We’ll be there soon.”
Not exactly the truth, because we drove for a good half an hour before stopping at a boarded-up gas station in a seedy neighborhood I didn’t recognize. But it wasn’t like the warehouses in LA had been in the best part of town, either. Another car pulled out from behind the dilapidated building, and I breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t Mat’s car, but this had to be him.
I hurried out, with Artem on my heels, jumping for joy as I told him we were meeting Papa. Garik opened the back door of the new car, and I put Artem in before reaching for the front door handle.
“What’s this about?” I asked Mat as I pulled it open and leaned in.
But it wasn’t Mat. By the way his fingers were suddenly digging into my arm, the man who brought me here wasn’t Garik, either. He shoved me into the car and slammed the door. I swiveled to grab the handle, but it was already locked.
“Get the mutt out,” the driver said.
Fake Garik yanked on Artem’s leash, making him yelp as he dragged him out.
“No,” I shouted, pounding on the window.
As I watched the other man let go of Artem’s leash and chase him off into the trees behind the gas station, tears filled my eyes, and I tried to scramble between the seats and climb into the back to go after him. The mysterious driver pulled me back in, and we skidded out of the lot with a squeal of tires.
“What are you doing?” I screamed, trying to catch sight of Artem. My heart was breaking, thinking about how scared he must have been.
“All in good time.”
We were going so fast, I reached for my seatbelt and snapped it on, leaning as far away as possible from the stranger who’d abducted me. It took me a beat to realize I knew him, though. Knew him better than he could ever imagine. It was Terrence Hendricks, and he didn’t look happy.
Chapter 36 - Mat
I spent the night fruitlessly searching for Anatoli, plagued by the fact that CJ lied straight to my face about the last time she saw her father. What was she hiding from me? Was everything a lie?
No, there was no way she could have faked some things. It was instantly apparent she wasn’t telling the truth the moment I brought Gordon up. There were no telltale signs like that before. I had to believe her smiles were genuine, her sighs, her kisses. It was driving me crazy, worse than trying to find Anatoli, so I could end this battle of ours and let CJ live the life she wanted.
The woman had gotten under my skin, and I didn’t want to dislodge her. To do so would have killed me. She was mine, my whole life. It had happened like a lightning bolt, fast and strong. If anything, I should have been calling Gordon to thank him for cheating me so that she came into my life, but if he tried to take her from me…
That wasn’t going to happen.
When I finally got home, CJ was already gone. The gate guard informed me she had left with her driver early that morning, when I was still scouring the streets following bad intel, fed to my people by Anatoli himself, no doubt.
Irritated, I headed to CJ’s office, ready to drag her home for not listening. No doubt she’d have some excuse about me not telling her how long she’d have to wait. I wasn’t in the mood for it, not with her lies still heavy on my mind. I had to find a way to make her tell me without accusing her or admitting I’d seen. I wanted her to trust me.
But did I truly trust her?
The office was empty, closed up tight as if no one had been there, and there were no traces of the driver or her regular guards. None of them was answering their phones, and I began to wonder if this was more than an impromptu shopping trip. Garik answered right away.
“Find Gordon Taurus,” I said. “I want a location on him as fast as possible.”
Gordon may have been a broken man, but he still had resources and powerful contacts. If he wanted to—if CJ wanted to—he could make her very difficult to find. Not impossible because I’d go to the ends of the earth to bring her home, but what if she didn’t want to return? Suddenly, I was at war with what I needed and what might be the only thing to make my wife truly happy. How did she gain so much power over me?
That’s when it hit me. This wasn’t an obsession, this wasn’t possession. This was love. I loved her. More than anything else in the world.
It didn’t take Garik long once he promised to move it to the top of his priority list. As I sat in the office parking lot, waiting and hoping for CJ to show up, he called me back within ten minutes.
“Gordon is still in LA,” he said. “Some of Aleks’s men located him in a bar, half out of his head on whiskey. Want me to tell them to bring him to you?”
