Page 73 of Trapped By the Bratva

I glanced at him. “Are you inviting me to go house-hunting with you?”

“Yes, I am.” He kissed me before settling back down and closing his eyes, content and happy.

“I’d enjoy that,” I replied, closing my eyes as well.

I never could have imagined my life changing like this—and so quickly. Just a month ago, I felt doomed to always be stuck in the rut of living with my greedy, manipulative sister.

Now I had a man who mostly wanted to commit. A potential to share a home with him.

And a baby on the way?

I frowned, not opening my eyes. Worry filled me again, but I refused to panic until I had a better reason to.

I bet I’ll start tomorrow. As soon as I wake up, I’ll see blood. Spotting, even.

But if I didn’t?

I’ll handle that one step at a time, then.

I told him that I wanted a family, but I hadn’t forgotten how he’d expressed not being in a rush.

We’d reached a compromise of being together, but there was no telling if a pregnancy could spoil the promising start we wanted to share.

24

DMITRI

Acouple of days after Hannah and I had our longer conversation about the future, I felt like we were in a good place. She wasn’t as shy anymore, and I was glad that telling her how much she mattered made her more content and confident.

I couldn’t imagine a life without any support. My brothers had always been there for me. My father was a good man before our uncle had him killed. I didn’t remember much of my mother as she died too soon, but Margie was always in the background as a maternal figure. Despite my criminal life, I grew up knowing someone would always be there for me.

Hannah hadn’t. She’d lacked that fundamental background, and I vowed to do all I could to provide it for her.

“You’re going to move out?” Alek asked when I mentioned after a meeting that I was heading out with Hannah.

“Yeah. It’s about time,” I replied. “Don’t you think?”

“Well, sure. But…” He tossed some papers to his desk and shrugged. “I’m surprised it’s been on your radar. I thought you had tunnel vision on finding Avilov and getting your revenge.”

“That’s still my focus, but what the fuck can I do in the meantime? I’m not strong enough to travel or walk the streets to look for him.”

He nodded.

“And so far, according to our men and the fucking Feds you’re determined to become allies with?—”

“Hold on.” He lifted his hand to cut me off. “We’re not becoming allies with any agencies.”

“Doesn’t seem like that to me.” I shoved my hand in my pocket while I leaned on my cane.

“Maxim made it clear, Dmitri. They don’t want to meddle with us. We have a common goal, the same target, and it won’t be an altogether bad thing to team up for this mission.Onlythis mission.”

I rolled my eyes. “Well, this one-and-only collaborative effort isn’t going so great so far. No one knows where he fucking is.”

“He’s been hiding and lying low,” Alek agreed. “Which is to be expected. He killed his uncle to take over the family.”

Tilting my head to the side, I smiled. “Don’t you find that amusing? Or ironic, at least? You killed Uncle Pavel to take over the Bratva, too. And you’re not hiding.”

He stood taller and smiled right back. “Because I don’t need to hide from anything. Pavel—and Andrey—were running the Bratva to the ground. I took over to make it better.”