Page 42 of Stolen By the Bratva

“To come here?” She scoffed.

“No.” Ever since Yusef broke in, I debated with the urgency to relocate. If he found us here, someone else could get close. Staying stationary would be foolhardy.

“I’ll make it legal. With a priest somewhere else.” I held her gaze as I swore it. “You’ll be my wife in every way, Mila.”

Once more, she scoffed, stuck in that stubborn disbelief. “I still say you’re crazy. You kidnap me from my wedding so you can plan your own with me?”

I studied her expressive face, grateful that she wasn’t prone to hysterics. I doubted many other women could have this degree of levelheadedness to so calmly discuss our situation. The more I considered it, I realized this was likely the most input she’d had yet about her wedding at all. I was under no illusion that this all had to be fucking with her head. She was a captive here, under my rule as I called the shots. Still, she didn’t adopt a hopelessness as my prisoner. She could… work with me.

“I didn’t take you from your wedding knowing that you would instead end up being my bride.”

She rolled her eyes.

“But now that the circumstances have fallen into place like this, it makes the most sense to marry.”

“According to you,” she sassed.

I nodded. “Yes.” Of course, this would happen as I saw fit.

“I still say you’re only asking for trouble to marry me.”

I almost smiled, reminded of how she’d said that before. She’d told me that she knew I was trouble the first time she saw me, and I felt the same about her. The longer I spent with her, the more I came to realize that she offered a good sort of challenge in my life. Not a threat or danger.

“I agree. I’m stirring things up and welcoming chaos by marrying you. But it needs to be done. This war has to happen to change what has been the status quo for too long.”

She sighed and shook her head as she nestled it on the pillow. “You’re still crazy,” she repeated, resigned with something like amusement in her tone. “You want to marry me, to align yourself with me as you see fit, but you don’t trust me enough to untie me?”

I looked at her wound, then her bindings. “Not yet.”

She shot me a beady-eyed glare as I sat up quickly and retrieved my phone from the table. I did my best to ignore the burn of her stare on me as I paced, needing to move as I set preparations in place.

First, I would contact my brothers and request their help in making my wedding possible.

If Yusef hadn’t broken in here to try to kill Mila, I wasn’t sure if I would’ve jumped as quickly on this decision to marry her. I was being rash. The idea had come to me suddenly as I disposed of the soldier’s body, but I didn’t require more time to think it through. Marrying her was the best logical reaction to the news of the hit placed on her by her father. And I’d stand by my choice.

I began with Nik, counting on him to show the least amount of shock with my update. He didn’t pick up, though. In the time that it took me to scroll through my contacts to reach Ivan instead, Nik texted.

Nikolai: Busy at the moment. Do you need something?

Aleksei: Prepare to be a witness at my wedding.

I dialed Ivan before replying to the many texts that Nik fired my way in response.

Ivan didn’t answer either, but I wasn’t worried. They had to hide. They had to investigate that bullshit at the docks. Pavel had placed targets on them, and I knew they would take extreme care and caution to be safe as they did as I'd instructed.

I finally reached Maxim, and to his credit, he didn’t sound distressed when he picked up.

“I need you to find a priest to officiate my marriage to Mila.”

“Mila?” He coughed in surprise. “You’re going to marry her?”

“It’s a long story to explain. I will fill you in later with all the details. Right now, it’s imperative that we marry as quickly as possible.” I glanced at her resting. It seemed all the ups and downs had finally caught up to her and exhausted her.

“As legally as possible, too,” I added. “Find a priest. Pay him to come to a secure location. Once you have it arranged, I need you and another brother to witness the ceremony.”

“Fuck, Alek.” He scoffed on the other line, and I bet he was raking his hand through his thick hair, his tell for being agitated. “This is… this is insane.”

I smirked. “Crazy? Yeah, it is, but I know what I’m doing.”

---