Savage Secret of the Bratva

Chapter 1

Dmitri

Waiting to see if Cara betrays me is its own kind of torture.

My men found a bug in my office phone.

My goddamn office phone that only a handful of people have had access to recently.

I’m going crazy overthinking things, and the quiet looks from my men don’t help. Everyone is watching me, waiting for my next move.

When I walk into the office, I immediately spot Karly with red eyes as she quietly stares at her computer screen, her fingers not moving on the keyboard.

“Karly? Are you okay?” I ask her as I stop by her desk.

She breathes in sharply as I snap her out of a daze. She nods and blinks at me. “Yes, I’m fine. Sorry, sir.”

I eye her for a few seconds, knowing she’s lying. But she looks sad, not guilty, so I don’t believe it’s my place to pry.

With a small nod, I walk past her, hearing a light sniffle behind me as I approach the doors to my office. I pull them open and pause, my pulse quickening at the sight of Cara working at my desk.

It’s a normal sight, but after all that has happened lately, nothing feels normal right now.

Cara hears the doors open and looks over her shoulder at me. She smiles, but her expression is tense. Like her face is made of glass that’s about to crack.

“Morning. I got a head start on adding appointments to your calendar,” Cara tells me as she rises from her chair to turn and face me. “Are there any errands that you need me to run today? I can drop things off at the dry cleaners or pick up any supplies you need.”

“Do you want to get out of the office that bad?” I ask her without even thinking about my words.

Cara’s eyes widen. “No, I just…I want to help.”

She flinches like I struck her, making me feel like an asshole.

“I’m tired,” I say with a sigh. “I haven’t even thought of what needs to be done today.”

Cara nods in understanding, her shoulders sinking. “If you need to be elsewhere today, I can finish some things up here on my own.”

I shake my head as I stop a few feet away from her, feeling torn.

I want to pull her close.

I also want to search her phone.

My men are so certain that she’s behind the attacks. But when I look at her, I don’t see any malice in her eyes. I don’t see the person they swear they see.

“It’s fine. I should stay busy,” I tell her.

“Are you okay?” Cara asks, her voice soft and timid, odd for her.

I know my answer to her question, but maybe it’s best that I keep some things to myself until I’m sure that she’s loyal. Until I prove that she hasn’t been stabbing me in the back this whole time.

“Something’s wrong with Karly,” I say. “She looked like she was crying when I walked in.”

Fuck, part of me would be relieved if Karly was the traitor in my office instead of the woman I’ve been falling in love with.

Cara frowns as I evade her question. “She’s sad about Gabe. She liked him. I’m pretty sure he liked her too.”

“Oh,” I say as I lower my eyes, piecing some things together. I didn’t even notice.

Maybe there’s a lot that I’ve missed.

“Dmitri,” Cara speaks again as she steps closer to me. “With everything that’s going on, I want you to promise me that you’ll be careful. Especially in public.”

I peer at her, split between a range of emotions. Confusion. Suspicion. Relief. If she were behind everything, would she really say something like that to me? Or is she trying to come off as more innocent?

“I’m trying to be,” I assure her. “Things are…tense right now.”

“Your family shouldn’t be so angry with you about the Suyunov situation,” Cara tells me. “Sometimes, you need to break away from what’s expected of you. If you can.”

“I don’t think that I can,” I say. “It’s not that simple.”

Cara’s frown deepens. “Nothing is simple.”

“Is something wrong?” I ask her. She seems as tormented as me.

Cara chews on her bottom lip for a moment. Usually, when she bites her lip, it drives me crazy. But this is an anxious bite.

“I’m just worried about you,” Cara admits.

When she says things like that, it confuses me even more. I want to believe her. Her voice sounds so genuine.

“Why?” I ask her.

Cara’s brows furrow. “Because I…I care about you. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”

“It’s only a matter of time,” I reply.

Cara nudges my chest. “Why are you being so pessimistic?”

“Because things aren’t okay right now,” I tell her. “I have everyone breathing down my neck telling me shit that I don’t want to hear.”

Cara crosses her arms, but it almost looks like she’s holding herself instead. “Like what?”

