Page 68 of Obsession of the Bratva

“Nico.”

I sighed. Of course she wasn’t going to let it go.

“He came to threaten me and asked me to return you to him.”

She stared. “You’re joking.”

“I’m not.”

“The audacity of that asshole.” I chuckled at her innocent slang and the anger on her face. It somehow made her look even more desirable.

“Asshole indeed.”

There was silence between us, but then she laughed, and things settled at once. She wasn’t laughing because it was funny, but because it was absurd. “Oh, my God.”

“Exactly.”

She stood. “What did he say?”

“He demanded I return you to him at once and that he knows I have you.”

The disbelief on her face would have been amusing under different circumstances.

“I don’t even like him and never wanted to marry him.”

“I’m aware, and he knows that too.” My gaze was trained on her. “The only question for me is: how does he know that you are with me?”

“Nico, there’s something—”

The explosion hit before she could finish, shaking the entire house. Glass shattered all around us, and the floor jumped beneath our feet. For one split second, neither of us understood what had happened, and then instinct took over. I moved first.

“Down!”

The second blast was louder. Much louder. And suddenly chaos arrived. I should have known Adrian was not going to rest easy.

Chapter 16 - Vera

The explosion felt like the world splitting apart in two. One second, I had been standing in the living room staring at Nico, and the next, the floor lurched beneath my feet as if it would break open and swallow us whole. I had never experienced something even close to this before. Glass shattered somewhere behind us as the walls trembled around me.

A deafening boom echoed through the house, and for half a heartbeat, I froze.

But Nico didn’t. “Get down now!”

The command cracked through the chaos. It was strong, sharp, and absolute as if Nico had been preparing all his life for situations like these. He probably had been. When we had been together, I had not been aware of his bratva background, but now I knew everything in perfect, precise detail. His arm wrapped around my waist before I could even react as another explosion thundered somewhere around us. I couldn’t even understand how this was happening.

The lights flickered violently all over the house, but then steadied before beginning to flicker again. Every alarm in the house erupted at once. The sound was unbearable. Red emergency lights flooded the corridors, and smoke drifted through the distant hallways. It felt like I was caught in an action sequence of a Hollywood movie, only this was real. And all of this was probably happening because of me.

My heart slammed against my ribs. “What the hell is happening, Nico?”

Nico was already moving, his focus absolute. Within seconds, he had shifted from the man I was just laughing with to the precise enforcer he was born to be. His hand tightened around mine in a death grip, clearly not wanting to let go. Even in a time like this, he only cared about me and my safety.

“Keep moving, Vera. Now. Don’t stop.”

I stumbled after him. The version of Nico I had spent months arguing with disappeared instantly because this was someone else. He was not the bitter man seeking revenge, and definitely not the wounded man trying desperately not to love me.

This was Nico Romanov.

The man people feared. The man who commanded armies. The man born into violence. Everything about him transformed. I noticed how his movements became precise, efficient, and controlled. Every hesitation vanished, and every emotion disappeared. He took out a gun out of his suit pocket, making me realize I hadn’t even noticed it earlier.