Hunted By The Bratva Beast: A Bratva Stalker/Captive Romance, Jagger Cole [good books to read for 12 year olds .txt] 📗

I feel pain again. Lots of it. I try and scream, but I’m mute. I try and move, but I cannot. I go to lift my arm, but it’s deadened, solid. The sound of machines beeping and whirring filter through my head. The smell of antiseptics, the murmur of concerned voices.

“Where…”

“Lie still, please,” a woman’s voice says gently. The beeping goes on. The concerned voices and the smell of antiseptics are constant.

“Where…”

“You are safe. You are in a safe place. Let me—”

“Not me,” I groan. “Where is Nina?”

There’s no answer. I hear the beeping rise faster and faster as I start to panic. The voices get more concerned, and louder. There’s a tightness in my chest—a feeling like a knife slicing through my heart. I groan. The beeping intensifies along with the pain.

And then suddenly, it slows. And then slows some more. The pain flares hotter and deeper. But then that goes numb. The beeping chimes again, slower, more drawn out. And I suddenly realize I’m listening to myself die.

“Nina…”

“She’s fine, Kostya,” The woman’s voice says gently. “She is fine. Please stay with us. Fight, Kostya. FIGHT.”

But I can’t. Not anymore. Not after a lifetime of it. Nina is okay. My angel lives. My butterfly will fly again.

That’s enough for me.

One good thing.

The beeping turns into one long sound. Then, there’s nothing.

Chapter 20

Kostya

Somehow, beyond all reason and likelihood, I wake again. But this time, I know I’m not dead. Or at least, not yet I’m not.

But there’s a gun pointed at me. And at the other end of it is a man who has several reasons to kill me.

For one, because not that long ago, I had a gun pointed at him, with every intention of pulling the trigger. For two, because he thinks I shot up his family’s party. But most importantly, because I’m guessing he’s under the impression that I kidnapped his sister to brutally have my way with her in my hideout.

Which I did sort of do.

Viktor Komarov glares at me down the barrel of his gun. Next to him, Lev and Nikolai stand looking equally has livid, also with guns.

“There is one, single reason you aren’t dead yet,” Viktor growls.

“And that is?”

“Because I’d like my sister to actually speak to me again.”

My jaw tightens. “Where is she.”

“You took her, Kostya.”

“Where is she?!” I roar. Even Viktor seems taken aback by the burst of fury. But he doesn’t lower his gun.

“She could have been hurt or killed.”

“Which is exactly why I took her,” I growl. “And I was never going to hurt—”

“Please,” Viktor hisses dangerously. “Don’t patronize me, and don’t lie to me. You tried to kidnap my sister to get to me.”

My mouth thins. “Yes, I did.”

His lips pull back in a sneer. “So why shouldn’t I kill you right here.”

I glare at him. “How did you and your wife meet, Viktor?”

He snarls. “I would tread very carefully here, Kostya.”

“I am not frightened of you, Viktor.”

“That’s a mistake.”

I smile. “But I do respect you.”

“The feeling is not mutual. Keep going.”

I shrug. “You took her—your wife, Fiona, I mean. Yes? To settle a debt?”

His jaw grinds.

“I know everything about you—all of you—”

“I’m aware of that,” he snaps.

“Which is even more reason to kill you,” Lev grunts next to him.

I turn my eyes to him, and then to Nikolai. “Fyodor was your father.”

Lev says nothing.

“In the most technical sense of the word,” Nikolai grunts. He steps closer to me, looking me in the eye. “I shot him, you know.”

I nod.

“Right in the head. And do you know what?” He smiles. “I enjoyed it. It was freeing, and I’d do it again, every time.”

My mouth thins.

“Does that anger you?” Nikolai says with a smile, testing me.

I meet his gaze evenly. “Fyodor raised me, mostly. He was more a father to me than he ever was to you, or maybe to you, too,” I grunt, turning to Lev.

Viktor’s hand clenches. “I would pick my next words very, very care—”

“So I hope that gives some gravity to me telling you that I agree,” I say quietly. I turn my gaze back to Nikolai. “I know what he did to your mother.” I frown. “I’m sorry for that. And I’m glad you found your closure.”

Nikolai narrows his eyes at me. “You understand that I lied to him to gain his trust, so that I could shoot him in the head, in cold blood.”

“If you’re trying to get a reaction out of me, you won’t,” I growl. “He was both of your’s blood father. He was the man who raised me, and beat me, and gaslit me, and turned me into a shield for his cowardice.” My eyes narrow. “I broke out of that prison to avenge an idea. I have since realized that the idea I had was flawed and twisted.” I shrug. “I don’t weep for the man you shot, Nikolai. And I have no desire to avenge anything about him, to anyone.”

The younger man’s jaw clenches. But he slowly nods. I turn my gaze to Lev. He too slowly seems to relax. Only Viktor still seems tense—still glaring at me, still pointing a gun at me.

“Vik,” Lev says quietly. “We traced Dimitri’s trail back to the apartment he was operating out of. It’s all there—schematics of my roof garden, the remote controls for the tripod guns.”

“I know that,” Viktor grunts.

Lev puts a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Viktor…”

“Give me a reason, Kostya,” Viktor growls quietly. “You can be as contrite as you want. But you came after my family. You brought this danger on top of them. You took my sister,” his lips curl. “I’ve done far worse to men who trespassed far less against me. So give me a reason I shouldn’t put a bullet between your eyes, right here, and right now. One fucking reason, Kostya.”

I don’t need any time to think about it at all.

“Because I love her.”

Viktor’s jaw ticks.

“I love Nina, Viktor. Entirely, with all that I am. Because I love your sister, and I