Page 86 of Forced plus-size Bride of the Bratva
My jaw clenches. “We already established that, fucking hell. We were supposed to clamp down on the mole tomorrow. You couldn’t just watch her tonight? Just one fucking night? Fuck!”
Kaz appears at the doorway, his hair tousled, shirt half-buttoned like he just rolled out of bed.
“What the fuck is all the noise about?”
His voice is groggy, but the second his eyes take in the wreckage—my fists covered in blood, the ruined room, the crumpled sheets, the empty bed—he stops cold.
His face hardens.
“Fuck,” he breathes. “They got her? Fuck.”
I don’t respond.
I can’t.
My fist slams into the already broken wall again. The bone in my knuckle might be fractured—I don’t care. The pain barely registers. All I can see is her. Gone. Taken from me.
Zalar is barking orders into his comm. Guards are running. Sirens are going off across the property. But none of it is loud enough to drown out the rage pounding through my skull.
“I told them—” I hiss, pacing like a caged animal. “I told them she stays protected. I warned them. And still”—I kick the overturned dresser—“they took her out of my fucking house!”
Kaz walks further in, stepping over shattered glass. “Adrian—”
“I will kill everyone,” I snarl, pointing at the guards crowding the hall. “If I don’t get her back alive, I will slaughter anyone who failed her. Do you hear me?! I will burn this entire fucking city to the ground!”
“No one’s saying we won’t find her.” Kaz’s voice is calm, but tense. “We will. But you need to stop wrecking your own house first. Think.”
I spin toward him. “You think I give a shit about this house?”
Kaz turns to Zalar. “Who were the guards watching her?”
Zalar stands straighter. “I’ve sent out orders to find them.”
Kaz nods and turns to me again. “Adrian, take a deep breath and think. You can burn later. Now, we have to think.”
Zalar comes closer. “Boss. You need to sit. We’re sweeping the grounds. The dogs are out. Whoever took her couldn’t have gotten far.”
I grab him by the collar. “They got far enough.”
Kaz sighs. “You’re no good to her like this, man.”
Just then, a guard pushes through the chaos, a small black box in his gloved hands. His face is tight. “Boss,” he says, breathless. “This was found outside the east gate. It…it has your name on it.”
My stomach drops. I push Zalar away and snatch the box from him and rip it open, my fingers trembling. Inside is a USB drive. Just one. No note. No emblem. Just silence and threat.
I leave the panic room and storm down the hall to the surveillance room. Kaz follows. Zalar stays behind to keep coordinating the sweep. I shove the USB into the monitor, jaw clenched so tight it feels like it might shatter.
The screen flickers. Static. Then—
Jennie.
Bruised. Tied to a chair. Her head hanging low like she’s barely conscious. Her lip is split. There’s blood on her temple. Rope burns on her wrists. My knees almost give out.
My hands curl into fists, fingernails digging into my palms. I can’t breathe.
She lifts her head. Just barely. And even in that state, she’s still the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Her eyes are swollen but defiant. Her breathing shaky but still steady.
Then a voice—distorted—cuts through the speakers. A masked man appears. “She’s alive. For now. But that depends on you, Adrian.”
