Bratva Prince (Bratva Series Book 2)

I heaved my body up and down, up and down, taking my chin all the way down to the ground before coming back up as I counted the push ups in my head.

Forty-six.

Forty-seven.

Forty-eight.

My arms shook, sweat dripping down my face, but I pushed through until I reached my goal.

When I got to fifty, I took a quick thirty-second breather and then flipped over, starting on the sit ups. I put both hands behind my head, palms flat against the back of my skull and counted.

One.

Two.

Three.

The burn in my abdomen was a comforting kind of ache, one I had missed while being shackled to that chair. It was exactly what I needed to calm and centre myself.

I may still be stuck in a tiny room with no windows and dry blood coating its walls and floor, but the ability to move around helped quell the crazy. It helped keep me from going completely and utterly insane. It helped pass the time.

If I was being honest though, I was using it to try and distract myself from the fact that Aleksandr hadn’t come back since our…interaction last night.

There was no clock in here. I didn’t have a watch. I had no way of gauging the time. Whether it was morning or night. But I knew the day was almost over and he hadn’t come by.

My days were boring. Repetitive. Usually Aleksander would show up some time after I woke up and offer me some sort of deal to get me to talk. I’d tell him where to shove it and he’d leave.

Dumb and Dumber out there guarding the door would come in a few hours later, give me a bowl of food and take me to the bathroom.

And that was it. That was the extent of my day. I would fall asleep, wake up and it would happen all over again, like some bad song on repeat.

Except for today. Today was different. Today Aleksandr hadn’t shown up.

I refused to allow myself to feel the disappointment. If he wanted to be a little bitch and hide away from me, fine. But I hated that I felt like I had been rejected in some sort of way. You know, like when you sleep with someone, and they ghost you.

We didn’t even sleep together and yet I felt that way.

It pissed me off.

It was an irrational feeling, one that didn’t make any sense. Especially when you took into account the fact that Aleksandr was my kidnapper.

I shouldn’t want his attention, his touch. I shouldn’t want to feel his breath on my skin, his hand around my throat as he called me his good little fuck toy.

And yet I did.

I craved it. Burned for it.

I’d gotten more pleasure from that one experience with Aleksandr than I had with any other man or woman from my past.

Aleksandr had this presence—this powerful presence—that just made me shiver. Made my pussy throb. My skin flush. Made my body react in some primal way, like a lioness in heat.

Once I was finished with my sit ups, I moved onto another drill. I jogged lightly around the room for a few minutes, focusing on controlling my breathing, my heartbeat—and not on that giant bastard.

After that, I moved onto chin ups. There was a long steel bar running across the length of the roof. That evil, torturous side of me saw what that was for. It was perfect to hang people from. I wondered how many people had endured that fate, how many people had died in this very room.

I manoeuvred the chair directly under it and stood on it. I was still a few inches short from reaching the bar, but I was confident I could get it if I jumped.

I was right.

I leapt upwards, my fingers curling around the bar. I hung suspended in the air, adjusting my hands to make sure I had a good, solid grip. Then I stuck my legs out straight so my body made an ‘L’ shape and began lifting myself up and down, enjoying the burn in my muscles.

I’d only really just started when the door opened. I expected my guards, or maybe even Aleksandr. What I had not been expecting was the leggy, dark-haired woman I glimpsed last night strolling right on through, looking like some Victoria Secret model.

I paused mid-lift, my arms, legs and abdomen burning as we stared one another down, her face curled up in disgust and contempt.

Okey dokey. Looks like we’re not going to braid each other’s hair and become best friends.

Dumb and Dumber stayed outside but the door remained open as Leggy came to a stop a few feet away from me.

I was curious about her. About who she was, and what she was doing here in my cell, staring at me like I just kicked her dog.

Which I would never do. I was the type of person who (if given the choice) would choose to save a dog over a human in a deathly situation any day.

I straightened my legs and let go of the bar, hurling my body forward to do a superhero landing at her feet.

