Page 146 of Ripped Veil (Ripped Bratva)

“Anna’s,” Charity explains unapologetically. “I swiped it when she was busy with Theo.”

“Charity!”

“I needed to know what was going on in the outside world,” she says.

I tense instantly as she pulls up an internet page and starts searching. Her fingers move fast against the keyboard on screen.

“Here,” she says, shoving the clip into my face. “I didn’t want to have to show you this. But I think it’s necessary now. Just watch it.”

So I do.

The reporter standing in the center of the shot is a well-manicured redhead with light makeup and a smart blue pantsuit. As attractive as she is, my eye goes straight to the backdrop she’s standing against.

“Oh my God,” I gasp. “That’s the shelter!”

“… I’m standing outside the Las Vegas Women’s Shelter. This is the site at which decorated police detective Jonathan Murray was last seen. A distress call was made from Detective Murray’s phone to his department on the seventeenth of May. The exact time of the call was not disclosed. However, our source in the police department did say they are on the lookout for a woman by the name of Elyssa Redmond who is believed to be connected with his disappearance.”

At the mention of my name, my fingers shiver so violently that I drop the phone. It clatters to the ground.

I fall to my knees in time to hear the reporter finish, “…The young woman is believed to have lived and worked in the shelter for the past year. Since Detective Murray’s disappearance, her whereabouts are unknown. It is believed she vanished shortly after Murray visited the shelter. The police department of Las Vegas hopes that Ms. Redmond will come forward in the following days to make a statement.”

The clip stalls and buffers but I swipe away and hand it back to Charity.

“Oh my God. They want me for questioning…”

Charity tightens her hold on my arm. “Breathe. Remember what I told you. We’ll get through this. We just gotta stick together. Right?”

I take a deep breath and try to be as brave as the situation calls for. To be the bitch I need to be to survive.

Not just for myself—but for my son.

“Right,” I tell her. “Right.”

30

Phoenix

Matvei’s Recovery Room

“How bad is it?” Matvei asks, his gaze flickering to my leg.

“A graze. Nothing more.”

“She fixed you up?”

“Yes.”

We turn to each other and face off as though we’re gearing up for a Wild West gunfight.

It strikes me that Matvei should be a don in his own right. He was never meant to follow. He’s as much a leader as I am. And yet here he is, taking orders from me. It takes a strong man to be able to do that when he knows he’s destined for greater things.

Not for the first time, I’m glad Matvei chose to pledge his allegiance to me. But I’m fully aware that his fealty is a mark of respect, not subservience.

At any moment, he can walk away. And I know if that happens, I won’t stop him.

“You do realize we’re on the same side, right?” Matvei asks with one raised eyebrow.

“Matvei…”

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