Page 19 of Kept By the Bratva

He didn’t reply, seeming to ignore me as he cut through the ropes binding me.

The second that pressure was severed, I ran. My hands fell free, light and unencumbered, and I took my chance. I’d spent all that time missing this man, but he was acriminal. One more powerful thug who’d kill and cause violence, who’d look away unaffected at the thought that women were being captured and transported against their will.

I shot my arm back to better pump my stride, but I only accomplished one big step forward.

He halted my run, catching me in his arms and holding tight. It wasn’t a sweet, sexy, or secure hold. This wasn’t a repeat of how he’d kept me close as he pounded into me on my sweat-soaked bed after hours of filthy, good sex.

His muscles bunched tight as he strained to keep me captive. “You’re coming with me.”

Other men backed away, like he was in charge. A leader. He doubled down with his force on me before taking hold of the small length of rope that remained to my hands and pulling on it to guide me in exiting with him. “This one is coming withme,” he told them.

How? Why?

I dug my feet in the best I could, still wanting to get away as he led me out of the room. It made no sense. How could I ever have yearned for or desired a criminal like him? A murderous thug?

“Let’s go,” he ordered from the doorway, pulling me after me.

“Fuck you,” I spat, fighting to break away.

The sight of all the dead or dying bodies in the larger outer room silenced me. I tripped, staggering and stumbling at the horrific and gruesome carnage.

Nate growled, realizing the cause for my quiet sluggishness, and he reached back to wrap his arm around me, forcing me to leave with him.

The image of all those bodies. This man I lusted for and couldn’t move on from… He’d caused this. He’d been a part of this. I fell into that numbing shellshock, not only dismayed at witnessing such violence and death, the sort I’d never seen firsthand or up close before, but also that I’d been so,sowrong about the lover I'd missed.

All that time I’d dreamed of seeing him again, I never imagined our reunion would be likethis.

As he forced me into a car, I dreaded to know what would come next.

9

NIKOLAI

For the second time in as many days, I struggled to get over the gut-twisting surprise of actually running into Amy. All that time, I cursed not having a way to find her, and boom. I was finding her in the unlikeliest of places.

In the unlikeliest circumstance.

Seeing her at the strip club seemed like a coincidence. I’d never believed in them, but spotting her in that gross room at the Ortezes’ building?

I’d never get over the shock of finding her there.

I glanced at her in the passenger seat again, intimidated a bit by her complete silence.

Shock. I felt plenty of it. She seemed stuck in a deep pit of it.

I sped away from the warehouse, confident my Valkov brothers would ensure we all left safely. We’d gunned them all down, and those who lived were in no condition to fire at our vehicles as we left.

In the vans, the women were secure and loaded into the cargo spaces. Amy had shotgun in here, seated next to me but avoiding my proximity.

As soon as I pushed her clumsy, sluggish body inside then got in the driver’s seat, she reared back, pressing against the window and damn near trying to plaster herself to the door panel.

She’d gone silent and docile as soon as I urged her through that main room where my men and I had taken down the majority of the Cartel members. They’d lain there, a bloody, sickening mess, and it was the sight of that stark violence that locked Amy into a deep, zoned-out state of frozen fear.

It was another reminder that I didn’t need of how unfit she was for this life. For me. She was a good girl, an innocent woman. Thrusting her into the bowels of a crime organization had to be a shock to her system, but I knew it wasn’t by choice.

Instead of speeding away with my men in the direction Dmitri and Ivan drove the vans with the others, I turned and hurried to another location.

There was no fucking way I would let her be lumped in with the other women. No way in hell. And that soldier who’d tried to feel her up and whispered something no doubt lewd and nasty to her to cause that expression of horror on her face, he would be punished. We’d been clear. We werenottaking those women for us. We wouldn’t be whoring them out or selling them. Alek was still trying to figure out how we’d get rid of them, but that soldier would be punished for misinterpreting the reason for our mission tonight.