Page 109 of Owned Bratva Bride

As the plan unfolded and I waited, my suppressed fear surfaced, raw and real. The possibility that she was dead. That Navarro had already silenced her before I knew she was missing at all. It could be the reason he didn’t reach out after I destroyed his warehouse.

My exhale was rough as I forced the thought away.

I couldn’t imagine what my life would look like if she were gone. I wasn’t sure it would be a life anymore.

The sound of gunshots filled the air. I got out of the car.

A gun in each hand, I darted straight into the warehouse.

The warehouse was a flurry of activity. Precisely, violent activity.

From the look of things, my men had the upper hand as expected.

“Fancy seeing you after all this while.”

I turned to the right.

Lucien Navarro.

“I could say the same. Now I don’t have to hunt you down to kill you,” I uttered.

“Before you even find out where your lovely wife is. The place where my men are doing as they please with her. Her body, specifically,” he remarked, his smirk proud.

Then it clicked.

He was trying to stall, to get a rise out of me, to distract me.

That told me one thing: He was bluffing.

His men were probably trying to move her away. Then he would hang her location over my head. Then I wouldn’t be able to kill him.

His smirk disappeared when he caught my chuckle.

I pulled the trigger, and his body collapsed to the floor. Walking over to his body, I shot his chest again.

“That’s for my wife.”

Shooting my way through, I opened the first door. It was empty. After the third empty room, a chill went through me.

What if he took her and bolted when he heard my men arrive?

I felt the hot graze of a bullet on my arm. Looking to the right, I sent the bald shooter to the ground with one shot.

I hastened my steps as I went to the door on the far opposite wall.

I threw it open.

Marielle’s blonde head caught my eye.

My knees practically wobbled.

She blinked slowly at me. I could see the bloodstains on the side of her face despite the darkness of the room.

Her lips moved like she was trying to say something. But no sound came out.

She was strapped to a chair, and I was crouched in front of her immediately, loosening the ropes.

She reached for me as the ropes fell off. I held her to my chest, my heart still accelerating.