Page 5 of Captivated By the Bratva

I rubbed my stomach, hating that it was tense once again with this stress. Ever since I turned seventeen, I’d been suffering from this predicament, this dreadful awareness that my life, my freedom, would be over just because of my father’s order.

I refused. Before I graduated from high school, I told my father no. When Lev sent his minions to speak with me at home, I snuck out the window and ran to a friend’s house. And as soon as high school was over, I flew across the ocean to go to school here.

It didn’t matter how often I ignored my father’s pleas to come home and prepare to marry Lev, I wouldn’t change my mind. What sickened me, though, was the fact that Lev was pursuing me too.

Calls, texts, emails. I scowled at my bag, where I’d shoved the letters out of sight.

He was coming for me.

I felt it in my bones.

More and more often, he’d been contacting me and my dad. Each time I ignored the summons, Dad would call or text twice as much to complain about how I was forcing him to make up excuses for why I hadn’t married Lev yet.

They weren’t excuses. They were reasons. And there was a difference.

I wouldn’t marry Lev because I didn’t fucking want to. If it took fifty more times to repeat that for them to understand it, then fine.

My phone pinged, showing both my reminder going off that I had a lecture to attend and also that I’d missed another text from my dad.

Dad:You need to come home. Now. You will marry him.

“Screw you,” I mumbled as I stuck my phone into my bag with my laptop. Packed up, I headed out of the library’s study room.

I didn’t want to marry Lev. And if I had a chance to tell my dad the truth, I didn’t want to marry anyone else anytime soon. I was too young to settle with anyone. And I was too young to settle with one set-in-stone path for the rest of my life.

I couldn’t decide my major, really. And I got antsy when I considered where I could work or even live after I wrapped up this degree. My life was nothing but a big question mark, and I bet the many other students I walked past on this campus right now felt the same.

But none of them are fighting to have the freedom to decide.

No one else was stuck, forced into an arranged engagement with someone three times their age. A controlling criminal who wouldn’t let me study, work, or do anything of my own interest.

As I passed a couple making out, leaning against a fountain in the courtyard, I couldn’t help a sigh.Thatwas what I wanted.

The freedom to kiss a sexy guy because I desired him. The ability to show affection whenever and however I pleased because I wanted to.

I’d want the chance to breathe without the oppressive expectation to stay in the Mafia circle of acquaintances my father knew. I’d wish for the opportunity to pick and choose, to get to know men closer to my age.

I wanted…

My phone buzzed again, and I cringed as I looked at it. It served as a reminder that I shouldn’t have dared to concoct an image of my dream man.

Dad:Stop ignoring me. You MUST come home.

Home? What a joke. Going back to my dad and agreeing to be that creep’s bride was nothing more than surrendering myself to a life sentence.

And I refused to do it.

I tightened my bag’s strap over my shoulder and picked up my pace to reach the lecture hall. Almost as though the more desperately and quicker I ran—anywhere—the faster I could escape my fate chasing me right on my heels.

3

MAXIM

Alek suggested that I take a man with me. The first step of this job was to stop in and chat with Gregory Petrov. Simple enough. I doubted I needed any backup or assistance to accomplish it.

I was stubborn to a fault, and I didn’t want to accept any help in retrieving Nadia at all. The main motivation behind this job was to prove to my brother and the Bratva that I could be depended upon to pull off missions and handle thingsnotbehind the scenes. Having assistance would undermine my success. Perhaps that was a backward way of thinking, but I truly didn’t think I needed help. Not in interviewing Gregory about his daughter, nor in getting her to come home and go along with her arranged marriage.

The day after Alek and I talked, I headed over to Jersey to talk to Gregory.

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