Page 72 of Bratva Bride

His eyes twinkled. “Ahhh, there she is. You had me scared there for a minute. Thought you were turning into one of those useless, hysterical women.”

“Where…are…they?” I spat.

“They’re fine, jeez.” He rolled his eyes. “We turned the warehouse into a makeshift infirmary. Anybody with injuries is being put there for now. Arturo is one of them. He’s fine!” He quickly interjected. “Just a little banged up from shielding you from the blast. Lukyan and Nikolai are in charge of guarding the warehouse, making sure no one gets to it. We’ve called in every doc who’s on our payroll within a thirty-mile radius to come and treat them.”

“And Father?”

He gave me a stern look. “Where do you think he is?”

If I knew my father, he’d be in the thick of the chaos. And he’d be in a rage.

“What the fuck happened?”

“We were hit with some high-powered explosive device. Father sent me to find you immediately after the explosion and get you to safety. I have no idea how many we’re up against here.”

I could see a few of our soldiers fighting with the attackers, but the majority of our men were working on getting the fire under control before it spread any further.

A rage unlike anything I had ever felt before blasted through me as I watched one of the attacker’s knife an Italian soldier.

Who the fuck do these people think they are?!

I rose to my feet, my body aching with protest, but I ignored it. Ignored the pain and just focused on all the rage building inside me.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold it.” Aleksandr gripped my arms, holding me in place. “Where do you think you’re going?”

I scowled, shaking him off. “Where do you think?! There’s still enemies on our grounds. I’m not just gonna sit here and watch our men die!”

I grabbed the knife from my ankle holster and used it to cut the bottom half of my dress off. A twinge of guilt hit me right in the gut as the fabric fell to the blood-stained grass, but I couldn’t think about that right now. There was no way I would have the manoeuvrability I needed to take down these fuckers with a skin-tight, floor length dress on.

“Na-uh. No fucking way. Father told me to get you out of here. If this is Nero, there’s a good chance they’re here for you.”

I scoffed. “Let them fucking come,” I growled, plucking my heels from my feet and snapping the heel off each one. The last thing I needed was sinking into the damn grass when I was fighting.

Aleksandr watched as I slipped them back onto my feet, his face set in a mask of disapproval.

I went to move, but he placed a hand on my shoulder, stopping me. “I swear to the damn devil, Aleksandr, if you don’t let go of me right now, you’ll be the one on the receiving end of all this rage I have inside me right now.”

He arched an eyebrow.

I growled in frustration. I was almost at the point where I wanted to rip out my bloody hair. “If you’re so fucking worried then come with me! Cover my back.”

He opened his mouth to respond when an ear-piercing scream had us both turning around. A few metres ahead of us, Lucian was being dragged away by his hair, kicking and screaming.

No!

I didn’t hesitate. I couldn’t. I bolted for him, shoving Aleksandr to the side and pushing my legs as hard as they could go. Lucian was fighting hard, thrashing his little limbs and screaming at the top of his lungs. He managed to get out of the attacker’s grip and I yelled for him.

“Lucian!”

His head snapped to me, relief and fear all over his face as he started running towards me, his attacker a mere inch behind him. I steadied my grip on my knife and prepared to throw.

“Down!” I yelled, pulling my arm back and taking aim.

Lucian dropped to the ground without hesitation. As soon as he was clear, I hurled my knife at the attacker, the blade piercing the man’s chest with blazing speed.

He screamed in agony as he fell to the ground, his hands grasping at the knife in his chest before he went still.

Lucian tried to get to his feet, his legs shaking so badly he would have tumbled back down if Aleksandr hadn’t been there to catch him.

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