Page 4 of Taken by the Bratva (Bychkov Bratva #1)

Daniil

What the fuck is happening to me tonight?

I took one look at her and it was like a veil was lifted from my senses and all I could see, hear, and smell was her.

All I could see was her on her knees taking my cock, her spread open on my bed, and her on all fours with her ass in the air. All I could hear was her sexy voice, and wished we were alone so I could hear her speak only to me. All I could smell was her flowery perfume that had me picturing her getting drenched in that scent by running naked through a field of wildflowers as I chased her down and kissed every inch of her perfect body when I caught her.

Aria.

Her name suits her. It’s almost as beautiful as she is, and she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever fucking seen. A damn angel dressed in white that landed here in the club tonight to tease the fucked-up monster that I am and have me wanting all sorts of things I have no business wanting.

She clearly belongs to someone else if she has those two men watching out for her, but it’s too bad for him, because I saw what she wanted in her eyes when she took one last look at me.

Me.

“So, she’s a model with bodyguards?”

my brother, Kirill, asks.

“And you heard how she spoke to them? That was hot.”

A low growl leaves me, and my other brother Maksim clears his throat and shakes his head at Kirill. He didn’t see, though, and keeps running his mouth.

“She said don’t call him. I wonder who him is.”

“K, shut the fuck up,”

my other brother Liev says.

“D’s about to lose it.”

Kirill looks away from where Aria disappeared down the stairs and over to me, pressing his lips together. At least my brothers know when to not challenge me. I raised them from when I was far too young to even be taking care of myself, so they know my temperaments better than anyone.

I walk over to the balcony and watch her descend the stairs and push her way through the crowd, trying to escape her guards. Those fucking pricks let her do it, too. If they’re going to take care of her, they need to do their fucking job. Instead, they let her talk to them like she’s in charge and let her out of their reach so they can’t protect her if she needs it. If they worked for me, they’d be dead already.

Aria is halfway across the main floor when some asshole grabs her around the waist.

“Open the fucking glass!”

I bellow, and it quickly disappears so I can lean over the railing. That fucker has his hands on her and won’t let go. Where the fuck is her security? Aria slaps him. Good girl. But he still doesn’t let her go, so she punches him.

Fuck, she’s sexy.

Her guards finally reach her and one punches the asshole so hard he crumbles to the floor in a fraction of a second.

“Get that fucker up here. The one on the floor. Now.”

Aleks, our man I had on the door, comes to see who I’m pointing to.

“Yes, Boss.”

He rushes out the door again, talking into his earpiece to the other security guys as he goes.

“What’s going on?”

my brother Andrei asks, coming up next to me.

“A second asshole decided to put his hands on her,”

is all I say, pushing off the railing and walking back over to Igor, the first asshole who touched what’s mine.

Mine.

Fuck, I shouldn’t be thinking of her as mine. I don’t get to have anything that’s mine.

Igor, along with his brother, are a part of Nikolai’s team that brought Almaz to life. Igor runs the distillery and staff, and his brother the marketing campaign. Nik trusts him and is relying on him to make sure Almaz becomes lucrative, but right now, I want to fucking kill him. I have to settle for punching him so hard, his head snaps back and he slumps down in his chair, out cold.

“Get him out of here. Take him home. Party’s over.”

I walk back to the balcony to see Aleks and another security guard hauling the asshole off the ground and dragging him through the club to the elevator.

“Or is the party just starting?”

Andrei asks, his mouth tilted up in a wry smile and his eyes filled with that sinister look he gets when the prospect of dishing out violence is on the table.

“It is for me.”

It’s a good thing he didn’t ask me why I care so much if someone put their hands on her, because I don’t have an answer for him. I just know this one isn’t leaving this club alive.

When the last of the guests leave, with Kirill setting them up in one of the standard VIP areas on the second floor, I signal to Kaz, the bartender, to close the glass again. It’s soundproof and bulletproof.

I sit back down and knock back the rest of my vodka. Rex sits right beside me where he usually does, but he’s looking up at me and lets out a little whine that’s unlike him.

“What is it?”

He looks over to the balcony and then back to me.

“Yeah, I know,”

I say quietly, scratching him between his ears like Aria did.

“She'll be back.”

Rex doesn’t like anyone but me. It’s been that way since I rescued him from some shithole house he was chained up in. He’s fine with my brothers, but no one else usually, and he let Aria pet him when he’s snarled and snapped at every woman who’s come close to me over the years.

The asshole who touched her is through the door within the minute, and I nod to the same chair the other fucker just vacated.

“What’s going on?”

he asks, confused and scared, with his eyes wild and darting between us.

