Page 45 of The Bratva's Bride

Without hesitation, I brought the dagger down into his shoulder, using it to help throw him off of me when I bucked my hips up to dislodge him from myself. I threw him off to the side and pulled my dagger out before stabbing the blade into the side of his knee.

Spinning around, my eyes locked onto my next target. With a small grunt of effort, I threw my dagger at a guard who aimed his gun at one of my men. The dagger embedded itself into his chest, a dead hit. The guard’s body fell to the floor with a thud.

The fight ended faster than I hoped, which was a good thing in my books. No casualties on our side, major injuries, but no casualties. Thank God. Once we rounded the survivors up, we bound them up and set them well outside the warehouse for now.

After leaving my men to guard our captives, I went back inside with Hanna and Greg. “Hanna and I will check the basement. Greg, you stay up here with the others and keep an eye on these idiots until the van comes around.” I said while reloading my gun with one of my spare magazines. “Bao, where’s the entrance to the basement?”

“About thirteen-feet from you to the right, looks like a crate might be on top of the hatch.” Bao replied.

Carefully, I went over to the area with Hanna and started to clear the crates away until I saw a handle and hatch. Grasping the handle, I looked at Hanna who nodded at me to indicate she was ready. Pulling the hatch open, I ran in behind Hanna, gun at the ready. Scowling deeply, I hissed angrily under my breath, “Shit, we’re too late. It’s empty.” The basement was lined with cages like an animal shelter. Heck, the cages at the shelter were nicer and more secure than these beat up looking ones.

I hoped we wouldn’t find something like this today, but that was me being too hopeful. Just like the last two raids, we stood before empty cages that should be filled with human beings. “We’ll get to them next time.” Hanna placed a hand on my shoulder, squeezing it softly.

My grip on my gun tightened until my knuckles turned white while I gritted my teeth. “That’s what we said the last two times. I am just starting to get really pissed off about coming in a step behind like this. I can brush the first time off as luck, maybe the second, but for us to come up empty a third time. Well, I don’t believe it. Something is going on, and I don’t like it one bit.” Was it possible I had a leak? How else would we come up empty three times in a row? But if I did have a leak then why is the warehouse even stocked still? It wouldn’t make any sense to just move the bodies and not the crate of drugs.

What the hell is going on?

CHAPTER 22

Angel

“Isn’t—”

“Jesus fucking Christ! Don’t scare me like that!” I practically jumped out of my pants at Nikolai’s sudden appearance in the bathroom. Taking a few deep breaths, I placed my hand over my racing heart to calm myself. “Quit laughing, it’s not funny! You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“I’m sorry, you were too cute and funny. For someone who's supposed to be trained into their surroundings all the time, that was too easy and cute. I wasn’t even hiding my steps either.” His laughter had died down to a chuckle as I pouted and glared at him.

“I know, I can hear your thundering steps from the damn kitchen all the time.” I shot back with a roll of my eyes. Taking another deep breath, I turned my attention back to the mirror as I used the washcloth to clean the blood off my face. “Have you been home long?”

“No, just got home and Benjamin informed me that you were up here.” Nikolai answered while taking the washcloth from me. “Here, let me.” I wasn’t going to fight him if he wanted to clean me up.

Relaxing, I let him pick me up and set me on the countertop, watching as he rinsed the cloth before gently wiping at my face and neck. “You know, isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? Me coming home bloodied and beaten and you cleaning me up?”

“Oh we’ll have plenty of those moments no doubt.” I laughed softly as I pictured the scene perfectly in my mind. No doubt the two of us were going to be cleaning and patching each other up as time went on. “Thanks for doing this, you don’t have to.”

Chuckling softly with an adoring smile, he leaned in and placed a quick kiss on my forehead before going back to cleaning me. “My wife comes home covered in blood and grime, of course I’m going to take care of her. And I’m not doing it because I have to, it’s because I want to. So, get used to it.” No one would ever think a brute like him could be so gentle and caring. I wonder if anyone would believe me if I told them about this.

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