Page 81 of Forced into a Bratva Marriage
A pause.
The men stared at me in shock for a fleeting moment after the previous guy passed out.
“Restrain her,” a huge man with a raucous voice ordered.
I held the rod like a weapon I wasn’t afraid to wield. “Stay back!” I warned the men approaching me.
They didn’t listen.
So I began swinging recklessly, but they dodged every one of my advances. Someone grabbed me from behind, lifting me off the ground. Reflexively, I slammed the back of my head into his face multiple times until he dropped me.
“Fuck!”
I swung the rod with murderous intent, striking him in the neck before two other men rushed at me.
They took the makeshift weapon from me. One bound my hands behind me while the other covered my face with a black hood. Together, they bundled me into the trunk of their vehicle.
I lay, squeezed into that small space, struggling, screaming to no avail. These heartless bastards slammed the trunk shut and drove away.
Overwhelmed with fear, guilt, anger, and anxiety, only one name rang in my head.
Karik.
These people didn’t want me dead; if they did, I’d be dead already. This meant that Karik still had time to find me.
But by the time he did, would I be dead or alive?
What did they even want with me?
Chapter 26 – Karik
I came as soon as Anatoli radioed the compound, saying they were under attack. Sergei and I brought reinforcements, but we were too late. By the time we got here, the enemies had already fled, taking my wife with them.
They killed everyone with her, including some passersby who had nothing to do with it. The streets were still heavy with tension, and the smell of gunpowder and burned rubber lingered in the air.
Sirens blared in the distance as I stood at the scene of the crime, fists clenched. I wasn’t there to save her. The fact that she must’ve been terrified to death only infuriated me even more.
I should’ve stopped her from going out today. Why didn’t I just say no when she asked to be let out of the estate? If I had insisted she wasn’t going anywhere, none of this would’ve happened.
I crouched after spotting something familiar glinting on the concrete among broken glass. It was her watch. It must’ve slipped off her wrist. I picked it up, glaring at the cracked glass.
“Boss,” Sergei called behind me.
I rose to my feet in silence, already cooking up the different ways to torture whoever had done this.
“We have a lead,” he said, his voice calm and steady. But his eyes betrayed him.
I saw the pain he tried to hide, the anger, and the guilt. I was familiar with them because I was dealing with those exact emotions.
He handed me an iPad. On the screen, black-and-white CCTV footage of the attackers was playing. They wore masks, but their movements, the types of guns they carried, and the tattoos on their skin gave them away.
“The Sokolov Syndicate,” I murmured, my thumbs pressing against the screen.
Those bastards had been waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. And one time when I wasn’t with her, they carried out a clean kidnapping. They took my wife.Mywife.
My scowl deepened as blood ran cold.
The fact that I didn’t find her body on the ground meant they wanted her alive.
