Bratva Bride (Bratva Series Book 1)

“What the fuck happened?!” My father yelled, staring into the eyes of the men before him.

We were all crammed into his office. Alessandro, as well as his Consigliere, Gabriel Dattoli – a tall, well-built gentleman with brown hair and dark eyes – and one of his Capo’s, Stefano Fragola – a middle aged bald man with a slim build – were sitting on the couch on the far side of the room. Vincenzo stood at his father’s side.

At the opposite end, stood my father’s new Sovietnik, Vladimir Turgenev, and his Brigadier, Andrei Petrov – the man responsible for recruiting and training our soldiers.

Vladimir was an attractive man, with deep brown eyes, short black hair and a sculpted face. I’d only met him once since he took over for Maxim. From what I could tell, he deeply respected my father and was ecstatic about his rise in the ranks of the Bratva.

Andrei I had known since I was a kid. He was in his early sixties, but still kept himself in incredible shape. He was around 6’2, with an athletic build and strong, sharp features.

My father sat at his large mahogany desk, tapping his fingers impatiently as he looked around the room. My brothers stood like sentries behind him. Feet planted firmly on the ground, hands clasped behind their backs, faces hard and stoic.

I perched myself on the edge of my father’s desk, legs crossed at the ankles, arms folded across my chest, my mind a jumbled mess. Before we had all crowded in here, I spent what felt like forever searching for Tatiana. Fear gripped me hard when I couldn’t find her. That was until Nikolai told me he had gotten her to safety after the first round of explosions. I was so fucking thankful that she hadn’t been hurt, but the thought that she might have been had been enough to fuck with my emotions.

I tried to put it at the back of my mind and focus on the matter at hand.

The air was thick with tension as we all stared at one another in silence. Even though my father didn’t address anyone directly, he was still expecting someone to answer his question. So, when he was greeted with nothing but that eerie silence and scathing looks, it only served to anger him more.

‘I said…what the fuck happened?!’ he roared, slamming his fists onto the desk. His blue eyes lit with rage as he stared menacingly at Vladimir and Andrei, but it was Nikolai who responded.

He stepped forward, moving in front of my father’s desk. ‘At 9:18am, two black SUVs rammed through our gates, both exploding simultaneously metres out from the house. Two teams of twenty then infiltrated the grounds, killing Ivan and Donat, the guards posted at the gates. One team moved inside, the other stayed outside confronting our men.’

Father growled in anger, gritting his teeth as Nikolai grabbed his laptop and played the surveillance footage. It showed exactly what he described, two cars ramming the gates and exploding only seconds later.

‘Secondary explosives were placed around the patio, maybe three or four, I’d guess. Which would suggest an inside job. I’ve got Koyla searching through the footage to try and find who laid the charges.’

‘What were they after?’ Father asked, leaning back in his leather chair.

‘Ya ne znayu, Otets.’I don’t know, Father. ‘Their motive for the attack is still unclear. I’m inclined to believe they were attempting to stop the wedding. Stop us from forming an alliance. But I cannot be sure.’

It made sense, but why go to all the trouble of attacking us only to be too late to actually stop the wedding? Unless it wasn’t their ultimate goal. I mean sure, it could have been a contributing factor but part of me had this feeling I was missing something vital. I felt like the answer was on the tip of my tongue. That it was staring me straight in the face yet I couldn’t see it properly. It was driving me crazy.

‘Round up their dead and bring them here. I want to see who we’re up against.’ Father flicked his wrist towards the door as he issued his command. Vladimir gave a small bow before leaving the room.

‘We’re wasting time!’ Alessandro snapped.

It was the first time I had heard him speak since Theodora was taken. I was terrified of what Arturo’s reaction would be when he found out. He was still unconscious from the initial attack after suffering a serious blow to the head. As soon as I was finished here, I planned to be at his side, taking care of him.

What a way to spend your wedding night, huh?