“Nothing,” I say. “I’m going to be out of the office today. There’s nothing to do here.”

Before I can walk back out, Cara grabs my arm, keeping me from leaving. She pulls on me, making me turn back to her.

“What?” I ask her.

Cara places her other hand on my other arm, holding me like she’s grounding me. In a way, she is. “I’m sorry.”

I narrow my eyes in confusion. And apprehension. “For what?”

“For everything that you’re going through,” Cara says. “I know what it’s like to disappoint everyone.”

“I don’t know how,” I reply, my eyes searching hers.

“I feel trapped in every decision I make,” she whispers.

A faint ache radiates through my chest. I didn’t think that I would end up being the family disappointment.

Yet here I am.

“I don’t see how you could disappoint anyone. You’re probably the most disciplined, hardworking person I know,” I tell her.

Cara cracks a bittersweet smile. “That’s still not good enough.”

It never is for some people, is it?

The urge to pull her closer damn near suffocates me, but I push the feeling away. I can’t get too close right now, even if that’s what I want more than anything.

“Go home,” I say. “Get some rest.”

Cara parts her lips like she’s about to argue, but she closes her mouth and nods instead. “I’ll get my things.”

A knock sounds on one of my office doors before they swing open. Emil and Isaak step inside, wearing their typical dark button downs and pants.

“Wanted to give you an update about the shipment that got hit,” Isaak tells me as they both walk forward.

Emil immediately narrows his eyes at the sight of Cara.

I curl my fingers into a fist, silently daring him to say anything. He can have his thoughts about her, but he won’t say them to her in front of me. Not until I confirm the truth.

Cara notices that the room has fallen quiet and tense as Isaak and Emil wait for her to leave before speaking to me. She gives me a sheepish look. “I’ll get out of your hair. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“I’ll let you know whether you need to come in tomorrow,” I tell her.

Cara’s mouth turns down, but she nods and walks toward the doors, having to slip between Isaak and Emil.

Emil doesn’t even hide how bitter he feels about her.

Cara quickens her pace to leave, letting the doors thump shut behind her.

Before Isaak and Emil can say anything, I speak first, anger burning in my chest.

“If you look at her like that again, I’ll blind you,” I warn Emil.

Emil tightens his jaw. “She shouldn’t be here.”

“She stays until I know the truth,” I tell him. “Don’t talk to her. Don’t threaten her. Don’t do anything. Do you understand me?”

Isaak nods first. Emil follows suit begrudgingly a few seconds later.

“Keep acting like that, and you’ll make me question my trust in you,” I tell Emil, our glares clashing. “You don’t want that.”

“If anyone betrays you, it won’t be me,” Emil assures me.

Isaak puts his hands up. “Okay, we came here to give an update. Let’s move on to that.”

“Sure,” Emil replies, his bitterness still evident.

“We still haven’t been able to confirm who attacked the shipment,” Isaak tells me. “We managed to grab some surveillance footage around the area of the attack, but we didn’t see anything identifiable.”

Of course not. It happened late at night in the dark.

“Just keep your eyes peeled,” I reply as I lean against the edge of my desk and cross my arms over my chest. “I feel like something else is coming soon.”

“A bigger attack?” Isaak asks me, his brow furrowing.

“If they really want to hurt us, they’ll come at us harder,” I point out.

“You should probably keep important information to yourself around your assistant,” Emil tells me.

I fix him with a glare. “She doesn’t know anything that could hurt us.”

I hope.

Emil doesn’t look convinced, but I doubt he’ll relent until he sees solid proof that Cara is innocent. Hopefully, I’ll have that soon.

“We all just need to be careful about what we say and to whom. All of us,” Isaak says as his eyes shift back and forth between Emil and me. “We have no idea who is providing information to our enemies, but I think it’s safe to say that our conversations aren’t a hundred percent safe any longer.”

Uneasiness fills the air as we glance at each other, countless words being left unspoken.

I don’t trust anyone completely, but we all have to trust each other enough to defeat our enemies, and that number is growing each day.

Our traitor is close.

Closer than any of us want to admit.