Page 1 of Pregnant Bratva Wife (Vadim Bratva #13)

It had been a shit day from the start.

First, we got intel that the Espositos had a deal going down along the abandoned railyard on the outskirts of town. My men and I? We organized. Parked far off. Made our way on foot to get those bastards without spooking them off.

I had been waiting for two fucking hours in this frozen hellhole of a railyard. December in New York was the kind of cold that could whip skin off bones. My patience was hanging by a thread.

The Espositos were supposed to show up over an hour ago. Where the hell were they? I couldn’t wait to get my hands on them. After what they’d done to our family, after all the skimming off our shipments, after all the attacks—they had this coming. I was ready to put them in their place.

“Any news?” I spoke into my radio.

“Nothing, Boss,” one of the men on lookout reported.

I rose higher on my knees to take a peek around from my hiding spot. The empty tracks stretching into the gray New York morning showed nothing. No sign of life whatsoever.

All our men had been in position for over two hours now. All of them pissed. All of them cold.

I settled back into my position of hiding. Beside me, my brother Dante grumbled. “Maybe your intel was wrong?”

I shot him a look of annoyance. “My intel is never wrong.”

Dante just shrugged, grinned, and rolled his eyes all at the same time in that reckless way of his.

Like he always had something better to do, something more important.

Something more exciting. And we were all fools going through the motions of life the way we did.

This reckless confidence of his had almost gotten him killed three times last year alone.

Just then, I heard the shot crack through the air. Clean like a whistle. Loud like death.

“Get down!” I roared, shoving Dante’s head down with my hand and dropping low to the ground behind the metal container where we were taking cover.

Dante, that idiot, slid over to the corner to peer around. “Fuck!” he hissed, turning back to me pale-faced. “One of our guys has been shot down.”

Fuck.

“It’s a setup!” I yelled into my radio and exited my hiding spot to return fire. Someone was actively trying to kill us. Dante joined me without question.

The firing just didn’t stop. The problem? We didn’t know where the hell the shooters were. This wasn’t just the Espositos showing up late. This was us walking into their den like little playthings.

“Fall back!” I ordered into my comm. “Fall back now!”

We retreated under heavy fire, our men covering Dante and me as we moved. We were leaving with three fewer men than we had arrived with.

And I repaid their loyalty to our family by leading them straight to their deaths.

By the time we reached the exit point, my fury had turned into a deadly need for vengeance. Someone would pay for those lives cut short. I’d make sure of it.

Once we had regrouped at our safe house a mile away, I gathered my men. “Any updates?”

Anton, who was on the phone with the snipers called in for backup, turned to face me. “It was a single shooter, Boss. The snipers caught him trying to head north.”

“A single shooter?” I raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “One man did this?”

Anton nodded grimly. “He took position and knew exactly where we’d be.”

“Do we know why?”

“A broker hired him. Someone knew we were coming.”

“Damn it!” A broker meant that we’d never know who ordered the command against us. Brokers never gave names. Brokers moved like ghosts. Today had been for nothing. We had put in all this effort only to be duped and left empty-handed.

In my mind, there was only one group keen enough to toy with us like this: The Espositos.

But we had no proof it was them. They’d gone about it with strategy. They used a broker. But how the hell did they know where we would be? Could it be that while we were watching the Espositos, they’d been watching us?

God. I was furious. But I had learned long ago to keep it banked in a little corner of my heart. Cold anger led to productive decisions. Hot anger made you stupid.

I planned to let this rage fester, brim, stew. Just until I had enough in me to take the next step.

“We got played,” Dante growled.

“Like fucking children,” I agreed. “Stand down for now. We won’t retaliate until we know for sure who it was. Try to see if there’s a money trail that can lead us to the broker.” I turned to one of my men.

“Are you serious? Three men are dead, Federico! We need to act now!” Dante protested.

