Page 59 of Forced plus-size Bride of the Bratva
I feel it in the way her body stills against mine, in the way her gaze searches my face like she’s seeing something new—something she hadn’t expected from a man like me.
She doesn’t move. Doesn’t protest.
She just lets me hold her. And for the first time in a long fucking time, I feel like maybe I don’t have to fight everything to keep something good. Maybe I can just sit here…and keep her close.
“Do you ever take a break?” she asks suddenly, her voice soft.
“What do you mean?” My hands tighten on her waist. I’d live inside her if I could.
“You’re always working,” she says. “You hardly ever sleep.”
“Are you worried about me?”
She rolls her eyes but doesn’t argue. “You should rest more.”
“Maybe if you let me share the bedroom with you, I’d get better sleep.”
She’s about to respond when I hear someone clear their throat.
“Boss.”
Zalar’s voice slices through the moment like a blade.
Jennie stiffens slightly on my lap, and I turn my head slowly, irritation flashing through me. I don’t like being interrupted—especially not now, when she’s finally in my arms without venom in her eyes.
“What?” I bark.
Zalar doesn’t flinch. He knows me too well by now. “You need to see this. Right now.”
I clench my jaw and nod once. Jennie shifts as I loosen my hold, letting her slide gently off my lap. She doesn’t sayanything, just watches me with something unreadable in her eyes.
“I’ll be back,” I murmur, brushing a hand down her arm before I rise.
Then I follow Zalar out, already bracing myself for whatever the hell is waiting on the other side of this night.
Zalar leads me into the dressing room, shutting the door behind us. The second it clicks shut, he pulls out his tablet and hands it over. My gut twists when I see the encrypted message flashing on the screen.
“This just came in through our backdoor surveillance net,” Zalar says lowly. “We’ve confirmed it twice already.”
I swipe through the files, my jaw tightening with every word.
The bounty on Logan…it wasn’t from Markovic or any rival crew.
It was internal. Someone from our side. From within the Rusnak circle.
I take a slow breath, fighting the spike of rage pushing against my ribcage.
A mole.
One of ours is playing both sides.
“Who the fuck sent this?”
“We’re still tracing. But the way it was routed? Whoever did this knows our system inside out.”
That narrows it down. Not just a traitor—an insider. Someone close. Someone who knows how to leave just enough of a trail to send a message…but not enough to be caught easily.
“They want him dead,” I mutter, eyes fixed on the bounty order. “Not because he stole from us—but because they want to destroy everything connected to him.”
