Page 99 of Fortress of the Heart

I’m notsurprised he sent Maxim, his main brute, to be the one to take charge and collect me. He’s the one who’s the most trusted in the Petrov Bratva, along with Dimitri..

Lucky for me, we get along. Both Maxim and Dimitri are like brothers to me in a way. Always protective. They’re always looking out for me.

Maxim is a man of very few words, but he’s a good guy. Just one disapproving look is enough to make you want to behave. Dimitri and I are closer, I’m like the kid sister he never had, and he lets me play a few rounds, even though, he too, is stoic and uncharming.

But regardless of our friendship, they always do whatever Uncle Aleksi says, and my only job is to comply.

I wonder what anyone has said to my father. Though we’ve not spoken in a while, will he be concerned when he hears about my ordeal? I mean, it’s not every day your own daughter is kidnapped, right?

Out of all the things I thought I'd ever be feeling, I didn’t plan on feeling weird about leaving my captor.

Nevertheless, one thing I learned being a Petrov is don’t ever look back.

We had a thing, and it’s over now. I don’t regret what we did. If anything, I crave more of it.

Maybe it was my emotions that came into play. Maybe it was the fact that even though I was technically not allowed to leave, I felt safe there. I felt heard, which is ridiculous. All we did was fight.

I’ve never had a man actually listen to me before. They’re always telling me what to do and what to think and how to behave, and I’m so sick of it.

As the car rolls away, I feel a tightness in my chest and a pain searing in my gut that can only come from one thing.

Leaving Marco.

I was thinking that would be the least of my problems, though the insecurities just keep me second-guessing myself and my place in this family.

I’m not as strong on the inside as I appear to be on the outside. I’m not screaming,poor little rich girl,but I don’t have it all figured out like how I portray it. I’m only twenty-three, but sometimes I feel a hundred years old.

My uncle always says I’m an old soul in a young body, and he’s the one who knows me best. I warm to him more than my father, and while he’s one of the most feared men in the Russian mob, I’ve never been afraid of him. He’s never mistreated me. If anything, I’d say I’m the apple of his eye.

The trouble is, I can still feel where Marco touched me, where his kisses scorched me. It was beyond any realm I ever knew existed. I didn’t know sex could be something that I wouldn’t have to dread. My body still tingles from his touch. My pussy throbs from where he’s been. Every cell inside of me seems to call for him.

He made me feel alive when no other man has ever made me feel that way. It seems somehow Marco and I reached an understanding, despite all the shit I threw at him in the beginning and his arrogant, alpha-hole ways.

I didn’t know I was going to feel like this a week after meeting him.

Why, oh why, does he have to be a Medici and I a Petrov?

If we were both from any other family, it would make all the difference in the world. We could possibly share something important without anyone caring or starting a war over it.

Sneaking around with him, or with anyone, is not how I envisioned my future.

Then I think about Vlad, and I want to scream.

The only person I can truly confide in is Ana. She’s from a Russian family too, and while she’s not Bratva, she knows everything about how things work by association. I know she’ll understand when I tell her about Marco.

I sink back into the seat as Maxim asks me if I’m okay, turning halfway to face me. I feel Dimitri’s eyes on me in my periphery.

My uncle’s driver, Leo, pulls out and makes his way down the half-mile-long driveway, back to the reality of the world outside these gates.

Dread fills me once more.

“I’m okay.” I nod.

“Your uncle wanted to be here, but I advised him it just wasn’t safe to do so,” Maxim explains.

“And my father?” I already know the answer to that.

Maxim has the good grace to at least look a little sympathetic when he shakes his head.

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