Page 24 of Pregnant Bratva Hostage (Dubrov Bratva #17)

I wake up and I’m immediately disappointed that she’s not next to me. But a smile spreads over my face when I find the note on her pillow.

I wonder what time she left?

Glancing at my watch, I’m shocked to see it’s already past nine. What a relaxing, late morning. I never sleep this late.

Obviously, all of yesterday’s adventures wore me down, in the best kind of way.

Taking advantage of the lazy, slow morning, I shower for a long time, drink two cups of strong coffee, browse through my phone, and wonder what she’s got up her sleeve for this afternoon.

She’s obviously planning something; otherwise, she wouldn’t have told me not to plan something.

I chuckle to myself. She’s keeping me on my toes. Keeping me guessing. And I really like it.

Tania’s apartment isn’t that far from me, so when the clock hits eleven, I start to worry. If she were just going to her apartment and back, she should be home by now.

I call her, and I’m relieved when she answers.

“Hi, darling,” I smile into the phone.

“Hi,” she replies, a little short.

“I’m missing you. How much longer before you get back?”

“I’m not sure. I’m kind of busy,” she says. I knit my brows, wondering why she sounds so off. So cold. It might just be my imagination, though.

“I’m looking forward to finding out what you’ve got planned for this afternoon. I can’t wait to have you in my arms again.”

“Alright. Listen. I have to go.” Her words cut me. She’s not sounding like herself at all. What’s going on?

“Oh,” I say, disappointed. “Okay, well, what time will you be back?”

“Not sure.”

Half of me wants to shout at her for being rude. But I hold back, reassuring myself that it’s some kind of misunderstanding. Maybe she’s in the middle of something and distracted. I know her. So I shouldn’t worry.

I’ll ask her about it when she gets back, and it’ll make sense.

“I’ll see you later then, darling.”

She hangs up.

Not even a goodbye.

It’s like a dagger in my heart, and I swallow hard to push away the pain of her coldness.

Tossing my phone onto the sofa as I walk past it, I’m scowling, upset. Why would she treat me like that?

Okay, wait, I need to not go down some rabbit hole here. Like I already decided, she’s just busy and distracted. When she gets home, it’ll all make sense.

But the morning turns into afternoon, and the day drifts on, and I don’t hear from her. Now I really am starting to worry.

I’m about to call her again, probably not able to hold back from sounding angry this time, when my phone rings.

“Luka?” I snap, sounding short with him.

“Boris is back—and my guys tell me Tania is with him. Did you guys have a plan or something we didn’t know about? You’re supposed to tell us—”

“No, there was no plan.”

“So then why is she with him?”

“I’m not sure. There must be an explanation. I’ll call her now and figure it out.”

“Get back to me. We need to know why he came back to the city so soon. She’ll have insider info. We expected him to be gone for at least two weeks. And nothing happened with the Sokolovs.”

“I’ll find out,” I say, my throat is dry and tight.

The call ends, and I can’t tear my eyes off the phone. She’s with her uncle? That means she was with him when I called—and she lied to me about needing to go to her apartment this morning.

Was it a cover for her needing to meet up with him?

Fuck.

Has Tania been playing me this whole time? A double agent, pretending to help us but actually still working with him? How could she be so good? How could she trick me so efficiently?

Of course, she could. She’s had years of learning from the worst manipulator on the planet. Her uncle would have trained her in deception.

She tricked me.

She made me believe—so many things that aren’t true.

My heart splinters inside me. I press my hand over my chest.

Stop jumping to conclusions.

What else must I assume?

She cared about you.

Apparently not.

Tania doesn’t come home that afternoon or the next day. I keep trying to phone her, but her phone rings once or twice and then goes to voicemail. That or she just cuts the call off right away. She’s there—she just doesn’t want to talk to me. Her phone is on, but she’s avoiding my calls.

She has very successfully ghosted me.

On the third day, I’m furious, so I drive to her apartment and break in. But she’s not there. It looks like she hasn’t been here for a few days.

“Where the fuck are you?” I shout to the empty space.

She’s vanished. Disappeared into thin air. What does this mean? Did she get what she needed from me?

In a rage, I leave her apartment and drive to the nearest bar.

Anyone who steps in front of me or stands too close to me, I lash out at. Until I’m standing alone at the bar, with a wide space around me, drinking tequila shot after shot and hating the fact that I let myself feel anything at all.

Hating her and hating her uncle.

But mostly just furious that I fell for it.

A pretty brunette stands at the bar next to me, and I glare at her. Fucking women. All the same.

“Hey, gorgeous,” she smiles.

“Fuck off,” I snap.

“What did you just say to me?” she gasps, turning to glare at me.

“I said, fuck off, are you deaf? You women are poison. Lying, manipulative vipers. Get the fuck away from me before I do something I regret.”

The barman and bouncer move closer to me. The woman hurries away, realizing I’m not to be tested.

“It’s time for you to leave,” the bouncer says.

“I’m not done drinking.” I pick up the bottle of tequila.

“Yes, you are,” he growls.

I laugh bitterly and swing the bottle at his head.

He ducks and punches me in the stomach.

I don’t even try to dodge it. I want to feel pain that isn’t the pain of what she’s done. I want to feel something else.

I let the bouncer throw three more punches before he steps back, wondering why I’m not fighting back.

I’m laughing, though.

Laughing loudly.

“Get the fuck up, psycho.” He lifts me to my feet and drags me over his shoulder, tossing me out the door.

