Page 22 of Forced By the Obsessed Bratva (Yezhov Bratva #8)

The first thing I felt the moment I regained consciousness was cold.

It seeped into my body and settled in my chest like frost, leaking into my ribs, freezing my lungs before I could even pry my eyes open.

Then there was pain buried deep inside my head, and a slow fire behind my eyes like I’d been hit by a truck.

My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth, parched and feral. The metallic flavor in my throat was a warning that something was wrong even before my eyes had time to adjust to the light of day.

I narrowed my eyes for a moment to let it get used to the brightness around me.

The ceiling above me pulsed, still a little blurry, and the shadows in the corners of the room stretched longer than they should.

My body felt heavy and strange, as if someone had replaced my blood with something heavier. And then the last memories I had started to return.

Zoella.

Her name was the first thing that came to mind.

I remembered everything—her staying in the bathroom longer than usual, the cocktail she made, and her walking out on me just before the darkness swallowed me.

Shooting up from the bed, I tried to raise myself to my feet, but the movement was too sudden, and my body wasn’t ready for it yet. The world whirled around me, and for a moment, I was afraid I would faint again.

I braced myself on my elbows, inhaling deeply, desperate to fill my lungs with air.

A deep voice cleared a throat somewhere in the room, dragging my attention. “You’re awake.”

I slowly turned.

Rurik, Eduard, Kiril, and another guard stood at a corner of the room, their gazes on me as if they were watching a beast waking in a cage.

No one said a word.

“Where is she?” My voice was a cracked rasp, heavy with something emotional. Rage, anger, and worry.

Eduard stepped forward. “She’s gone.”

I blinked. “What the fuck do you mean gone?”

“Left sometime before dawn. Took the black Volvo. Security let her out after she showed your clearance code.”

“She doesn’t have access to my codes,” I barked, my fists clenching. How could they be so fucking stupid?

“They assumed she did,” he replied, whipping his head around to Kirill and the other guard. “She’s your wife; they couldn’t have stopped her.”

I swept my legs over the bed, dropping my feet on the floor and pinned my glare on Kirill “So you’re telling me,” I said slowly, “that she walked out of this building, past the estate gates, past all of you, and no one so much as thought to stop her or call to confirm if I’d given her access to go out? ”

Kirill bowed his head. “I’m sorry, sir.”

I shook my head. “There has to be a reason why she pulled a stunt like that.”

I’d seen the apologetic look in her eyes before she left. Something was wrong; I could feel it.

“I think I know what it is,” Rurik added quietly. “I saw her near the garden a few nights ago. That same corner where you spoke with Damien during the party.”

The weight of it landed like a fist. My hand curled around the bedpost, my fingers tense as realization punched me right in the guts.

She’d heard about Yulia. She knew her sister’s death wasn’t an accident, and she knew that I knew.

How much of it had she heard?

Fuck.

I closed my eyes, and I could see her face from last night, the sadness and hatred in her eyes. The fight between logic and emotions.

She had known. She must’ve been thinking of it the moment I touched her. And she kissed me anyway.

The anger I’d been restraining surged through me in an instant. I stood, ignoring the tremble in my legs, and grabbed hold of the chair beside the dresser, hurling it across the room with a growl. It hit the wall and splintered, wood flying everywhere across the floor.

“She drugged me,” I snarled through gritted teeth. “She planned it after she heard me speak with Damien.”

Rurik didn’t flinch. “You underestimated her.”

“No,” I snarled. “I trusted her.”

And that was what made it different.

I had trusted her even when my instincts kicked against it. I allowed her to touch places that no one else had ever touched.

She abused my trust.

And then she left.

***

The house still spiraled around me by nightfall. Even the walls creaked with tension. The staff moved more quietly, and the guards stood farther away.

No one spoke without being spoken to.

I barricaded myself in my office. I hadn’t been able to eat or drink since I woke up earlier today. I didn’t have an appetite for anything, not even water.

I paced my office, replaying every second of last night and trying to come up with an idea of where Zoella had gone.

It was definitely not her dad’s estate, and Kirill had confirmed she hadn’t gone to any of her friends either.

On the screen of my computer, I pulled up city maps. Notated every path she could’ve driven through, and I pried open security tapes, sorting through timestamps.

She was smarter than I gave her credit for. She’d managed to evade the security cameras outside.

Rurik was right. I’d underestimated her.

I lifted my head when a knock on the door reverberated through my office, pulling my attention for a second.

It was probably one of the maids coming to ask what I would like for dinner, but that wasn’t important now, so I ignored the knock.

Whoever it was knocked again, a little harder this time.

“Come in!”

The door swung open, and the chief maid, Ana, slipped inside the office. She’d worked for my mother for years, and now she worked for me too. She was the most loyal person in this household.

I didn’t look at her. “I’m not interested in dinner.”

“I know,” she said softly. “But…I need to show you something.”

Leaning back, I peered at her through furrowed brows, prepared to yell at her if whatever she had to show me wasn’t worth my time—until I looked at what she was holding.

A white stick. Thin. Plastic. I knew what it was.

She walked over to me and carefully put it on the edge of my desk. “I gave her this two days ago. I’d noticed she was getting sensitive to the smell of food. After she ran away…I found this in the trash can. I thought you’d want to know.”

She took a step back, wringing her hands nervously. “I didn’t want to keep it from you. I thought maybe she didn’t want to tell you.”

I looked at it, at the bright pink lines that confirmed everything.

She was pregnant.

I blinked at the test strip, air draining from my lungs as I stared in disbelief. I couldn’t muster a single word.

Ana moved, making her way to the door. “That’s all. I’ll leave you alone now.”

The door shut behind her with a click, and I was alone once again. The room was as quiet as a graveyard.

My hand moved over the table, and I picked up the test delicately. My heart lurched in my throat, my stomach twisting into a knot.

She’d found out she was pregnant with my child, and that hadn’t stopped her. She drugged me and ran away with my baby in her belly.

I rose from my seat, gritting my teeth so hard my jaw ached. I could forgive many things.

But not this.

She could run to the end of the world if she wanted. She could even crawl into a tiny hole and hide from me if that made her feel better.

But one thing was certain: I was going to find her. I didn’t care if I had to turn the entire world upside down to do that.

I needed to find her.

And my child.