Page 26 of Trapped by the Bratva (The Valkov Bratva #5)

HANNAH

A week passed since I moved in with Dmitri. Not out of the mansion. He had yet to choose one of the places we checked out, and he hinted at wanting to house hunt some more.

I moved into his room, now residing in his personal wing. While the guest room I’d been given upon my stay here was lovely, I preferred being close to the man who was stealing my heart.

Except right now.

I winced, rubbing my stomach as I turned to check that he wasn’t in any of the rooms back here. On the bathroom floor, slanted toward the toilet, I waited in agony for this wave of nausea to pass.

I didn’t want him to notice. Not yet. I wasn’t sure if I was pregnant, but I felt like I’d be stupid to think I couldn’t be.

I was late when I seldom had changes to my cycle. I was suffering from habitual nausea in the morning. And I was more out of breath than usual. All signs of a pregnancy, clues I recalled from studying for the countless health and nursing classes I’d taken.

But I want proof. I need to know for sure when I tell him.

Once I felt like my stomach was steady, I staggered out of the bathroom and lay back down in the bed.

Dmitri was gone, talking with his brothers, and I was grateful that I didn’t need to hide how exhausted and unwell I felt.

“I’ll tell him,” I mumbled out loud, thinking that if I said it, it’d stick.

I didn’t want to hide this from him, but I wanted to be able to back it up with a positive test.

My phone rang, jolting me from almost falling back asleep. I slapped my hand out, assuming it would be another call from one of the other women here. We were all under the same roof, but the place was so big that calling was quickest.

“Hello?” I answered while keeping my eyes closed.

“Hannah.”

I popped my lids up and opened my eyes wide.

Melissa? I had to be hearing things. I told her to never contact me again and here she was, calling me.

As I sat up, I lowered my phone to check the caller ID.

It showed an unknown caller. Had I not kept my eyes closed and assumed it was Mila, Amy, Becca, or Nadia, I wouldn’t have bothered to answer.

“Hannah,” she repeated in that same desperate tone. “Are you there?”

“What do you want?” I pressed my lips together to hold in a scream. I told her. That time I saw her at the coffee place, I told her that was it. Already, she was breaking that rule.

Time to let Dmitri give me a new phone and number. I had to cut ties with her, once and for all.

“Hannah, I’m scared.”

I rolled my eyes, wondering how long she’d rehearsed and practiced to sound so frightened. “Uh-huh,” I drawled.

“Hannah! I’m serious. I’m so freaked out right now.”

“What’s the emergency this time?” I asked, mildly amused that she thought this SOS call would work and also slightly curious what she’d make up as a tall tale now.

“These men. These weird men keep stalking me,” she said between panted breaths.

“Well, that’s what you get for sleeping with drug dealers and mooching off them too.” You make the bed and sleep in it, Sister. If she wanted to hang out with unsavory people, that was what she deserved.

“No. It’s not anyone I know. It’s because of you .”

I narrowed my eyes, losing patience to hear her out. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Listen. I was really curious about who your new client might be,” she said, rambling. “I wanted to know who your super-rich client was and where your new gig was located.”

I gritted my teeth. She never cared. She never respected any boundaries. None of them. If she wanted something, if she wanted to know something, she’d help herself to it without any regard for others.

“What did you do?” I demanded.

“Nothing, really. After you left with that silent dude, I followed you. To see where you went.”

I shook my head, wanting to think it was impossible. The guard who stayed with me would’ve noticed, but then again, maybe she’d slipped by. She was short, which helped her hide, and she knew the streets well…

“And that was how I found out where you were staying. I asked around and talked with Devin, and he told me you were on the Bratva territory. I put one and two together and realized you had to be nursing one of the Valkovs back to health.”

“Melissa! You nosy bitch.” Anger spiked through me, and I tried to steady myself and breathe through it.

She had no right. No right at all to try to tail me and snoop like that.

“I asked around on the street about the Valkovs, and I heard that they were in some big war with another family.”

They’re not in any war. Things were peaceful—within reason, with all the little ones at the mansion.

“And when I started asking around about your new bosses, some guys named Avalon threatened me.” She caught her breath, panicky.

“Avalon?”

“Yeah. I think.”

The name wasn’t right but it triggered recognition. “Avilov?” I guessed.

“Yes!” Melissa coughed. “Yes, these Avilov dudes have been chasing after me constantly. Because I was talking about my sister working for the Valkov Bratva.”

“You idiot. You…” I growled, giving up on shouting at her. If I opened my mouth, a scream would be released. One I doubted I could curb or stop once I started.

She had no right to get into my business and complicate this.

I knew of that name. I was well aware that Dmitri and his brothers were trying to locate the new leader, Erik. Dmitri wanted to kill him for torturing him. But he was too weak. He hadn’t regained enough range of motion to go through with any violent actions or enter a physical fight.