I climb into my car, not caring about anything. Not caring if I live or die.

I honestly don’t know how I make it home, but I do.

It’s past three in the morning when I wake up, lying face down, fully dressed on my bed that still smells like her.

“Ugh,” I groan, rolling onto my back and clutching my head. A thick headache is pulsing through me.

I need water. And seven painkillers.

I haven’t drunk that much in a very, very long time.

Thank goodness I don’t get stuck with killer hangovers. This headache will subside after I’ve downed a liter of water.

I push myself off the bed, groaning again, missing her, trying to ignore the hurt.

I grab water and pills and down both, then, because I have nothing else to do I find myself walking towards my home office and flicking the laptop on.

The bug is still in her uncle’s office.

She knows about it, but maybe she forgot to tell him, and I can still hear something.

I want to know what’s going on.

I need something.

Sure enough, it’s still connected. I can’t believe it. A bad oversight on her part.

I sit for hours, listening to random bullshit.

Some guys are working night shift, talking about their wives and how annoying they are.

Discussing the latest game and which team has the better goalie.

All shit I don’t care about. I doze off at one point and wake up, and they’re still going on about nothing.

But around eight in the morning, my heart leaps into my throat.

Her voice comes through the speaker.

“When do you want to go ahead with this?” she asks, footsteps in the background indicating she’s walking into the office with someone else.

“In the next few days. You two—get out.” Her uncle’s voice is rude and blunt.

“Yes, sir,” one of the men I’ve been listening to for the past few hours replies. There are more footsteps, a door closing, and a loud huff.

“Bert, find out when their next shipment is.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Tania—do you know? You spent so much time with the Andreevs, you must know,” Boris says.

“I wasn’t involved in their shipments or anything like that.” Her voice aches inside me. She’s planning with him. Planning against my family.

“Useless. Well, it doesn’t matter. We’re still going to attack in a few days.

Like we discussed—you’ll get him to meet with you, and you’ll make up with him, telling him you missed him and all that shit.

He’ll fall for it, and he’ll be distracted.

That’s when we make our move. It’ll be a clean shot.

From there, we can use his keys and also get into his brother’s homes on either side of his. We can clean out the whole family.”

They plan to assassinate me and then attack my family at home? That’s fucked up.

“This is a waterfall of chaos.” She huffs in annoyance, as though the effort of murdering my whole family is a bother to her. My jaw clenches tightly as rage boils through me.

“It won’t be chaos, we’ve got it planned properly. All you need to do is play your part.”

“I’d rather be plunged into cold water, instead of being there.”

“Girl, I’ve already spoken to you about this. You’re annoying me. Go and get some work done,” Boris snaps at her. So he’s still an asshole, and she’s just going with the flow.

I can’t believe this. She’s completely fine with attacking my entire family in the safety of their homes. All of her guilt, her worry over what she did to Rose before—it was all an act.

My heart is racing, and my blood is boiling.

I have to send this recording to my brothers. They need to know. At least we have a few days to plan for their attack and kill every fucking one of them when they arrive.

An image flashes in my mind—an image of Tania, dead, shot down by my guards. It hurts. It’s terrifying to think of. It practically cripples me. Yet how can I let her live after this kind of betrayal?

Wait.

Wait what? Whatever has to happen to keep my family safe—that is what I have to do.

No, you’re missing something.

I shake my head. The headache is gone, but my mind is tired and angry.

Am I missing something?

There was something strange about the way she was talking. Using weird euphemisms.

It doesn’t matter. She’s a fucking psycho just like her uncle.

I knit my brows and shake my head.

Ark. You need to calm down.

You are missing something here. Something isn’t right.

And you’re not thinking straight because you’re so angry.

Pause. Make a coffee. Take a breath.

I storm out of my office and down to the kitchen. Sometimes my anger gets the better of me, and my brothers are right when they say I act without thinking. I’m reckless and spontaneous. It’s not always a bad thing. But it’s not always a good thing either.

If I can get my thoughts to stop racing and my blood to stop boiling, I can figure out if I’m right or not. If the nagging feeling is important.

It’s a full hour later before I return to the office. Showered, dressed in a fresh pair of jeans and a black shirt, and was much calmer than I was before.

I click play on that section of the recording so I can listen to it again.

Keeping my mind clear, I focus on the exchange of words.

“This is a waterfall of chaos.”

“It won’t be chaos, we’ve got it planned properly. All you need to do is play your part.”

“I’d rather be plunged into cold water, instead of being there.”

“Girl, I’ve already spoken to you about this. You’re annoying me. Go and get some work done.”

I play it again.

And again.

There isn’t annoyance in her voice. It’s traces of fear. Of desperation. When I close my eyes, I can even see her expression.

And she’s not using random euphemisms.

They are very specifically chosen.

She’d rather be swimming at a waterfall than where her uncle wants her to be.

She’d rather be with me than with her uncle.

He’s holding her captive. She’s not there by choice.

How the fuck did I miss this the first time?

She knew I’d listen. She made sure to use keywords that would catch my attention. She didn’t forget to tell her uncle about the bug in his office—she purposefully kept it from him.

Tania is asking for help.

Boris might even know that she betrayed him, which means she is in very serious danger. She might only be alive because he needs to use her in his plan to gain access to my mansion.

I grab my phone and dial Luka.

We have to get everyone together. Including our allies. We need to put a plan together before he attacks—and I need to get Tania back.