Page 207 of Ripped Veil (Ripped Bratva)

“Where are you going?” he pants, grabbing at his stitches.

“Back to the house,” I reply. “I have business I need to take care of.”

He knows exactly what I mean.

“You don’t have to do it yourself, you know,” Matvei warns.

My feet hit the ground hard as I stride to the vehicle. I’m seething, and it has nothing to do with Eiko getting away.

I reach for the car handle. But before I can clasp it, Matvei’s hand shoots out and closes around my wrist. He forces me to look at him.

“I mean it,” he says again. “I know what she means to you. You don’t have to do this yourself.”

I look my best friend in the eye. “I’m the only one who can do it,” I snarl.

Then I shake him off and get into the car. Matvei steps back as I fire up the engine and careen back onto the road. I glance into my rearview mirror to watch him disappear.

Along with the last fuck I had left to give.

* * *

The vehicle chews up highway at breakneck speed. I know I’m driving recklessly but I can’t help it. Adrenaline is bursting through my veins, and it’s only being fueled by my anger.

I’ve been such a fucking fool.

Was fucking me part of the whole damn scheme? Or was that just a cruel twist of the knife?

I should never have brought those two back to the mansion.

The child, though… The child is what forced me to change my mind. The perfect fucking bait.

She’d spread her legs for me, had never once mentioned protection. From the very beginning, I was nothing but a mark.

And now… the tables are about to be turned.

I flash my lights at the gate the moment I see it in the distance. They slowly crank open and I race through, just shy of barreling into them.

I come to a screeching halt in the private driveway. Then I jump out of my car and rush inside.

“Elyssa!” I roar like a fucking Viking. “Elyssa!”

The echo of my scream reverberates through the house but I don’t receive an answer.

And then I remember—she took a car to the desert hours ago.To visit her parents,Gunther said. Was that a lie, too? Was she just being recalled by her masters?

My thoughts are flying in a hundred different directions as I rush towards my office. I stop short when I realize the door is half-open.

I’d had new locks installed after Charity’s little intrusion, a new security system in place so that I’d be alerted if anyone so much as tried to open my office door. I wasn’t going to let that lapse happen again. My secrets are mine and mine alone.

I glance at my phone but I have no alerts. No indication that anything has been broken into.

“Fuck,” I growl.

I pull out my gun and creep the last few steps to the open threshold. At first glance, it seems as if it’s empty. Am I wrong? Am I paranoid?

I can see my men doing their normal rounds outside in the garden. As if everything is fine. And why wouldn’t it be?

As far as they know, any threat would come from beyond the property boundaries.

---