Page 58 of Bratva Bastard

I sighed, rubbing my face and running my fingers through my hair, gripping tight as I tugged in frustration. “We need to find her. Crissy’s…” I paused, unsure if I should tell anyone else she was pregnant. She told Gabby, but Gabby was her best friend. What if she didn’t want everyone else to know. Hell, I hadn’t even heard Crissy say it. What if she was onlynervousthat she was pregnant, but found out she wasn’t and hadn’t told Gabby yet? But if she was pregnant, that made the situation even more tense.

“Crissy is in a fragile state,” I said, choosing my words carefully, for them to interpret in any way they chose.

Gemma’s face turned grim. “You know,” she said, looking away.

I nodded, but Wanderson was in the background asking, “Know what? What’s going on? Is Crissy sick, too?”

“Crissy’s pregnant,” I answered, watching his jaw drop as he stared at the phone in disbelief. “And I’m the father,” I added, in case he couldn’t put two and two together. Wanderson seemed like a smart man, but I only knew him through Crissy, and she spoke highly of everyone she liked.

“Wait a minute,” Dimitry said, staring off as he worked through something in his mind. “Andrei is working for Sorokin, right? Obviously, he’s the reason Sorokin’s men found you before, Maxim.”

“Do you think Sorokin took Crissy to torment me?” I asked.

“Not exactly. Gemma? When did you find out Crissy was pregnant?” Dimitry asked his wife.

“It was right before her shift at the bar. She came over, crying because she was pregnant and couldn’t get a hold of acertain someone,” she said with a glare in my direction, causing my head to hang in shame. “She didn’t know what to do, and was pretty panicked about being pregnant.”

“Mhm,” Dimitry said, rubbing his thumb over his chin. “And was Andrei present when Crissy told you?”

“He wasn’t present in the room, but he’d arrived at the house several minutes before she did. I assumed he knew she was coming and got there before her. He left right after Crissy went to work.”

“Do you think,” Dimitry said, pausing as he put the pieces together in his own mind before delivering it to us. “What if Andrei’s been working for Sorokin for a while, and when he heard that Crissy was pregnant, he told him. Sorokin then ordered Andrei to kidnap Crissy so she couldn’t tell Maxim and ruin the wedding.”

I nodded, knowing Dimitry was on the right track. “I’m going to kill that son of a bitch the next time I see him. He’s been fucking torturing me with Ana for two weeks, and now he takes my solnechnyy svet. That mother fucker is going down.”

I stopped, realizing what I called Crissy in front of everyone. Oh, jeez, kill me now, because once all this craziness was over, I wouldn’t hear the end of it. Dimitry and Misha—and even their wives—would tease and torment me for using such a sweet pet name.

Apparently waiting wasn’t an option, because Gemma covered her mouth and said, “Aww. He called her his solnechnyy svet!” She turned to Wanderson and said, “That means sunshine.”

“Okay, okay! Moving on,” I said, my cheeks heating from the humiliation. Goddamnit, why did I have to react like that with witnesses? “What’s our next move?”

Dimitry turned to face me and said, “We need to tell Misha and have a ‘meeting’ with Sorokin.” He turned to Gemma next. “Gemma, baby, you need to get home and rest. You know the doctor doesn’t want you moving around too much.”

At that point, Wanderson had taken over holding the phone and Gemma was sitting in his chair, one hand on her back, the other on her belly. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right. I’ll let you guys know if we find anything else.”

“Thanks, baby,” Dimitry said, blowing her a kiss. He had no problem showing affection with others present, so why was it so embarrassing for me?

“Yeah, thanks, guys,” I said to the group as a whole, even though Ilya, her bodyguard, wasn’t doing much for the Crissy situation. Honestly, I’d forgotten he was there until he stood up from a chair in the background.

We hung up the phone, but I was too wide awake to eventhinkabout sleeping. Instead, I would plan every possible gruesome death that I could plan for Sorokin.

“Get some rest,” Dimitry said. “We have a big day ahead of us.”

A big day, filled with blood and revenge.

27

Crissy

Istared out the window, watching the sunset. The beautiful blend of reds and oranges, with hints of pink and purple smudged at the edges, was almost enough to make me forget about my life. A temporary bliss, but it was much needed.

Luiz sat in the driver’s seat, taking me home to my mother. After he patched me up and fed me, he offered to drive me home. Mighty nice of him considering I’d yet to explain why I showed up after a month, banging on his door.

But by the time we were halfway home, Luiz had asked me once again what happened. What was I supposed to say? I couldn’t explain one thing without it having a domino effect on everything else. If I told himthis, I’d have to tell himthat. It was an endless cycle that I really didn’t want to get caught up in.

“I’ll explain everything soon. It’s just…well…it’s a long story,” I stammered, trying like hell to change the topic.

His lips were pulled into a tight line, clearly disappointed with my answer. But he didn’t push me. He was too kind to do such a thing. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay with me for a bit? I’m not sure I should leave you alone right now.”

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