Deadpool was right. It was hella impractical. But hey, at least it looked cool.

I stood up, ignoring the ache in my knees as I stood toe-to-toe with Leggy. Or tried to. With those hooker heels, she practically towered over me. But I wasn’t intimidated in the slightest.

I could take her.

Probably.

“And you are?” I asked, raising an inquisitive brow.

She sneered at me. It really ruined the beauty of her face.

“I’m Aleksandr’s fiancé. And I want you to stay the hell away from him.” She shoved me, and I was too stunned by her words to do anything about it. I fell back, landing flat on my ass.

What?

My head was reeling. Aleksandr was engaged?

Argh, I felt like such an idiot. I should have known. Of course a man like Aleksandr—strong, handsome, every woman’s wet dream—already had a woman. And a fucking stunning one at that.

Anger pounded in my chest. I did a lot of questionable things. I had no issues with stealing, beating the shit out of someone, even killing them. But taking another woman’s man?

That was something I was adamantly against.

I know, my priorities and morals were a little whack. But I’d been that woman before. I was with someone I loved with my entire heart and soul. Someone who I thought loved me just the same.

And then I walked in on him while he was licking another woman’s pussy.

In our bed.

It was a moment that shattered me. It broke me. Not only my heart but my ability to trust another. Even though it happened years ago, it still affected me and the decisions I made to this day.

“Aleksandr is mine,” Leggy growled, and that’s when I realised I was still on the ground with her standing over me. It was an extremely vulnerable position and I wasn’t having it.

I jumped to my feet, making her stumble back. “You can fucking have him,” I hissed. “I don’t want or need another woman’s man.”

“Please,” Leggy scoffed. “You think I don’t know what you’re trying to do? You’re trying to drive a wedge between us so you can be Queen of the Bratva. Well let me tell you something. He will never marry some Spanish suka like you. He’ll play around with you. Fuck you. But eventually he’ll get bored of you like he has with every other woman who isn’t me. And when that happens, he’ll chuck you back into the dirt where you belong.”

“Helloooo paranoid city. First of all, I didn’t even know you existed, so how could I have been planning to drive a wedge between the two of you? Second of all, I have no interest in being Queen of anything. And third of all, you put your hands on me again and we’re gonna have problems.”

She threw her head back and laughed. “What are you going to do to me? You’re our prisoner. You lay a hand on me and you’re dead.”

She had a very good point. And I didn’t give a flying fuck about it. There was no way I was going to stand here and just take her shit.

“Touch me again and find out.” My eyes flicked to the guards standing just outside the door. They didn’t look like they were going to intervene, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t.

Her lips curled into a cocky smile. There was certain air surrounding her. A privileged, self-entitled, no-one-can-touch-me-I’m-important type of air.

I didn’t give a shit who she was or what her position was in the Bratva. I was prepared to throw hands if she stepped to me again.

She got one free pass because yes, I did almost fuck her fiancé. But that was all I was willing to give.

Leggy raised a hand as if to strike me and I reacted…by punching her in the face.

Her nose crunched beneath my knuckles, her pain-filled cry filling the small space.

As she fell, I prepared myself for Shaggy and Pavel. I knew they wouldn’t allow that kind of disrespect.

They did nothing. Just stared at Leggy on the floor, crying and writhing in pain.

I felt like rolling my eyes. I didn’t even hit her that hard.

“Get her!” Leggy screeched, one hand holding her nose, the other pointing a finger at me. “Get her now!”

Shaggy and Pavel didn’t move. “We don’t take orders from you,” the older one grunted.

I snorted out a laugh. She was so confident I would be punished if I laid a hand on her.

How wrong she was.

Leggy pulled herself to her feet, her face full of rage. She charged at me, screaming some sort of weird battle cry that hurt my ears.

She was much taller than me, so ducking under her swing was easy. I rammed my body into her side and she stumbled, thanks to those ridiculous fucking heels.

