Page 14 of Bratva, Baby

Andrei

I look over my shoulder at my little bird and see her mouth open in shock. Smirking, I tell her, “Close your mouth, Ava, unless you want me to fill it.”

Snapping her jaw shut, she finally finds her voice and asks, “What do you mean I am not going anywhere? I need to go home, Andrei.”

But she doesn’t realize that’s precisely why I never released her other wrist. This way, she can’t go anywhere until I say so.

“Why, ptichka, so you can fly away?” I ask, the thought of her running from me burning like acid in my stomach.

“You’re staying here with me, at least for tonight,” I tell her, though I already know she will argue this with me.

“No, Andrei, I need to go home tonight. I have things I need to do to prepare for Monday morning.” She urges, as if she hasn’t already told me she plans on quitting my company. I won’t be letting her make that mistake .

“Those things can wait, you can stay here for tonight, and we can talk again in the morning,” I say.

“In the meantime, you will stay put while I go take care of some business. And don’t bother screaming, no one in my staff will uncuff you.

” I tell her as I get dressed. I have a meeting with my men about the Italians that I need to be at the warehouse for.

Walking into the warehouse, my senses immediately go on high alert. Something isn’t right. My men should be here already. Instincts have me pull my gun from the waistband of my pants.

Instead of finding my men, I find Fionn, the Irish Don, waiting. At the sight of him, I raise my gun, and I point it at him. “What are you doing here?”

“What else would I be doing here? I am here to talk.” He says, as if this were a preplanned meeting. “Don’t look so perturbed. Your men only got a little…held up, should we say? They will be here soon.”

“What the fuck are you talking about, Fionn? Stop playing these games.” I snap at him. I am beginning to get angry; not only is he here, but my men aren’t.

“I am only here to deliver the news I learned while at the Italians for my son's last meeting with the Italians daughter. They are about to try moving in with the help of their informant. They know you have taken a special interest in someone and now know you have a weakness.”

“Again, what the fuck are you talking about, Fionn? You'd better get to the point of what’s going on because my trigger finger is getting twitchy.”

“Aye, you’re right. Your dad never was one for patience either.

” He says in his Irish brogue. “The Italians know you were just in their territory, and they know why. I was at their house tonight when word got to them. They didn’t react since you weren’t showing any violence to their own people. They said they would ‘play it smart’.”

“I see.” I am about to ask more questions right as the doors to the warehouse burst open, and my men pile in with their guns raised.

Finally, lowering my own gun, they follow suit and drop their weapons.

All but Alek; he keeps his gun trained on Fionn, not trusting the Irishman after whatever this stunt is he just pulled.

As Fionn leaves, likely to meet his men wherever he has them hidden, Alek finally lowers his gun and walks over to me.

“Are you ok, boss?” He asks.

“Yeah, we will talk in a minute as a unit.”

As we gather around the table in the backroom of the warehouse, I look at my men and know in my gut that none of the men in this room is betraying me.

Maybe it’s stupid of me to have so much faith in these men, but most of them I was raised by or with.

But I have never ignored my instincts before, and I don’t plan on starting now; none of these men are informants for the Italians.

“Brat’ya, we need to plan. The Italians are about to make their move, and we need to be prepared for whatever they have planned.

As some of you may know, I have the woman that I intend to marry and have heirs with.

She needs to be protected at all costs. Currently, I have Mario and Ivan living next to her home.

I want more surveillance on her when she’s not at home and when I am not with her.

Don’t be seen because she hasn’t accepted this way of life yet,” I say, adding on, “Though she will, she doesn’t have a choice. ”

“Sir, do you want Mario and Ivan to continue to watch her since she is used to them, or do you want someone new to take over when she is away from her home?”

“That’s a good question.” I think out loud.

“For now, keep Mario and Ivan on her; switching guard so she always has someone watching her.

As for the Italians, I need one of you to watch Enzo for any signs of his plan.

Fionn conveniently didn't catch any of their plans along those lines.” I say sarcastically.

After all the plans are made and everyone knows the role they need to play in order to make this work, we wrap up the meeting as Alek meets me at the door.