“Why was I brought up here?”

I wave the guards and Kaz away, and stand slowly, pulling myself up to my full height. I’m going to enjoy this. I’m ridding the world of a scumbag who no doubt tries the same shit with other women every chance he gets because in his miserable life, he can’t get a woman any other way.

“You don’t get to pull that shit you just did in this club.”

“What are you talking about? What the fuck is going on? I was going to pay my tab, man. I swear.”

“You don’t have to worry about your bill,”

I tell him as I reach into my pocket and slide my fingers through my brass knuckles.

He swallows hard, eyeing my hand. “I don’t?”

“No. Dead men can’t pay.”

I punch him once, loving the sound of his cry of pain and the bright red blood spilling from his nose.

Rolling my shoulders back, I crack my neck and slam my fist into his face again, and again, the brass biting his skin and splitting it open. His blood spills, but it’s not enough.

He touched her.

He grabbed her and she fought him, but he wouldn’t let up, so neither will I.

When he stops screaming and is slumped in the chair, unmoving, I check his pulse.

Damn it.

That didn’t last as long as I hoped it would.

“Get him out of here and have someone clean this up before those girls come back,”

I say to my brothers.

Andrei snickers.

“That one girl was about to pass out just from seeing a little stabbing.”

“It wasn’t even a bloody gut stab,”

Maksim adds.

Jesus, we’re all fucked in the head.

There’s no other way to be, though, when we had a father like ours.

Liev and Andrei carry the body out through a back door that leads them down a hallway to our offices and private elevator that goes directly down to the garage below the building so the body can remain hidden until they can make it disappear later.

Kaz comes back and cleans the chair and floor, and then brings us all a fresh bottle of Almaz.

“What’s with the girl, Daniil?”

Kirill asks bluntly.

“Shut the fuck up.”

I pour myself a hefty portion of vodka and take two massive gulps before going back to sipping and savoring. I need to keep a level head for when she returns.

Aria handled it all so fucking beautifully. She looked directly at me and didn’t even react when I stabbed Igor.

Most girls would have. That other model did.

Is she used to violence?

My hand fists, and the one I have wrapped around my glass almost shatters it.

The idea that anyone has hit her, or that she has had to be around it day in and out like me and my brothers to make her immune to it, makes me want to kill someone all over again.

“All good,”

Liev says, coming back in with Andrei.

“We’ll take him to the spot later.”

I nod my approval and lift my glass to my lips. ‘The spot’ is the incinerator at the animal hospital in Brighton Beach that we own.

The two models that I sent away before walk back into our section and scan the room to see that the number of men has been cut in half. Their shoulders relax a fraction, and even more so when they look at the chair Igor was in and find it empty.

I can’t believe Kirill and Nikolai hired models for this party, as if Kir doesn’t already staff exclusively beautiful women to work here. But I know he wanted to go all out for tonight and make it different than any other night at Pozar.

I keep my eyes on the door, waiting for Aria to come back, but after ten minutes, I can’t wait any longer.

“Where is she?”

I ask, my voice coming out angrier than I meant it to.

The Russian model who I can tell knows who I am bows her head slightly and speaks.

“Aria was sent home. One of our managers from the agency saw her and her bodyguards hit a guest and told her to leave.”

Growling my displeasure, Rex growls too and looks up at me, then scans the room for the problem. I toss back the rest of the vodka in my glass and storm out of there with Rex trotting right along beside me, heading straight for the elevator by Kir’s office. There’s no point in staying here any longer if she’s not coming back.

I shoot off a text to Kirill, telling him to get me whatever information he has on the modeling agency ASAP.

I’m not letting that beautiful angel slip through my fingers. I need to know what it’s like to touch such a heavenly creature. I need to know if she can give me a glimpse at a life other than the one I was born into. Even for a night, she can give me an escape.

Fuck, I just want to hear her voice and have her give me that sexy attitude again so I can spank her ass.

Kirill: Willow Tree Modeling Agency. Kelsey Agnew was the manager on site and in charge tonight. The agency’s number is (212)555-0324.

I read his message and then pocket my phone, not bothering to answer him.

If I go to this Kelsey woman right now and demand answers, I’m going to scare the shit out of her and ruin Nikolai’s party even more than I already have. This was supposed to be a night of celebration and I turned it into a crusade to uphold the honor of a woman I know nothing about.

I was willing to fuck with Nik’s close business associate and killed a man for her, all because I didn’t like that they touched her. I know I wouldn’t have cared if they touched one of the other two models who were with us. It was because it was her. Because apparently, I’ve decided she’s mine.