Page 20 of Stolen By the Bratva

“Fuck!” Alex wrapped his arm around me, ducking his head as more gunshots followed us. Not once did he let me falter, and I tried my best to run with him as he pulled me along.

Just before we reached the end of the altar, he twisted back to fire at those closest to us. Shouts merged with shots. Screams mixed into a thunderous roar of my pulse in my ears. With all the utter chaos, I couldn’t think, couldn’t react fast enough. All I managed was to keep running, one foot in front of the other until my knees buckled. My lungs seized, and with a sinking sense of drowning under a black inkiness, I gave up and let the sleepiness claim me, all the way down until I fell into Alek’s hard arms.

9

ALEK

Maxim helped me at the side door. He lowered, hunching his shoulders as the gunfire trailed me. Bullets hit the wall. The rapid battery sent chips of the plaster raining down.

“Go. Come on.” As he held the door open for me to carry Mila through, he shot back. His aim was lousy, but I appreciated his assistance. It worked, anyway. The element of surprise had helped my plans.

No one else was quick enough to chase me through here, and I bet they’d be more worried about remaining and fighting in the church. Kastava would see this as an offense, and Pavel would be busy trying to save face for one of his men.

Despite my decision to intervene, I could always count on my four brothers to have my back. I was burning all my bridges with Pavel and Andrey by foiling this wedding, but I could depend on my siblings. Others in the bratva, too. I’d only confided in my brothers about my goal to stop this wedding, but had I told the other men who reported to me, I would’ve had more of a following.

After Maxim slammed the door closed and shoved the lock bar on this rear exit, he caught up with me at another door that would lead through the basement and out to another hallway toward the base of the building’s clock. The church was so massive that it took up a huge area of a block. And that worked in my favor. I had a car waiting on a side alley, far from where the guards would be quick to look. Maxim and Nikolai had scoped out the place for the easiest getaway.

I turned and pushed the last door open with my shoulder, careful not to jostle or drop the bride in my arms. Dust flew up with the abrupt opening of the metal panel, but I didn’t slow down or care that the door flung back and banged into the brick wall. Immediately, the stench of sewage and rotten garbage wafted to me. I drew in ragged breaths, high on adrenaline and needing to hurry more.

“I’ll watch the doors,” Maxim said as he scanned the dark alley, shadowed by the towering church and other skyscrapers blocking out the sun. Rain pelted down faster now, almost on cue, to make this escape trickier. The drizzle from before was gone. Now, the skies poured.

I nodded my thanks. “But you need to go too. Hide.” I’d given them all clear instructions. They were to take cover and wait out the aftermath. Pavel would be on a warpath, planning to get answers from them because of how close they were to me. Maxim was the least experienced with covert missions and being in the action, but Ivan and Dmitri would watch out for him.

We didn’t waste any more time talking or arguing. Any minute now, Kastava’s men would file out of the church. I planned to be long gone by then.

Maxim opened the passenger door so I could stow Mila in there, and I worried at how limp she was. Not dead, but out of it. Furrowing my brow, I worried for a second about how bad off she could be. I’d tried to prevent her head from knocking against the podium adjacent to the altar, but Andrey hadn’t made it easy for me to reach her.

My pathetic cousin hadn’t been trying to keep her for himself, but as cover.

I’d have to wait until later to think back on how it all fell apart. Dwelling on any emotions right now would be suicide. As I rounded the car and got in, I sped off with one clear objective—escape. I raced down the alley, then onto the main street.

I headed toward an apartment on the other side of the city, almost near New Jersey. It wasn’t the place I usually lived, the one where my brothers—and Andrey—visited last night. This one-room studio was a private location lacking creature comforts. All of us brothers had properties we owned outside the Valkov territory, and no one else in the bratva had ever learned about them. We’d inherited them from our parents, no doubt safe hideouts my father had secured just in case.

Just in case I needed somewhere to take a kidnapped bride. My cousin’s bride, the daughter of an enemy.

Her.

I glanced at her again, stunned and again suspended in disbelief that the sassy woman I saw at that dock office was Andrey’s fiancée. Of all women, of all the coincidences and odd overlaps of fate, it was her.

Long, brown curls partly covered her face, but as she stirred, breathing faster, the glossy locks slid back and revealed her features. Those sharp blue eyes were hidden behind her lids, but that pouty curl of her lips, even in sleep, taunted me. Up close again, I saw her flawlessly smooth skin, the satiny swells of her cheeks, her slender neck, and down further, the generous cleavage her dress allowed.

A horn honked, and I jerked, overcompensating in a swerve as I returned my attention to the road. With the reckless maneuvering, Mila slid to the passenger door. This time, I kept my eyes on the road as I relied on my peripheral vision to reach out and barricade her with my arm. I didn’t need her slumping forward, not with her wounded arm.

I had no business checking her out as I drove. In a slight panic, I checked all my mirrors, ensuring that no one was tailing me, that no one else had noticed my stupid driving.

I only had to look twice, though, and glance at her again. My eyes couldn’t lie. It was her, and I gritted my teeth at how much more complicated this seemed to be.

Already, she was getting under my skin. I was too fucking aware of her, too intrigued and tempted. But I’d be damned if she used it against me. She seemed like just the kind of woman who’d know how to seduce a man with her gorgeous body, but I wasn’t weak like that. I couldn’t be. Now that I’d hit a pause on that wedding and stalled any alliance, I had to follow up and get the proof of why and how that shipment was nothing but a setup designed to bring the Valkov Bratva down.

I’d never intended to hurt the couple. Killing my cousin wouldn’t have solved anything. Nor would putting a hit on this beauty. When the Kastava guards stalled me in the outer vestibule, preventing me from firing my gun and stirring chaos, I lost significant time. Once I broke away from them and burst into the actual church, my heart had nearly stopped at the sight of the pair at the altar. I’d worried I was too late, that the ceremony was already in progress. And that was when I’d reverted to Plan B.

Andrey couldn’t marry her if she wasn’t there.

But now that she’s here with me…

I parked at the building and checked once more to see if anyone was following. No one lurked, and I hurried to get her out of the car. Even if it seemed like no one was watching, cameras could be hidden anywhere, and getting a bleeding, unconscious bride out of my vehicle would look suspicious.

Without any interruptions, I got her up to my floor. Holding her limp weight tighter against me, I unlocked the door and carried her through to the crummy, bare apartment. Minimal furniture was on offer, but this wasn’t a goddamn vacation. I only needed to keep her here long enough while my brothers and I figured out the levels of duplicity behind that shipment bullshit.

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