“You’re really serious about Ava, aren’t you?” He asks.

“Da,” I say, keeping my answer short, I am ready to get back to Ava. I am sure she’s furious with me for leaving her handcuffed to my bed.

“Just making sure. I have to watch out for the man I look at as a brother.” He replies to my shortness.

“Well, there’s your answer. I need to get home, though. I left her in such a way that she isn’t going to be happy with me when she sees me.” I say with an amused chuckle. I have never seen her entirely lose her shit, but I hope she does. I am sure she is a beauty to behold in her enraged glory.

As I get in the car, I pull out my phone and open the camera app for the cameras I have installed throughout my apartment. Expecting her to be screaming for someone to release, I am shocked to find her curled up under my blankets, asleep.

As I arrive home, I am met with silence as I open the bedroom door.

Looking over at the bed where my little bird is curled up asleep, warmth washes over me.

I can’t believe how lucky I am to have finally found the one I want.

I just need to ensure she can’t leave me; one of the ways I plan on doing that is planting an heir in her belly as soon as possible.

Imagining her stomach round with my child causes my cock to stand at attention, but I ignore it. Ava has had a long night, and she has a long day ahead of her tomorrow, too .

Undressing down to my boxers, I pull the blankets back and climb into the bed beside Ava, finally relaxing when I feel the heat of her body against mine.

Checking that she genuinely is asleep, I reach over to the nightstand and grab the key to the handcuff that still holds her wrist hostage.

Uncuffing her wrist gently, I pull her closer to me and wrap my arm around her from behind.

My hard cock presses into her backside, urging me to push it into her.

Willing my cock to behave, I lay my head down on my pillow and close my eyes. I drift off to sleep to the sounds of her deep, even breathing and the feel of her warm body against mine.

Waking up in the morning, something immediately feels off; my eyes pop open, and I notice immediately that Ava isn’t beside me.

If she isn’t in the apartment, someone is going to die.

I quickly get up and head to the bathroom, knowing she isn’t there before I enter because the door has been left wide open, but I know I still must look just in case.

Not finding her in the bathroom or in my closet, I search the rest of the apartment and don’t find her anywhere. Now I am furious because the only way she would be able to leave my apartment is if the guard at the front door were to leave his post.

All I know is, my little bird is gone .

Gathering the men that can get here quickly enough, I tell them to search everywhere I have a record of her going since I have been having her followed.

While my men do that, I check the cameras.

I never should have uncuffed her, and she wouldn’t have had the chance to leave me.

I just wanted to sleep with her pressed against me.

Entering my home office, I approach my computer and pull up the cloud storage where the camera feed is saved. I fast-forward through the recording of us fucking but store the clip away for later use; right now, I am determined to find my little bird.

I finally came to the time she woke up and slowed down the recording.

According to the camera feed, she woke up around 5:15 in the morning and slowly moved off the bed.

She stands there thinking for a minute before going into my closet, grabbing one of my shirts, and throws it over her head.

So she still wants a piece of me even though she left.

After she puts my shirt over her head, she searches for her skirt that she wore the night before and drags it on over her legs. Now that she’s dressed, you can see on the camera as she formulates a plan inside that beautiful head of hers.

She slowly sneaks out of my bedroom as I watch until I have to switch camera views to follow her throughout the penthouse.

As she gets to the door and opens it, none other than Ivan is standing guard.

They are speaking too low for my cameras to pick up their conversation before he moves away from the door and lets her through.

To say that I am pissed is an understatement, but I don’t want to react until I know the facts.

All I know is Ivan is a dead man for helping my ptichka leave me. This is unacceptable.

I call the men I sent to check out her house. As Pyotr answers the phone, I leave no room for niceties as I immediately ask, “Well, anything?”

“I was just about to call you to tell you that I have eyes on her and she’s with Ivan, but you may want to come and see for yourself, sir.

I don’t trust the situation.” Pyotr responds professionally.

Despite his calmness, the undercurrent of concern that I hear under his words fuels the anxiety I feel stirring in my gut.

What the absolute fuck, is Ivan thinking?