I levelled him a warning glare. “I know exactly how many men we lost. And the Espositos will pay three times over. But we move smart, not angry and reckless. Understood?”

He held my gaze for a moment, but eventually nodded with reluctance. After all, I was his older brother. I was the boss around here.

“Good. Now go home. Cool off. I’ll call when I have something.”

Dante grumbled, but left with his men. I ordered the rest of mine to head home and get some rest.

“But, Boss—” Anton protested, but I waved him off.

“My car’s parked right around the corner, Anton,” I told him. “I’ll manage.”

My right-hand man looked reluctant, but nodded. He had known me long enough to realize I needed to be alone to lick my wounds after what had just happened. Fuck. This was embarrassing. I didn’t know what I would tell our oldest brother, the Pakhan of our family. Caspian would be furious.

I walked out of the safehouse, frustrated beyond belief. I pulled out my phone and called the informant.

“Your intel was wrong,” I told him what happened. “Next time, check your facts. If something like this ever happens again, it’s your head we’ll be coming for next.”

***

By the time I reached by car, I was tired, cold, and angry. I needed to get home, get a glass of scotch, listen to some music, and hit the pool. This morning had taken the fight out of me.

And tomorrow, I would wake up again and plan my next move. The Espositos were a cancer I needed to cut out. They wouldn’t know what hit them. I’d wipe their entire operation off the map, starting with—

“What the fuck?”

I stopped cold, staring at my car—my beautiful, custom-built fucking Bentley .

What the hell happened here? There was a long, wide, and deep jagged scratch cutting into the beautiful black metal along the driver’s side.

After everything today, all I needed was for some asshole to scratch my car.

I was furious, ready to call the garage to see if I could have the car dropped off that evening, when I heard the sound of a woman sobbing.

I would have driven away, had it not been for what she was saying through her tears.

“Seriously? Did you seriously have to go and bang up a car that costs more than what you’ll earn in your whole, entire life, Autumn?”

I couldn’t believe my ears. The person who scratched my car was still there, behind the pillar.

I followed the source of the voice and finally found her. A woman sat on the ground with her back against the pillar. She had her face buried in her hands as she cried.

“—and then my boss fires me because he says I have an attitude problem, which is such bullshit because he’s given my position to his daughter! Talk about nepotism!” she said between sobs, apparently talking to herself.

And then, she threw her head and hands up at the skies as though she was personally taking her day up with God himself.

“And then did Jason seriously have to decide that today’s the perfect day to tell me he’s been sleeping with my roommate for three months? Are you telling me that now I’m homeless too? I mean, I am, aren’t I? Because how the hell am I supposed to live with them ?”

I remained still, watching her. Her hair was a cascading river of beautiful, shiny blonde that fell over her shoulders. She was built slim. Dressed well in beige trousers and a light blue satin blouse, though of course I wouldn’t have called the clothes expensive.

“So I spent my last twenty dollars on gas to go to this interview, only to find out they hired internally yesterday and no one bothered to fucking call me!”

She punched the air, then let out something like a groan and a howl.

“And then—then!—I hit this—this absurdly expensive car that I can’t pay to get repaired, and now I’m going to get sued on top of everything else! Can you ever cut me a break?” she howls into the sky, straight at God.

I watched, transfixed by this woman, who seemed more like a firecracker than a car destroyer.

“God, the universe truly hates me today, doesn’t it?” She let her voice and head drop back into her hands. “What’s next? A piano falling on my head? Just get it over with already!”

I found myself smiling when I should have been furious. She banged up my Bentley. Probably left me with a five-figure repair bill.

Yet, I found myself…fascinated.

She was as real as a woman could be. Somewhere along the way, I had forgotten what the struggles of the world were.

This woman, who had just been fired from her job, had gone through a breakup with her ex, found herself on the brink of homelessness, and banged up a Bentley, somehow reminded me of the simplicities of life.

She was pure, unfiltered emotion.