‘My daughter is out there somewhere, with these filthy men doing God knows what to her while we sit here talking!’ Anger pulsed through him, enough to make even me a little uneasy.

Father watched him intently, his face softening the slightest bit. He rose from his chair and strode across the room. He lowered to his hunches, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. ‘Moy drug,’My friend, ‘I promise you; we will find her. We will find the men that took her, get her back and make them pay.’

Interesting.

I’ve never seen my father comfort someone like that before. Only my brothers and I and only when the situation absolutely called for it. He obviously had some deep history with Alessandro, more than what I had originally thought.

A faint tapping sound had me looking around the room in confusion.

What is that?

Aleksandr watched me closely, his brows furrowed as I slowly walked around the room, hunting for the sound.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

There it was again!

I shoved Aleksandr and Lukyan to the side and got down on my hands and knees. I tapped on the hidden trap door behind my father’s desk.

Not a lot of people knew about it. Just my father’s most trusted soldiers and obviously my brothers and me.

When I got a response of three more taps, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that someone was in there. But who? Who else knew about it apart from the people in this room?

I grabbed the latch and opened the trap door, completely taken by surprise by who was on the other end.

Nadia Petrov, Andrei’s daughter.

We were close growing up. Our mothers were best friends so in a way, we were too. Until that dreadful day ten years ago. It wasn’t only my mother that was killed but Nadia’s too.

You would have thought something like that would have brought us closer together. That we would have leaned on each other for comfort and support during such a difficult time, but no. It was the opposite.

Nadia blamed me, blamed my family for the death of her mother. And in a way, she had a right to. It was us the Voznesenskys wanted dead, and unfortunately Nadia’s mother was collateral damage to them. After their deaths, we fell apart, only speaking when the occasion called for it. Like now. I was surprised she was even here at my wedding. Her father must have dragged her here.

‘Nadia.’ I tried to mask all those repressed feelings wafting through me at having seen her and reached down, offering her a hand.

She hesitated for only a few seconds before accepting it and climbing out.

‘Nadia?’ Andrei’s deep voice came from behind me.’ What are you doing in there? I thought you left after the ceremony?’ He moved to her side, his eyes scanning over her, looking for injuries.

Nadia’s chocolate brown eyes found her father’s and she smiled reassuringly. ‘I was on my way out when the explosion happened.’ She flicked her auburn hair over her shoulder as she bent back down to the trap door. ‘I found this little one being dragged outside by a few of those fuckers. I had no clue who she was, who her parents were, so I hid her in here until it all blew over.’

Theodora’s beautiful face popped out from the trap door, her emerald eyes glistening with tears and her face red from crying.

The second Alessandro spotted her, he jumped off the couch and ran for her, wrapping her into a tight embrace. ‘La mia bambina! Stai bene? Sei ferito? Ero cosi preoccupato per te, principessa.’My little girl! Are you okay? Are you hurt? I was so worried about you, princess.

‘Padre!’Father! Theodora cried. She buried her face into the crook of his neck, wrapping her limbs around his body like a spider monkey.

Alessandro ran a hand up and down her back comfortingly, kissing her hair and whispering soothing words in Italian.

Vincenzo came over and plucked her from Alessandro’s grip, despite his father’s protest. He squeezed her tightly, kissing her on the forehead and closing his eyes. ‘Per Dio, non farlo di nuovo Teodora. Ero cosi spaventato per te.’ By God, don’t do that, Theodora. I was so scared for you.

Something I had noticed about the De Lucas was that whenever anything stressful happened, they all seemed to revert back to their native tongue. It was a good thing that I was fluent in Italian, otherwise I would never know what they were bloody saying.

Alessandro leaned over, his face full of love and affection as he kissed her on the cheek. ‘Take her to your mother. Now. Don’t let her or Lucian out of your sight, do you hear me? They were both targeted during this attack. I’m not risking anything else happening,’ Alessandro told Vincenzo, his eyes hard.

