Page 26 of Bratva’s Vow (Bratva’s Undoing #2)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

MAXIM

R elief.

That came first.

Before the ache.

Before the quiet, seething anger.

Before the hollow sting of betrayal.

He was safe.

After hours of silence, after tearing the city apart, after threatening half the goddamn world, I had him again.

I owed Jess big-time for calling me to let me know where Wren was.

Since I turned her apartment upside down to find Wren this morning, I expected no help from her.

She’d made it clear she resented me for making her betray Wren.

But even if Wren didn’t, at least she understood the severity of the situation. She saw it for what it was.

Because, for the moment, Wren wasn’t just in danger. He was the danger. To himself. To me.

The chief of police knew about him. Arkady knew. That made two too many. Wren wasn’t an intern anymore. He was my weakness, and they had seen it, like I’d feared.

He sat beside me in the back of the car, as far away as the space allowed, spine stiff, jaw clenched, face turned toward the window like it could save him. Not once did he look at me. Not once since I’d found him.

If I trusted myself, I would have dragged him over my lap and taught him what running cost. But I didn’t trust myself. Not right now. Not after this morning.

I’d woken to an empty bed and a cold hollow in the sheets where his body should have been. My hand had reached for him like it had the right. Like it expected softness. Warmth. Forgiveness.

Instead, I got absence.

And then the footage. Grainy, black and white, time-stamped at 2:14 a.m. Wren, slipping out the door like a ghost, like he meant to vanish.

No note. No explanation.

Just gone.

After everything—after last night—I thought I’d been forgiven. I thought his kiss had meant something. That the way he clung to me, opened to me, let me in… that it was real.

But I’d been wrong.

He’d used me. Used my affection for him against me. He’d slept with me to lower my guard. To give me enough comfort to dull the blade before driving it in.

And that, somehow, hurt more than I wanted to admit.

He left me.

I knew he was hurt. I knew he was angry, but although everyone else told me he would never forgive me, I never believed it. Because we had something worth fighting for, dammit.

But he left.

Sergei drove in silence, reading the mood. No one said a word.

My hands rested on my knees, fingers curling and uncurling like they were trying to find something to hold that wasn’t breaking.

I wanted to reach for him. To pull him into my arms, but his rejection stung more than anything else.

What if he came willingly into my arms? What if I believed once more that he’d forgiven me? Only for him to run again?

My heart couldn’t take it. I’d trashed my office out of frustration.

Archie had sent all the staff home and closed the office for the rest of the week.

His fear that I might snap and shoot someone who offended me was real.

But he was partly wrong. A gunshot wouldn’t be satisfying.

I needed something solid in my hand that I could use to bash against a hard surface over and over until nothing was left of it.

Violence boiled beneath my skin, waiting to bubble over.

Waiting to flood the city in blood if I hadn’t found Wren.

The car pulled up to the driveway.

Clean gravel. Gated security. Everything that was mine, everything under my control.

Except him.

Archie stood waiting with Nik and Dezi flanking him. I climbed out of the vehicle first, holding the door for Wren. He slipped through the other passenger door. A muscle ticked in my jaw. I slammed the door shut and clenched my teeth.

Jess pulled in behind us, stepped out, and crossed her arms, eyes flicking to Wren, then to me. Her resentment radiated from her.

“Dezi,” I said, not looking at Wren, “take him inside.”

When Dezi gestured for him to follow, Wren didn’t move.

He lingered by the car, eyes finally on me now, narrowed, uncertain. “You’re not coming inside?”

“I have work to do. ”

He blinked, inhaled sharply, and sucked his bottom lip between his teeth. For a second, I thought he would accept my words without questioning me. I should have known better.

“So that’s it?” he asked. “You get my best friend to betray me. You drag me back from the motel, then walk away? You don’t have anything to say to me?”

I didn’t answer.

Didn’t trust myself to.

Because I was terrified of saying the wrong thing and pushing him away again.

I turned away.

“Dammit, Maxim, don’t walk away from me.”

“You’re embarrassing yourself by making a scene,” Archie said sharply from behind me. “Go with Dezi and don’t make any more trouble for Maxim.”

Irritated at Archie for reprimanding Wren, I spun to face him. Only Jess was already in his face, stepping protectively in front of Wren.

“Don’t talk to him that way,” she snapped, shrugging off Nik’s hand when he reached for her. “If Maxim had told him the truth in the first place, would things have been this bad? Who the fuck do you think you are anyway?”

