Page 35 of Kept By the Bratva
“Where’s Nik?” I asked.
“He went with his brothers to help with an attack on one of the family’s businesses.”
“He’s been gone for over a day. All night and this morning, too.” I heard the worry in my voice but I didn’t care.
She nodded. “Alek is confident that he is okay, though. He has more brothers and men working to help Nikolai and the situation he’s facing.”
That sounded cryptic. I furrowed my brow, more worried for the man I shouldn’t care about.
“The Valkov Bratva is all about family, Amy. We look after our own. Wekeepour own. Blood runs thick, and nothing stands in its way. Not even attacks from other Bratvas. Not the Cartel. No one will sever the ties of this family.”
Must be nice, I thought bitterly. I’d never had a support system like that. All I’d ever dreamed of was a big family with lots of sources of comfort and help. To give and get love and security.
“Why am I here, then? Why keep me captive? I don’t understand.”
“I can’t explain much, Amy,” she said gently, almost as though she wished she could be clearer. “I don’t know why Nik wants to keep you here.”
I shook my head, sour about my reality. “He’s keeping me here as nothing but a whore. His personal whore.”
“No.” Mila shook her head too, confident. “No, Nik wouldn’t do that.”
I raised my brows.
“Nikolai is reclusive. He’s one of the Bratva’s best spies. I haven’t known him for long, but I do know that he does not have a habit of bringing women into his personal life. Athome.”
Tears slipped free at her words. They rocked me because I’d gotten as personal as possible. I carried Nik’s baby, and he didn’t even know.
“Have you been suffering all this time?” she asked, concerned with my crying and uneasiness.
I nodded. “I… I never thought I could get pregnant. I have a condition, and it’s a shock.”
And no one could know it was Nik’s. If what Mila said was true, this baby wouldn’t bemine. It would betheirs.All that talk about their family, looking out for and keeping them close. The bloodlines. My baby would be a Valkov baby, and I struggled with the instant fear that they might want to keep him or her.
What if they keep me captive until I deliver this baby, if I even can, and then they take him or her from me?
I’d never allow it. They’d have to kill me to get my baby.
“Do you know who the father is?” Mila asked.
I shook my head, scrambling for a lie. “I—I was raped.”
She frowned, touching my knee gently and patting it. “I’m so sorry.”
“By… by… a thug.”
She raised her brows. “Recently?”
I shook my head. “No. Um. A…” I racked my brain for what she’d said of their enemies. “A Cartel guy. He raped me a while back. I think… I think that’s why they found me on the street.” I assumed that the Cartel men were the kidnappers. They’d spoken Spanish, so maybe that was it. “They must have remembered me, and that’s why they chose to take me off the street.”
She sighed, worried and quiet for a long moment.
I needed her to believe my lie. If she thought I was carrying the baby of an enemy, they wouldn’t start plans to keep him or her to maintain their family lines.
“I will keep this information as confidential as possible,” she promised.
I shook my head. “Yeah, right.”
“I will not lie to my husband. But I understand the delicacy of this situation.” She stood. “Please understand that youaresafer here than on the streets.”