I can’t sit on this information, though. He was so determined to find closure on the man who’d hurt him and run to hide. If Melissa unwittingly got these Avilov men to come out of hiding, I was sure Dmitri and his brothers could benefit from this knowledge. I had to tell him, as soon as possible!

“Hannah—” The call ended abruptly. She’d said my name in that needling, whiny tone of hers that she used when she planned to con me into giving her something. But I didn’t know what she wanted. The call was dropped.

“Oh, shit.” I got off the bed and ran out of the room.

Clutching my phone, I hurried the best I could until I reached the enormous dining room that the brothers liked to use for their meetings and discussions.

My nausea returned. Bile rose up my throat.

I did my best to shove both of those sensations down.

Peeking through the decorative frosted glass pane on the top half of the doors to the room, I spotted Dmitri focused on business. His face was an impassive show of serious concentration, but I broke it.

It seemed like Maxim was telling them something when I knocked on the door. Dmitri turned, frowning at me.

“I need to talk to you,” I said.

No one heard me. They’d remodeled this room to be extra secure after a shootout in there. The cracks around the panels were sealed because the men liked to have meetings in there so often.

Dmitri shook his head, stern in that silent dismissal.

“Dammit.” I wasn’t here to interfere. I was only here to tell them that… that…

What, exactly? I didn’t have a location on these enemies of theirs, but I had my sister’s word that they were near her.

I narrowed my eyes as I backed up from the doors. Could I trust Melissa and what she said? Was this all a prank or something?

I had no location to provide, only a shared report about the Avilov men being nearby.

What could I say? Nothing useful. And when I had to explain that my sister tried to find me and might have mentioned that I worked for the Valkovs, I would face and suffer the consequences of that secret being spilled.

I’d been so careful at the meeting at the coffee place.

I hadn’t told her a single clue because I was hoping that she would never have a means of reaching me again.

I didn’t want Dmitri to think I was associating with her or their enemies.

What do I do now? Those men weren’t going to let me in the meeting room and update them.

My phone rang again as I walked away and headed back to Dmitri’s wing.

I figured it would be much easier to talk to him one-on-one, and he’d return to his private suite soon.

Hopefully with just the two of us, he wouldn’t lash out with any assumptions that I wasn’t being loyal or anything like that.

I scowled at the number and answered. “What, Melissa?”

“The call was dropped before I could ask you for money.”

I growled, livid with this familiar refrain I never wanted to hear again. “Make your own money for once in your life.”

“I can’t,” she whined. “Not with these Avalon?—”

“Avilov,” I corrected.

“Whoever they are! I can’t work with these men actively stalking me because I said something about you working with the Bratva. I just need to bail and get the hell out of the city.”

I shook my head, so irritated that the burning sensation of acid churning my knotted stomach barely registered.

“I need money to leave town,” Melissa begged. “Please. I just need enough money to take off.”

It was always the same. Something that prevented her from finding work and forcing her to demand my income. I didn’t bother asking her why she couldn’t make her own money and leave with her own funds.

I just wanted her gone, now more than ever since she tried to follow me and act like a spy.

“You’ll never see me again. I swear it. I need to get out of the city and away from these freaks.”

I bit my lip, torn between the temptation of never having to see her again and being an idiot to give her a single penny for being involved in these complications.

“Then you shouldn’t have opened your damn mouth at all now, huh? This is what you get. This is Karma, Melissa, for not leaving it all alone.”

“I can’t change what’s done.”

“I told you at the coffee place that it was the last time. Use that money to get out of New York.”

She exhaled harshly. “That was weeks ago! That money is all gone!”

“That’s not my problem.”

A low growl sounded over the phone. She was losing her temper, and this call would be ending awfully damn soon with that attitude. “Hannah! Don’t be so selfish. Help me, please.”

You will never stop. As long as you breathe, you will request more and more without any regard for me.

“You will never have any way to contact me, ever again.” I’d make sure of it. I’d ask Dmitri to start me up with a new line and phone and I wouldn’t share those details with my sister. She’d pushed too far this time.

“Fine! I just need enough to get out of here. When can you come?”

I gritted my teeth, glancing at the time. “Twenty minutes. The same coffee place.”

“No. Our old apartment,” she countered.

“Whatever.” Then I hung up as quickly as I could. After finding a notepad, I jotted down the basic facts of what happened with her calls, where I was going, and why. I felt uneasy to leave without Dmitri knowing where I’d taken off to.

Surely, his meeting would be done soon, and I could update him with all of this information.

For all those times he’d called me out as a bad liar, I was giddy to show him that I really disliked sharing falsehoods with him.

I was all in with him. I wouldn’t hide any clues from him even if I wished he’d give up his need to seek revenge before something bad happened.

And while I’m out, I can pick up a pregnancy test to be able to confirm it.