Page 5 of The Bratva's Forced Kidnapped Bride
“So what brings you to LA?” I asked. “I just moved here to start auditioning.”
Thinking I was laying it on too thick, I settled back in the chair, waiting to see if he’d send me on my way and head back to his boss. He didn’t. Instead, he drank his coffee and asked me more about myself. It didn’t take long to fill up the time with lies until he started nodding, his eyes lowering and flying open as he tried to fight the potent drugs. A few more minutes, and he let his head flop back to bump against the wall behind him.
I sat there, glancing around. The place was packed, and no one gave us a second glance. After finding his hotel key card, I left him there, heading out the front to go into Anatoli’s hotel. While we were scoping out the place the day before, Vik had paid a kid twenty bucks to follow Anatoli into the elevator and report back what floor he’d pushed, so I knew that once I got on the sixteenth floor, all I had to do was start trying the doors with the card.
The lobby was quieter than I would have liked, feeling like a beacon in that red dress. Not wanting to wait around for the elevator, I slipped into the stairwell at the back of the building. Before I could kick off my high heels to start the long trek up, a sharp pain cracked along the back of my head.
I crumpled to my knees, twisting around and kicking at my assailant. It was no one I recognized, but the big man was determined. He raised the small club to hit me again, but I had my hand on my gun as I got back to my feet. Hopefully, just the sight of it would make him think twice about mugging me, but I didn’t have a chance to find out. A strong arm wrapped around my neck from behind, yanking me toward him.
“Nice to see you again, Masha.”
That voice. Even the way he smelled, like the forest and freshly cut rosemary. Not even the blood I’d drawn from him could overpower it. There was no blood now.
I froze as his grip tightened, cutting off my air supply. His free hand ran down my side, pulling my skirt up to yank the gun from its hidden holster and toss it across to the other guy. Jamming my elbow into his rock-hard midsection did nothing but make him laugh. It was like Anatoli had been waiting for me all along, had all but sent an engraved invitation to his trap. Fury made me thrash in his grip, but he shoved me across the small space, my body slamming against the stairwell wall. Ripping my wig off, he tugged my hair out of its bun as he glared at me. Swiping his thumb across my ruby red lipstick, he shook his head.
“You look better au naturel,” he said, voice ice cold.
The door slammed open, and his guard pushed in, fully awake. He roughly pulled my hands behind my back and snapped a zip tie around my wrists. He and Anatoli shared another laugh as I must have shown my utter shock and confusion. Keeping me bundled between them, with the man who’d hit me behind us, they hustled me out the back door.
Anatoli nodded toward the alley leading to the rear of the coffee shop. “Her men should be waiting for her there,” he said. “Take care of them.”
My mouth fell open, but he clapped his hand over it before I could scream a warning. His men took off, and a moment later shots rang out. Stunned, I almost crumbled to the ground. Vik and August? Were they dead? Had I just gotten them killed?
“Time to go,” Anatoli said, dragging me to a waiting car.
Wrenching out of his grasp, I flung myself at him and headbutted him, but it only made my vision waver and my eyes swim with tears. He scooped me up and popped the trunk, dropping me into it. Leaning close, he laughed right in my face, those all too familiar gray eyes narrowed.
“You’re good, Masha,” he said. “Very good. But I’m better.”
Chapter 4 - Anatoli
It was funny how well you could get to know someone when they were torturing you. And of course, Masha Fokin had been on my radar long before she got her ruthless hands on me. She was a force to be reckoned with, despite her young age and distracting beauty. I’d kept myself apprised of her movements and whereabouts even while I was in Mexico, and by now, I knew every move she would make before she did.
I was surprised to learn she’d taken a low-level security job, and wondered if she’d been demoted after losing me. It had to be a severe blow to her considerable pride, and as soon as she knew I was back, I was positive she’d act rashly out of fury that I’d escaped her.
Oh, I was just as furious, but I was managing to stay cool and keep my emotions out of it. For now. There’d be plenty of time for that once everything was in place. It went exactly as I figured it would. She left Silicon Valley like a bat out of hell and rushed to try to capture me. I hadn’t imagined the blonde wig, and I didn’t like it. She was prettier with her own dark hair falling across her shoulders. But the scowl on her face was the same once she realized my guard had been playing her, only pretending to drink her drugged coffee once he saw her dosing it.
There was no time for self-congratulation once I heard gunshots. As soon as Masha was locked in the trunk, kicking and screaming, I hurried over to the back of the coffee shop to see that it was one of her men who’d gotten off the shots. One of mine had a bloody shoulder, but they’d managed to incapacitate them and were hauling them into the back of their getaway van as I arrived.
“Take them somewhere no one will find them. Keep them alive, they might be useful.”
They weren’t too pleased with that, especially the one who was shot, but every link I had to the Fokins was one I might use as leverage, and I needed as much of that as I could get. My first priority was Masha, but I still had a bone to pick with her family as well.
I had a pretty good thing going in Silicon Valley before her cousin Mat showed up and started swinging his dick around. I was making good headway on my program and had a lot of other lucrative things going on. I didn’t want any competition. It was bad enough that there was a Fokin in San Francisco. I considered the Silicon Valley area mine and wasn’t giving it up without a fight.
Just because I’d lost the first battle didn’t mean the war was over. Far from it.
Heading back to my car, I could hear Masha screaming from twenty feet away. It was a miracle that the place wasn’t swarming with cops yet after the gunshots. Grabbing a roll of duct tape from the backseat, I opened the trunk long enough to slap a wide piece across her mouth.
Her whiskey brown eyes shot daggers at me as she continued to try to muffle out her rage through the tape. The ridiculous red dress was bunched up around her hips, revealing her long, smooth legs.
Tearing my gaze away, I slammed the trunk shut again and took off, purposely barreling over some speed bumps to jostle her. Petty, maybe. But I couldn’t wait to see those brown eyes of hers flashing with the same hatred I felt, magnified tenfold by being my helpless captive this time around.
Especially when she found out the manner of her torture.
I almost had everything in place, but I was going to toy with her a little bit before I let her in on my plan. I took a roundabout way to the hiding spot, hoping she’d be good and worried by the time we arrived, and not about to underestimate her capabilities. When we arrived and I pulled her out of the trunk, I made sure she got a good look at the place I’d be keeping her for the moment.
The shack would have been alarming enough on its own, but the fact it was in the middle of nowhere was the icing on the cake. The rage that had burned in her eyes was doused by a flash of fear as I dragged her toward it.