In my world, when one had a tough time, they kept it hidden away behind masks. Everyone pretended to be spectacular, perfect, at the height of their success. But here she was, falling apart without apology, even finding humor in her own disaster. It was...captivating.

I stepped forward, and my shoe scuffed the ground.

She froze, then slowly looked back over her shoulder.

Jesus Christ.

Her eyes.

The bluest I’d ever seen, like the Mediterranean on a clear day.

“I—” she stammered, scrambling to her feet. Her eyes darted over me, my clothes, and the keys I clutched in my hand. “Oh my god. Is that—is this your car?”

I nodded, and she froze, like a deer in the headlights.

Up close, she was even more stunning. Young—mid-twenties, probably. Beautiful in a natural way that surgeries and treatments aimed for but never quite managed. A pretty flush colored her cheeks as her lips were parted in shock.

“I’m so so so sorry,” she rushed on, rummaging through her purse. “I have insurance—well, I did have insurance, but it expired last month, and I couldn’t afford to renew it, but I swear I’ll pay for the damage.”

She forced the business card into my hand. “Here’s my number. You can call me when you get an estimate. I can’t pay it all at once, but I can do installments or work it off or—”

“Work it off?” I interrupted, raising an eyebrow.

Her flush deepened. “Not like that! God, no. I meant, like, cleaning or filing or whatever. I’m good at organizing things.”

I took the card, glancing at it.

Autumn Malone.

“I heard everything,” I said, watching her eyes widen. “Sounds like you’re having a rough day, Miss Malone.”

She laughed nervously. “That’s one way to put it. I’d go with ‘cosmic joke’ or ‘karmic bitch-slap,’ but ‘rough day’ works too.”

I found myself smiling, despite the day I’d had.

“Your car is worth more than my entire existence,” she continued, gesturing helplessly. “I’m so, so sorry.”

I glanced at the scratch, then back at her. “I doubt you can afford to fix this.”

Her shoulders slumped. “I know. But I’ll figure something out.”

Something shifted inside me then. A decision formed before I’d even consciously considered it. I’d built my success by following my instincts, and right now, mine was telling me not to let this woman walk away.

“I have a proposition for you,” I said, tucking her card into my pocket.

Wariness replaced the despair in her eyes.

Smart girl.

“What kind of proposition?” she asked cautiously.

I held out my own card. “Federico Lebedev,” I said. “I own several businesses in the city.”

That was technically true, although most of them existed primarily for money laundering.

“Uh-huh.” She looked confused, staring down at my card.

“I’m also in need of a wife.”

Her mouth dropped open, and her eyes snapped to meet mine. “Excuse me?” Her voice was a near shriek.

“You need a place to live. You need financial stability. I need a wife just to get well-wishers off my back.” Also true, in a way . The old guard respected family men more than bachelors. “Marry me, and I’ll take care of all your problems.”

She stared at me like I’d sprouted a second head. “Are you insane? I don’t even know you!”

I shrugged. “Of course, you don’t know me. I don’t know you either. Think of it as a practical arrangement,” I said. “Nothing more.”

She looked me up and down, and I knew what she saw. A handsome man. Money. I was used to women responding to me positively. Used to getting what I want with minimal effort.

Which is why her next words caught me completely off guard.

“No. Absolutely not. I’d rather live in my car.”

She turned on her heel and walked away.

I stood there, actually stunned. Women didn’t say no to me. Especially not women in desperate situations.

She walked off in a near-run, as if she couldn’t wait to get away from me. As for me, I couldn’t help but think that Autumn Malone turned me down.

Despite all the problems she was having, she turned down a knight in shining armor.

And I didn’t know what else to do except respect her for that.

I was wrong.

She wasn’t just a firecracker.

She was the only real thing I’d seen in years.

I smiled again, looking down at her card, knowing she’d call. She might not have money, but she certainly had pride, and I somehow knew she’d be calling around to pay off her debts.