Archie straightened his jacket, eyes sharp beneath the polished veneer. “I’m Maxim’s sovetnik,” he said coolly, his voice rising just enough to cut through Jess’s fury.

Jess blinked. “His what?”

“His adviser. His right hand. His”—he glanced at me—“trusted second-in-command. You don’t last in this world without someone who knows you inside and out. Someone who’s got your back no matter what.”

Jess scoffed, disgust bleeding into her voice. “And I’ve got his back.” She pointed at Wren. “To be clear, I don’t give a damn what you call yourself, but you come at him again?— ”

“Jess—” Nik stepped forward, placing himself subtly between his woman and Archie. “Baby, this isn’t about you.”

“Like hell it isn’t. You all roped me into a situation that made me betray him, and didn’t even have the guts to tell me the full truth. I’m mad at you too, Nik!”

“Must she be here?” Archie asked no one in particular. “She has nothing to contribute to the situation, and if it’s not a solution, it’s a problem.”

“Hey, she has every right to be upset,” Nik growled, baring his teeth at Archie. “If not for Jess, would we have found Wren? And what the fuck do you mean by ‘it’?”

Of course I would have found Wren. Did Nik really doubt that? It might have taken me longer to comb every nook and cranny, but as long as I had breath left in my body, I would always find him. There was no distance he could run that I couldn’t reach.

“Enough,” I snapped, low and biting. “Standing here and arguing isn’t going to solve anything. Archie, you are out of line. Jess has every right to be here. She’s Wren’s family.”

“For fuck’s sakes, Maxim, he already knows,” Archie said.

“What if I tell the truth like it is? What’s the sense of carrying on as if you don’t deal in blood and bullets?

It’s a part of our world. It is who we are, and having the hots for some twenty-one-year-old doesn’t change that.

If he can’t handle that life, then maybe you should let him go. ”

“I’ll never let him go!” I roared, blood rushing hot behind my eyes. “He’s mine. Do you hear me? Mine .”

I took a step forward, fists clenched at my sides, the rage clawing to the surface from a place so deep I didn’t know if it would ever stop burning.

“He belongs to me and always will.” I was so fucking angry.

Spittle flew from my mouth, and with every word, my voice swelled, piercing the open space.

“Nothing will ever change that. Nothing. This is his fucking home, so stop fucking telling me to let him go. The next person who so much as suggests it, I will cut his tongue out and feed it to him, and I don’t care who that is.

He”—I pointed in Wren’s direction without looking at him—“is always going to be mine.”

Jess had stepped back into Nik’s arms as though he could protect her from my tirade. Archie parted his lips like he was about to argue again but thought better of it. He must have seen how dangerously close he was to becoming mute.

But I didn’t look at Wren.

I couldn’t.

He always complained about how possessive I was with him. I’d practically pissed on him in front of everyone. What if I looked at him and his face was painted in disgust?

Worse—what if he was afraid? Of me?

I’d rather face a hundred enemies with guns at my head than look into his eyes and find fear. His anger I could accept, but not his fear.

The silence that followed was total. Even the wind had the decency to stay quiet.

A beat passed.

Two.

My heart thundered like it meant to tear through my ribs.

“Sergei,” I said finally, voice like steel against stone, “let’s go.”

I turned away, needing to move, needing to put distance between myself and the wreckage I’d probably just caused. Had I made the situation between Wren and me worse?

At the car, I looked back. My gaze landed on Nik and Dezi. “Guard him. If he’s not here when I return, if anything happens to him, I will not be responsible for my actions . ”

“You’re really leaving after all you said?” Wren cried.

I wanted to go to him but needed some space. To regulate my emotions. To think of a way I could reach him. A way that didn’t include him walking out on me again. I never wanted to relive the horror of waking up to a Wren-sized hole in my heart.

“We’ll talk later.” I used my gentlest voice, but my throat was too scratchy, so the words came out more like a threat.

Wren swept his gaze around the circle of people standing around—Jess, Nik, Viktor, Archie. Me.

Then he laughed.

Short. Bitter. Hollow.

“Well, isn’t this fucking perfect?” Wren said, trembling. “Everyone knew. Everyone. Except me. I was the punchline in a joke no one had the decency to tell. Sleeping with the mob like some wide-eyed idiot while you all smiled and played along. I hope you got your laugh. I hope it was worth it.”

“Wren—” I stepped forward.

“Don’t.” He turned without another word and walked toward the house.

No one stopped him.

Not even me.

“Maxim,” Sergei said. “I can cancel?—”

“No. Stone hasn’t been found yet, and that’s top priority.”

It was time to meet with my brigadiers.