The Bratva’s Pregnant Bride (Milov Bratva Brides #15)

Chapter 1 - Bardil

Taking the wrong girl was the beginning of the end for me. It's something I've thought about over and over again for the past few months since it happened.

I wish I'd paid more attention when Marlen was asking me to kidnap Nikita Abashin. If I had, I wouldn't have accidentally taken Stefania Shevchenko and marked the start of my entire life collapsing in on me. She was the beginning of the end.

It's her fault Marlen switched sides and turned against me.

I've been keeping my head low lately. Staying out of sight and hidden from my family and their new friends while I try to figure out what to do next.

I'm sitting in my car parked on a lookout point that, for the most part, people don't know about. It's always quiet here, which is why I like to come here when I need to think.

The engine is off, and it's dark apart from the LCD on my dash, lighting with pulse lights moving in rhythm to the music I've left playing. The car glows red and purple as patterns splash across the LCD.

Numb.

Linkin Park is a band that's helped me relax and clear my mind more times than I can count. But lately, even the music isn't able to pull me out of this sinkhole I'm lost in.

I lean further back in my seat, my eyes tracing over the view, and my heart feeling heavy with anger and vengeance on my mind.

The sun set over Miami an hour ago, and in the valley below, the city has fogged up with pale grey fog that rolled in from the ocean. Through the mist, all I can see are stars of light from buildings and cars.

It's beautiful with a full moon shining above it all.

I sigh in the darkness of my car. I feel set apart from the rest of the world. As though I don't belong in it anymore. I'm not a part of any of that. I have nothing on my side. Nothing good going for me.

Every step that I take is another mistake to you.

This song is resonating with me too deeply. It's aching inside me as guilt taints the anger that hasn't stopped flowing in my veins since the last time I saw my brother.

I know he's disappointed in me. But it goes both ways. I haven't spoken to Marlen in months. Not since he sold me out to the people who have been our enemies for longer than I care to think about. It's all because of that Shev girl. Stefania. His wife. I can't believe he actually married her.

I'm the reason that my family is in a new alliance with the Shevchenko and Abashin families. Something I don't think any of us could've dreamed would happen in a thousand years. They've never been people we wanted to be in an alliance with.

Yet here we are. My whole family brainwashed into thinking they're good people.

I hate it. I don't understand it. Why agree to work with people whom you can't even trust?

It's a joke, really. Marlen not speaking to me over all of this…

Instead of turning his back on me, he should be thanking me anyway. If I hadn't kidnapped the wrong girl, he would never have met the love of his life.

Fuck.

Why did he have to fall in love with a Shev? Of all the people in all the world, why her?

Don't get me wrong. I'm happy for him. He deserves everything and more. But why her?

Still, he is happy. Somehow. My brother is a good person. He's the type of person you can call any time of the day or night, and he'd be there.

Not anymore, Bardil. Those days are over. He probably wouldn't even answer the phone if I called him now. And if he did, it would only be to tell me what a terrible person I am.

Yeah, I know I messed up. I'm not a fool, despite everyone thinking it.

I accept that I deceived my brother, and I did some really stupid things. I didn't intend to jeopardize my family's positions so badly, though. I never meant to hurt anyone, either. I trusted the wrong people. As usual.

Everything that happened… fuck… that was never my plan. I wanted to fix the mistakes I made without asking Marlen for help. I wanted to make it right before he even found out I'd messed up.

If I weren't so impulsive, I would've thought it through a little more. I would've thought everything through, I guess. I wouldn't have been so quick to trust.

It's no use going over and over my mistakes, though. I tried to make it right, but they didn't even give me a chance to explain myself.

Whatever.

They made their choices, and I'm making mine.

I push my hand through my hair, brushing it out of my eyes.

My car is parked at the edge of a drop, and sometimes when I sit here, my intrusive thoughts entice me to race down the steep hill toward the city below and see how fast I could go.

I think it's just my mind trying to distract me from my looping misery.

"Fuck sake, Marlen. You chose a Shev girl over your own brother," I huff.

I haven't spoken to Simon or Talia either.

My whole family has abandoned me, and I've never felt so alone in my life.

When Marlen allied with the Shevs and Abashins, he acted like a coward.

Those families aren't stronger than ours. Why bow down to them like that?

He was weak. My whole life, I've looked up to Marlen. I've never been disappointed in him until that moment. He effectively erased me from the picture, shoved me aside, and made it clear where his alliance lies. He also showed me he's not as strong as I thought he was.

Grinding my teeth, I let out an angry growl. I shouldn't be feeling guilty. They betrayed me.

My blood boils when I think about all of them. Laughing, spending time together. Forgetting that I'm out here, alone. The Shevs, Abashins, and my family. One giant happy ball of bullshit.

My heart beats faster, and I clench my fists into tight knots. Rage is the only thing holding me together at this point.

And it's time I put all of this pent-up anger into a constructive plan. The people responsible for my life falling into chaos need to pay for what they've done. And I'm going to make sure they get what they deserve.

I didn't even have to come up with the plan. Marlen did it for me a while ago. It was actually his plan to start with. He might have abandoned it, but that doesn't mean it's not a good plan.

Nikita Abashin is the key to everything. Marlen knew it. That's why he wanted me to kidnap her. This time I plan to get it right. There will be no mixing her up with some other chick. I've been studying her movements for weeks. I know exactly who she is.

She is the key to forcing her family and their alliances to do what I want.

They'll have no choice but to give me what I want.

I don't even care what it is that I demand from them.

Territory. A piece of their business. Whatever.

As long as it costs them in some way. I want revenge.

I want them to suffer in the same way they've made me suffer over these past months.

My phone beeps, and I lift it off the passenger seat next to me and glance at the screen. It's a bright light in the darkness of my car, and I have to narrow my eyes to look at it.

Nikita is on the move.

I flick open the notification and navigate to the tracker app I have installed.

I hacked into her phone's location a few weeks ago, and it notifies me whenever she leaves her brother's mansion.

It's not very often. I think they have her under lock and key.

But Nikita has been naughty enough to sneak out with friends now and then, and it appears she's up to some mischief again tonight.

It makes sense that she would take advantage of the fact that her family is away on vacation.

I watch the dot on the map. Representing her, it moves away from her brother's mansion.

"Where are you going tonight, little rabbit?" I mutter.

Every time I follow her, I'm waiting for the right moment. Everything else is ready. My entire plan has been carefully set up. All I'm waiting for is her.

I press the back of my phone against the magnet holder on my dash.

Without taking my eyes off the map, I start my car.

"I guess we've got plans then, darling," I smirk coldly.

Reversing from the quiet parking bay overlooking the city, my tires crunch against gravel and dirt in the otherwise quiet night.

Pressing my finger against the LCD, the screen flashes as the volume increases.

My heart pulses with excitement. I am the wolf. She is my prey.

That's how it feels every time I watch her, waiting for the right opportunity.

Maybe tonight is the night I get my chance.