9. Alek

9

ALEK

M axim helped me at the side door. He lowered, hunching his shoulders as the gunfire trailed me. Bullets hit the wall. The rapid battery sent chips of the plaster raining down.

"Go. Come on." As he held the door open for me to carry Mila through, he shot back. His aim was lousy, but I appreciated his assistance. It worked, anyway. The element of surprise had helped my plans.

No one else was quick enough to chase me through here, and I bet they'd be more worried about remaining and fighting in the church. Kastava would see this as an offense, and Pavel would be busy trying to save face for one of his men.

Despite my decision to intervene, I could always count on my four brothers to have my back. I was burning all my bridges with Pavel and Andrey by foiling this wedding, but I could depend on my siblings. Others in the bratva, too. I'd only confided in my brothers about my goal to stop this wedding, but had I told the other men who reported to me, I would've had more of a following.

After Maxim slammed the door closed and shoved the lock bar on this rear exit, he caught up with me at another door that would lead through the basement and out to another hallway toward the base of the building's clock. The church was so massive that it took up a huge area of a block. And that worked in my favor. I had a car waiting on a side alley, far from where the guards would be quick to look. Maxim and Nikolai had scoped out the place for the easiest getaway.

I turned and pushed the last door open with my shoulder, careful not to jostle or drop the bride in my arms. Dust flew up with the abrupt opening of the metal panel, but I didn't slow down or care that the door flung back and banged into the brick wall. Immediately, the stench of sewage and rotten garbage wafted to me. I drew in ragged breaths, high on adrenaline and needing to hurry more.

"I'll watch the doors," Maxim said as he scanned the dark alley, shadowed by the towering church and other skyscrapers blocking out the sun. Rain pelted down faster now, almost on cue, to make this escape trickier. The drizzle from before was gone. Now, the skies poured.

I nodded my thanks. "But you need to go too. Hide." I'd given them all clear instructions. They were to take cover and wait out the aftermath. Pavel would be on a warpath, planning to get answers from them because of how close they were to me. Maxim was the least experienced with covert missions and being in the action, but Ivan and Dmitri would watch out for him.

We didn't waste any more time talking or arguing. Any minute now, Kastava's men would file out of the church. I planned to be long gone by then.

Maxim opened the passenger door so I could stow Mila in there, and I worried at how limp she was. Not dead, but out of it. Furrowing my brow, I worried for a second about how bad off she could be. I'd tried to prevent her head from knocking against the podium adjacent to the altar, but Andrey hadn't made it easy for me to reach her.

My pathetic cousin hadn't been trying to keep her for himself, but as cover.

I'd have to wait until later to think back on how it all fell apart. Dwelling on any emotions right now would be suicide. As I rounded the car and got in, I sped off with one clear objective—escape. I raced down the alley, then onto the main street.

I headed toward an apartment on the other side of the city, almost near New Jersey. It wasn't the place I usually lived, the one where my brothers—and Andrey—visited last night. This one-room studio was a private location lacking creature comforts. All of us brothers had properties we owned outside the Valkov territory, and no one else in the bratva had ever learned about them. We'd inherited them from our parents, no doubt safe hideouts my father had secured just in case.

Just in case I needed somewhere to take a kidnapped bride. My cousin's bride, the daughter of an enemy.

Her.

I glanced at her again, stunned and again suspended in disbelief that the sassy woman I saw at that dock office was Andrey's fiancée. Of all women, of all the coincidences and odd overlaps of fate, it was her.

Long, brown curls partly covered her face, but as she stirred, breathing faster, the glossy locks slid back and revealed her features. Those sharp blue eyes were hidden behind her lids, but that pouty curl of her lips, even in sleep, taunted me. Up close again, I saw her flawlessly smooth skin, the satiny swells of her cheeks, her slender neck, and down further, the generous cleavage her dress allowed.

A horn honked, and I jerked, overcompensating in a swerve as I returned my attention to the road. With the reckless maneuvering, Mila slid to the passenger door. This time, I kept my eyes on the road as I relied on my peripheral vision to reach out and barricade her with my arm. I didn't need her slumping forward, not with her wounded arm.

I had no business checking her out as I drove. In a slight panic, I checked all my mirrors, ensuring that no one was tailing me, that no one else had noticed my stupid driving.

I only had to look twice, though, and glance at her again. My eyes couldn't lie. It was her, and I gritted my teeth at how much more complicated this seemed to be.

Already, she was getting under my skin. I was too fucking aware of her, too intrigued and tempted. But I'd be damned if she used it against me. She seemed like just the kind of woman who'd know how to seduce a man with her gorgeous body, but I wasn't weak like that. I couldn't be. Now that I'd hit a pause on that wedding and stalled any alliance, I had to follow up and get the proof of why and how that shipment was nothing but a setup designed to bring the Valkov Bratva down.