‘Si, Padre.’Yes, Father.

Vincenzo immediately turned on his heels, leaving the room in a hurry. Alessandro turned to Nadia, extending his hand. ‘I can’t thank you enough for saving my daughter, for keeping her safe. If you ever need anything, the De Luca family will be there for you.’ He bowed respectfully, bringing her hand to his lips and kissing the back of it.

Nadia blushed, her olive skin turning beet red. I couldn’t blame her. Despite his age, Alessandro was in great shape and was one of the most handsome men I’d ever met. Clearly, good genes ran in their family.

‘It was really nothing. I’m sure anyone else would have done the same thing in my position.’

Alessandro’s lips twitched. ‘I doubt it.’

The door to my father’s office opened and several men came piling in, carrying the dead bodies of our enemy. Twenty-seven in total. Not bad, considering we were taken completely by surprise. Father pointed to the empty space in the middle of the room and the bodies were dropped carelessly in the spot he indicated.

They were all dressed in identical clothing. Black long-sleeved shirts, black pants, black boots, black gloves and a black balaclava over their heads.

‘Strip them,’ Father commanded.

The men stripped them down to nothing but their boxers.

Once stripped, it was easy to tell what nationality they were. That, and the fact the ink on their skin was very foretelling. They were a mixture of Mexican and Italian descent – meaning it had to be Nero behind the attack.

My father growled in anger, clearly coming to the same conclusion I did. He kicked one of the bodies in frustration. ‘Reach out to our contacts in the LVPD and get them to run their prints through the database. I want names, addresses, everything you can get on these fuckers. Dispose of their bodies discreetly afterwards.’

My father’s men moved as one, picking up the lifeless bodies and heading towards the door. But something still wasn’t right. Something was gnawing at me, at my mind. And if I didn’t figure it out soon, it was going to make me crazy.

Well, crazier.

I moved to the pile of blood-stained clothes that had come from our attackers and started sifting through it.

‘Is this it?’ I asked no one in particular.

‘Is what it?’ Aleksandr moved to my side, studying the pile of clothes.

‘Is this all they had on them? Where are their weapons?’

‘Weapons?’ Stefano scoffed. ‘What weapons? All I saw were knives and a few mediocre handguns.’

Everyone in the room nodded in agreement, which only served to confuse me more. I furrowed my brows as my mind continued to work. My father sensed my confusion and moved to join Aleksandr and I.

‘What is it, moya doch?’ My daughter?

I tried to get my thoughts under control. What was it? Something. Something wasn’t right. I was missing…something.

‘If you were planning to attack not only one of your enemies, but two, would you send your men into the fight with nothing but a bunch of knives and some shitty handguns?’

Father narrowed his eyes. ‘Of course not.’

‘No. You wouldn’t. You’d send them in with the best of the best, ensuring their victory.’

Father nodded like it was an obvious statement.

‘So…why didn’t Nero?’

The room fell silent, my question left hanging in the air. Why would Nero send his men to attack when they were seriously outgunned? It made no fucking sense.

‘Maybe Nero’s just an idiot?’ Lukyan asked, shrugging his shoulders.

‘Nero may be an idiot but even he wouldn’t send his men into battle without appropriate weaponry,’ Alessandro interjected.

‘And yet, that’s exactly what he’s done. Unless…’

‘Unless what?’ Nikolai asked.

And then it clicked into place. ‘Unless…he didn’t have a choice.’

My father and Aleksandr both frowned, processing my words. Right at that moment, standing side by side with a near identical look on their faces, they were the epitome of father and son.

My father’s brows shot up to his hairline, a look of surprise that quickly morphed into anger on his face. ‘Check the shipment,’ he barked.

Aleksandr moved instantly, wasting no time leaving the room. He returned a few minutes later and it was evident by the look on his face that we weren’t going to like what he had to say.

