Page 14 of Used By the Merciless Bratva
The powers that be must be in a good mood today.
The door opened, and a man in a dark suit entered the room. With his blue eyes, commanding height, and fit body that his bespoke suit couldn’t hide, he could easily be a model or an actor. Well, if his eyes weren’t so deep yet icy and unreadable. But my gaze stayed on him for a different reason.
His face struck a chord; it felt like I had seen him before.
Realizing that his gaze mirrored mine, I swallowed, folding my arms across my chest.
“What the fuck am I doing here? Who are you?” I asked.
Unfazed, he answered, “I’m Danil Yezhov…of the Russian Mafia, the Bratva.”
I blinked hard, willing myself to be in bed and right in the middle of a bad dream.
But he was still standing in front of me.
It dawned on me that there was no mistaken identity. My whole world came crashing down in that moment.
I knew exactly who the Yezhovs were. They were the Bratva my dad worked for. The Russian Mafia that killed him right in my presence.
Cold dread made me take a step back as the recognition struck.
The man in front of me was the same man from that night. He was the man who gave the orders for my dad to be killed. I could feel the coldness that radiated from him that night.
Although he never said much about the Mafia at home, I vividly remembered my dad mentioning Danil’s name a few times. I could almost hear his voice as he told my mom and me at the dining table that Danil never spoke until someone was about to die. Of course, the first time I heard him speak was the day my dad died.
“Why did you bring me here?” I asked, suppressing my fear as I looked back up at him.
He casually leaned against the wall as he slipped his hands into his pockets, his expression cool.
He didn’t say anything as my gaze remained intent on him. My heart raced with fear and hatred. I would do anything to get out of the room in the blink of an eye.
“You made a mistake,” he revealed, eventually breaking the minute-long silence.
“Mistake? What are you talking about?”
“You activated a dormant financial trail that doesn’t bode well for the Yezhovs. This same trail has put a target on your back. A very big target, considering the fortune that has now become yours and the information you now have about Sivella Holdings,” he dropped, his face without a hint of emotion.
Sivella Holdings.
My mind immediately went to the envelope with the strange device from earlier. I remembered how the device blinked when I pressed a button on it.
Oh, no.
It was a burner phone.
Why didn’t I just leave the damn device alone?
As much as I hated to admit it, Danil Yezhov was right. All this activation nonsense wouldn’t have happened if I’d had the common sense to avoid the burner phone.
Stupid, stupid Katria.
“Apparently, you had no knowledge of what you were doing when you activated the trigger,” he uttered, moving his back away from the wall. “But that doesn’t change the consequences of your actions. You’ve put a target on your back. Once you’re out there, they’ll come at you from different corners.”
I blinked, trying to look anything but overwhelmed.
“Many people are currently planning to kill or kidnap you,” he informed.
My response was a bitter laugh.
