Page 26 of Kept By the Bratva

She hadn’t gone too much into her personal details, so much so that I struggled to find her after our one-night fling. But she’d mentioned that she had no parents. That she’d been orphaned.

No one was there to protect her and keep her safe.

Obviously.

She had been alone and vulnerable to be taken right off the sidewalk in the city.

And I hated the idea of that sweet blonde being so alone, so at risk, like a sitting duck. Had I not chosen the plan of ruining the Cartel’s trafficking operation, she would’ve still been there. Or worse.

I threw back the rest of my drink, angry all over again but also so fucking tired.

Protecting Amy and keeping her as my woman were all I wanted. The fantasy of that scenario floated in the forefront of my mind. I also hardened my heart against ever thinking it would happen, though. It couldn’t. She wouldn’t adjust to a hard life of organized crime.

That push and pull tugged at me and left me tired of the war within me.

“What’s wrong, Brother?”

Alek wasn’t pushing. He didn’t pull any crap like reminding me that he was older. He didn’t even try to use his power as thePakhanto order me to fess up. I wasn’t surprised that he’d noticed my mood. My brother was observant, and he cared.

“You’ve been acting like you failed, like the mission didn’t end well.” He patted my back. “You did good. All of you. Every man—except the two new soldiers who needed discipline about trying to use the women.”

I shook my head. It was on the tip of my tongue to explain it all, but as I tried to collect my thoughts and rehearsed how I’d explain my actions, I couldn’t. It was a mess.

“You attacked the Cartel just like we’d planned. Their operations took a significant hit. You killed many of them. And I already hear fromour spies that they are pissed.” He chuckled and sipped his drink. “They’ll think twice about fucking with the Valkovs again.”

“Yeah.” Even that reply was half-assed.

I didn’t know what to tell my brother. He deserved to know that I’d kept Amy away from the others. I knew I couldn’t keep her for good. Not when she looked at me with such disgust that I had to count on sex to make her want to be near me at all.

“We will need to figure out how to get rid of the women. I hear a few are determined to get out. They’ve been locked up but not gagged. Men are feeding them and offering them basic prisoner care, but we can’t risk them running back to their lives right now.”

“Not with the cops allying with the Ortezes,” I agreed. Many of those women would run home, then immediately call the cops. Every report of kidnapping could route right back to Steven Murphy or any other crooked officers who’d shown how little they cared about what the Cartel did. If they looked the other way, that’d be fine. Swept under the rug. If they brought those women right back to the Cartel, then all of this would’ve been for nothing.

Not nothing.It led me to finding Amy again and having that one more time with her, even if it was the final push to make me realize the low odds of us staying together.

“We can’t let the Bratva be implicated in the trafficking operation,” Alek needlessly told me. “We’ll think about it and plan something. I’m leaning on sending them away with warnings. Or just waiting a while until the fucking cop is taken down.”

“Yeah. Except for one.” I sat up straighter, knowing another drink wouldn’t change how badly I needed to get this off my chest.

“What do you mean?”

He was ignorant, and I realized that Ivan and Dmitri, and all the othersoldiers who’d been there, hadn’t ratted me out. None of them had told our leader that I took one of the women away.

“One of the women was a…”

He waited, arching one brow.

“A former lover of mine.” I sighed, hating how it tasted like a lie. Amy had to be a former lover. She couldn’t be mine again.

“Huh.” Alek nodded. “That’s what got you all broody, then.”

I wasn’t going to acknowledge that. “You can’t begin to understand how surprised I was to find her there. She has no family, though, and I don’t care for the idea of just transporting her someplace else and guessing that she might be safe.”

“A former lover?” Alek asked now. “Or something more?”

If I told him that I felt deeply connected to Amy from the moment I saw her, he’d think that his right-hand man was an idiot, going soft.

“Nothing more,” I replied, loathing every syllable of it.