Page 101 of The Bratva's Christmas Bump

“So that’s how you found me? You followed me from the clinic?"

“Nah. I left you at the clinic and followed your mom from the cafe. Then I just had to wait. Everyone fucking loves their family at this time of year.”

“And now you’re taking me upstate? What’s your plan, huh?”

“My plan? I’m tired. No one would give a shit if it wasn’t Maxim acting like a fucking dog with a bone. But now I have you, and as long as I have you, he’ll leave me the fuck alone until I’m ready for him,” Vinnie snarls. “And he’ll do anything to keep you safe, which buys me a new life.”

“A new life where, the far side of Central Park?”

“What?” Vinnie mutters. “What are you talking about?”

“Nothing.”

“What’s that?”

“Nothing, Vinnie, stop?—”

Their conversation dissolves into rustling and muted yells, then a thump as the phone seems to fall further away from their arguing voices. As the voices grow louder, there’s a yell and myheart jumps as something akin to a gunshot blasts through the air.

Then there’s a deafening screech of metal and another scream.

Then nothing but silence.

38

HOLLIE

Ow.

Everything hurts.

Despite the cushion of the snow I landed in after being flung from the car, the ground underneath is hard enough that all my bones rattled around my body for a good few seconds after impact. Sharp pain flares at the base of my skull, and my vision blurs red while I gaze up at the fat snowflakes falling around me, illuminated by the headlights from the crashed car.

I did everything I could think of.

I called Maxim, but I have no idea if the call even made it through. I tried to keep Vinnie talking so he would slip up, even tried to offer directional hints, but all of it relied on my call connecting and there’s no way for me to check.

I dropped my phone before the crash. It’s probably back in the car with Vinnie, wherever he ended up.

How did my life end up like this?

I lived quietly. I played music and kept to the background because that’s where I belonged. All I wanted to do was live a quiet life, pursue my passion, and have a fling here and there with a hot guy. Instead, I got pregnant and tracking down the father landed me in the hot pot of the Mafia world, then married to a man I should hate.

A man I love.

Will he find me?

Will he work his magic and track me down or is he still oblivious with no idea what’s happened? And my parents… Dad’s face flashes through my mind, covered in blood from Vinnie’s punch, and my sluggish heart squeezes.

Get up, Hollie.

I’m cold. Freezing. Icy fingers wrap around my limbs and seep through my clothes, holding me close to the ground and refusing to let me go. If I lie here long enough, the snow will cover me and I’ll become one with the ice cold against my back. It’s a peaceful thought and for a few long seconds, I entertain it.

Closing my eyes would be blissful and I’d let the snow bundle me up in her cotton-soft hands, carrying me into a peaceful darkness where there’s no stress, no pain, and no fear.

No Vinnie either.

But I can’t do that.