She cried out as she fell to her knees. “You fucking bitch!” she hissed, getting back up. “I’ll kill you!”

She went to charge again, but a rough voice stopped her dead in her tracks.

“Mila! That’s enough!” A bulky man walked through the door, his eyes dark.

I recognised him. He was the man who dragged me into the torture dungeon when I first got here.

I busted his nose with my head.

Ah, what a fond memory.

Words flew between the two of them as they had a tense, heated discussion in Russian. I was a little annoyed that I couldn’t understand it because it sounded like he was telling her off, his veins throbbing in his neck, his finger pointing at her in reprimand.

Whatever the man said made Mila glare at me with pure hatred. She stomped past me and out of the room without a second glance.

“Nice to meet you!” I yelled out, waving at her retreating back.

A sharp blow to the face rocked me, sending me flying. I landed in a heap on the floor, pain exploding across my cheek.

“Argh! Fuck!”

The man had struck me so quickly I hadn’t even seen it coming.

“The next time you lay a hand on my daughter, I’ll slit your throat,” he threatened, the glare on his face matching his daughter’s perfectly.

I could finally see the resemblance between them.

I stood, cradling my sore cheek. “She hit me first.” Well, she pushed me, but all the same.

“I don’t care what she did. Do it again and I’ll kill you myself.” He turned and left, striding past Shaggy and Pavel.

The younger guard stepped forward, grabbing the door handle. He smirked. “Nice hit.”

“Shut the door, Pavel,” Shaggy commanded. There was the slightest hint of smirk on his face too.

Pavel winked, shutting the door.

I chuckled softly. Clearly Mila wasn’t very well liked among her own people.

I blew out a breath, pain still radiating across my face. I walked backwards until my back hit the wall, sliding down to sit.

Mila’s words circled through my mind over and over again. I’m Aleksandr’s fiancé.

God, how could I have been so fucking stupid?

Instead of trying to find a way to escape, I’d been canoodling with the very man who kidnapped me.

Stockholm Syndrome was a very real thing, obviously. But then again I hadn’t had any feelings for Nero after he kidnapped me, and I’d been with him a hell of a lot longer than with Aleksandr.

It was hard to explain, hard to put into words. With Aleksandr, it had been an instantaneous attraction. The second I laid eyes on him, my whole body shot to life. The fact that he took me captive didn’t negate any of that.

But still, how could I have let myself get so distracted, so consumed with Aleksandr that I completely ignored that he was holding me against my will?

I groaned, running a hand down my face. I had to be honest with myself. I was more pissed off he had a fiancé than I was about him kidnapping me.

How warped was that? Just goes to show how fucked up in the head I really was.

I couldn’t help the sting of betrayal coursing through my body. Of course I knew how utterly ridiculous that was. Aleksandr didn’t owe me a goddamn thing. The only thing between us was the overwhelming, sexual attraction. Nothing else.

I knew what I was feeling right now was completely irrational. I understood that, but nevertheless, I felt it.

I had to get out of here, away from him and the Bratva and back to my people. The cartel.

I thumped my head softly against the wall, trying to come up with some sort of escape plan.

The only time I was out of this room was for a bathroom break once a day. Shaggy and Pavel guarded me closely every time they led me to the bathroom, one in front and one behind me. They took the same route each time. A right, two lefts and another right.

This place was like a fucking maze. Not to mention it was more secure than Fort Knox. I paid attention to everything Aleksandr did when he took me up to the main floor for the shower and back down again.

That huge steel door seemed impenetrable. And the only way to open it (from what I could tell) was with a fingerprint.

The only way I had any chance of escaping was if I could somehow get back to the main floor. Then I would need to incapacitate whoever I was with, whether that be Shaggy, Pavel or even Aleksandr. Maybe get my hands on a set of keys and steal one of their cars?

I nodded to myself. My plan might only have a slim-to-none chance of actually working, but at least I had one now. And I wouldn’t let Aleksandr distract me from it again.