I'd never intended to hurt the couple. Killing my cousin wouldn't have solved anything. Nor would putting a hit on this beauty. When the Kastava guards stalled me in the outer vestibule, preventing me from firing my gun and stirring chaos, I lost significant time. Once I broke away from them and burst into the actual church, my heart had nearly stopped at the sight of the pair at the altar. I'd worried I was too late, that the ceremony was already in progress. And that was when I'd reverted to Plan B.

Andrey couldn't marry her if she wasn't there.

But now that she's here with me…

I parked at the building and checked once more to see if anyone was following. No one lurked, and I hurried to get her out of the car. Even if it seemed like no one was watching, cameras could be hidden anywhere, and getting a bleeding, unconscious bride out of my vehicle would look suspicious.

Without any interruptions, I got her up to my floor. Holding her limp weight tighter against me, I unlocked the door and carried her through to the crummy, bare apartment. Minimal furniture was on offer, but this wasn't a goddamn vacation. I only needed to keep her here long enough while my brothers and I figured out the levels of duplicity behind that shipment bullshit.

After I set her on the only bed pressed up against the wall, I studied her injuries. She still hadn't woken, but I wasn't too concerned. Her stomach gurgled and growled, and with the tightness of her skin and the darker circles under her eyes, I assumed she'd simply fainted with all the commotion. Food and water would help, but all I could do was examine her head where she'd knocked it. I was no medical professional, but I wasn't too worried that she wasn't awake yet. Her chest rose and fell steadily with strong, deep breaths. I did my best not to linger and stare at the huge swells of her tits straining against the low cut of her gown. Her bloody gown.

Next, I tended to the graze on her arm. It looked worse than it actually was. Stitches would be overkill, even if I could do them myself. Although it bled quickly and a lot, I doubted her unconscious status was due to significant blood loss.

I dampened a cloth and cleaned up her arm. A long length of gauze from a first-aid kit in the bathroom helped to compress the wound, and that was the best I could do. Her gown was pink and red, ripped in a few places. But it would be fine for now. This apartment wasn't stocked with much more than the bare essentials, but I didn't plan to stay here long. I had a spare change of clothes, but they'd dwarf her.

I stood back from her and heaved out a long exhale. Finally, I could breathe. And think.

Reactions and recrimination would come swiftly. As we'd fled the church, I heard and witnessed the beginning of it. Pavel was threatening me, Sergei shouting just as furious demands. The uproar had filled the church immediately, and everything that would follow as a reaction would happen just as quickly.

Only now, behind locked doors and secure with Andrey's bride, did I let myself think back on it all as I walked back and forth. My actions would set a ripple through our world, but I'd known that going into it. I wasn't remorseful. Not an ounce of guilt hung over me that I'd intervened in a wedding.

Mila moaned lightly, stirring on the bed, and I paused in my pacing to look back at her. Maybe a small thread of worry remained for her. I hadn't intended for her to get hurt, yet what she'd suffered seemed minor.

As I thought back further to what she'd said in the office, I wondered if she would wake up mad that I'd crashed her wedding or if she'd be grateful. With the way she'd spoken in the office, I had a hunch that she was apprehensive about the union between our families. Now knowing that she was the bride, though, that put a different spin on it.

A headstrong and feisty woman like her didn't deserve to be used as a fucking shield for a cowardly man like Andrey.

I huffed, resuming my pacing while she slept. Now wasn't the time to be idle. I was already deep into strategizing mode, trying to guess at how this could play out. How Pavel would be reacting. I'd ousted myself from my uncle's favor, but that had been a long time coming, anyway. It felt damned good to be opposing that old fucker for once. I'd dreamed of overthrowing that bastard many times, and only the worry of what my father would have thought kept me from acting on it.

Today had been the last straw, and I'd stand by my choices.

My phone rang, and seeing that it was Ivan, I answered immediately. My brothers had been instructed to contact me when it was deemed safer, when they were away from the church.

"Ivan." I put the phone on speaker so I could hold it lower and still listen out for Mila waking.

"You've caused war," my brother greeted dryly.

I nodded, almost letting a smile cover my lips. "Good."

A longer moan and shuffle on the bed drew my attention to the woman waking up in my bed. Mila winced, blinking her expressive eyes a few times as she rolled over to see me. I watched as she surveyed the room, her gaze clouded with both shock and confusion. When her angry stare landed on me, I couldn't look away.

"Good?" Ivan replied.

"Yes. Good. War will shake things up." I let Mila look me over, and I wondered if she remembered me from earlier, either at her wedding or yesterday. If she had any memory issues from that knock on her head, it could change what I'd tell her. "I welcome war," I told Ivan. "That's what we need before anyone can ruin our Family."

Her lips twisted. Recognition dawned in her sharp eyes, and she scowled a fierce expression of red-hot anger.

The sassy spitfire was awake. I stalked over to her, curious whether she'd give me trouble.

I look forward to it. That same flame of challenge and excitement coursed through my veins, heating my blood with the allure of arguing with her again. Of seeing her riled up again.

"Call me with more news when you get it," I told Ivan before I hung up.

Right now, I had other matters to tend to.

One furious bride who glowered at me and gritted her teeth, taunting me to tell her exactly how this would go.