‘It’s gone. Everything we had packed and ready for the De Lucas – gone.’ He shook his head, his lips drawn back in a snarl. ‘The fuckers even cleaned out our armoury.’

My father stared at him, pure rage rolling off of him in waves. Anger flooded his veins, making him clench his fists and grit his teeth. He cracked his neck left, then right, and rolled his shoulders back.

Oh no.

He roared at the top of his lungs, slamming his fists onto his desk once, twice, three times. The timber cracked under the relentless pressure, which only seemed to anger him further. He placed his hands underneath the desk and flipped it into the air, sending it flying across the room in his fit of rage. People scrambled out of the way to avoid being hit by what was left of his very expensive desk.

‘Podozhdi poka ya ikh ne dostanu!’Wait until I get my fucking hands on them! he growled in Russian.

‘Wait, they took everything?’ I asked Aleksandr.

His crystal blue eyes watched our father briefly, concern etched all over his face before he looked at me and nodded.

‘Even the AK-47s and P-90s?’

My father had a new contract with a local MC Gang here in Vegas. We had never worked with them before but they needed some serious hardware for a turf war going on with a rival gang and they offered us double. Two cases of AK-47s and P-90s were set to be delivered in a matter of days.

Lukyan stepped forward, his eyes flashing with excitement. ‘Illayana, you’re a fucking genius.’

‘What?’ Andrei asked, looking between Lukyan and I.

‘My father can be quite…paranoid.’ My eyes flicked to him and he shrugged in response. ‘When he makes an arrangement with people we’ve never worked with before, he places a tracking device in with the shipment. On the slim chance they decide to double cross us and take off with the guns without paying, we have a way of tracking them down.’

‘Activate it. Find out where they are,’ my father snapped.

Nikolai started doing his usual techy shit. After a couple of minutes, he turned his laptop to face us, a wicked grin on his face. ‘Got em’. They’re a couple hours away in a town called San Bernardino.’

My father smiled. A truly evil and vindictive smile.

‘They must be driving back to Chicago. This is the perfect opportunity to get our guns back.’

My Father nodded. ‘We’ll leave at nightfall. They have our weapons so we’re already at a disadvantage. We’ll need the cover of darkness to help even the odds.’

‘How are we going to take them on? We’re seriously outgunned here,’ I asked.

‘I think it’s time I make a call to your godfather,’ he smirked. ‘Andrei, I want twenty of our best soldiers here, ready to go by dark.’

Andrei bowed and left the room, Nadia in tow.

My father faced Alessandro. ‘Will you be joining us?’

Alessandro scoffed. ‘Do you even have to ask?’ He pulled out his cell phone and put it to his ear, his eyes sparkling with anticipation. ‘Vincenzo, round up the men. We’re going hunting.’

‘Good. Because I’m ready to fucking kill something.’

We all turned at the sound of a new voice. Arturo stood at the door, bloody and bandaged, his multi-coloured eyes blazing with anger as he stared into the room.

My heart immediately started beating faster at the sight of him. Even beaten and bloody he was still the most beautiful man I’d ever laid eyes on.

‘Arturo,’ I breathed, moving to him.

His eyes scanned my body, relief flashing on his face to see me unharmed. ‘Ciao, moglie.’Hello, wife.

Before I even had a chance to respond, his lips were on mine. He kissed me like he hadn’t seen me in days, with a fervour and passion I had never seen before, never experienced. I felt my body heat up as he pulled me closer to him, my blood boiling with desire. His tongue dipped into my mouth, his taste overwhelming all my thoughts, all my senses.

I moaned in pleasure, my hands moving to grip onto his thick, muscular shoulders for support. I deepened the kiss, our tongues dancing together in unrefined passion. It was the most intoxicating sensation I had ever experienced. And then, it was over.

Arturo stepped back and gave me that sly motherfucking grin that always made me hot. His eyes snapped to Alessandro and my father, who stood in the centre of the room.

‘When do we leave?’