Page 65 of The Bratva's Innocent Forbidden Bride
He took a long swig while I unfolded my knife to cut through the rope around his hands. “At least Tati’s safe,” he said. “I was able to tell her to stay put in Moscow and not talk to anyone. I want to get back to her soon, before Riku figures out she exists and decides to go after her.”
The guilt that hit me hard enough to make me see, once I realized Grigor had never double-crossed me, increased tenfold. I was horrified as everything with Tati ran through my mind like a film reel.
Grabbing her off the street, holding her in my house. The fights, the good times when we pretended things were normal. The better times when we forgot we were enemies and fell into bed, or onto a lounge chair, or the shower, or the sand at the beach house.
Fuck. What did I do?
What was I going to do?
“What?” Grigor asked, slowly rising with the aid of the wall. “Why do you look like you just saw the ghost of your mean old great-grandmother?”
“About Tati,” I said slowly, trying to decide where to start.
He froze, halfway to standing. “What about Tati?” he asked.
It all spilled out, starting from her going to LA to search for him, and me rescuing her from crossing paths with Riku, to the fact that she was very probably with him right now.
He shouldn’t have had enough strength to keep standing, but Grigor managed to haul back and punch me right in the jaw when I was done filling him in.
“Why the hell didn’t you take her back to Moscow?” he yelled, sending himself into a coughing fit. Doubled over, he tried to swing at me again.
I stepped back, out of reach. He was allowed one, but I wasn’t in the best of moods, either, still terrified for Tati, guilty about not trusting Grigor, and finding out I was the one who’d been doing the betraying all along. Not a good feeling.
“You know how she is,” I said.
“Yes, I certainly do,” he wheezed. “You better not try to make me believe that you know her better.”
“She wanted to help. She had some good ideas.”
“And now she’s with fucking Riku Yoshida,” he said, waving his hand around his face. “The guy who did all this has my baby girl.”
That wasn’t helping. I was all too aware of what Riku was capable of, and it was ripping me apart. “I swear I’ll get herback,” I said. “Tell me where they were keeping you before the cartel nabbed you.”
“Like hell I will. I’m going with you.” He took two steps forward and fell to his knees, his hands slapping against the floor as he barely caught himself before faceplanting.
Pulling out my phone, I called Dima to come inside and help me get the stubborn fool into the car so we could get him some medical help. By the time we were back at Dima’s house and his private physician was waiting, Grigor was only half-conscious, barely able to keep his head up.
I watched as the doctor and his assistant, along with two of Dima’s guards, hauled him to a bed and hooked up a drip. Holding my breath and using all my self-control not to kick him again, I waited until they were done with their initial exam to push past them.
“Wake up and tell me how to find Tati,” I said, shaking his shoulder. The doctor yelped at me, but I ignored him, shaking until Grigor’s eyes cracked open. “Tell me where to go so I can bring her back.”
He nodded slightly, reaching for my hand. I let him squeeze it, wondering what he’d try to do to me when he knew the full extent of what Tati and I had become.
And what was that, exactly?
The fear that I might never know propelled me out of the house, armed at last with Riku’s last known location. Thankfully, the fear was overwhelmed with rage that someone might be hurting her while I was stuck in fucking traffic. Skidding past the lineup of cars, I sped along the shoulder until I reached an exit, making my confused GPS system give me a better route.
Not fast enough. What if I didn’t get there in time? What if it wasn’t the right place?
All I could do was grip the wheel and let the fire inside me keep me going. She was mine. No one was keeping her from me. And if anyone had harmed her, they’d see what wrath really meant.
Chapter 39 - Tatiana
I stared at the chipped paint on the door, the hard floor, and my crumpled position, making my legs slowly go numb. This had to be a bad dream, the worst nightmare of my entire life. There was no way I was stuck in the empty room, a prisoner of not only my father’s enemy but the man who wanted to kill Kon for months.
Kon. Did he know I was gone yet? Imagining his anger made me pull my legs close to my chest and wrap my arms around my knees, resting my head on them. Everything that ever enraged me about him, starting with the fact that he was trying his best to keep me out of this very situation, came rushing back into my mind.
It was almost a relief from the fear that had me in its clutches, but I couldn’t muster any of that old anger at Kon. The opposite. As soon as I ran out of memories of arguments and disagreements, of him being imperious or refusing to listen, all the good ones crashed in.
