Page 164 of Bratva Menace

Lies.

Lies, lies, lies.

That never happened, but for the purpose of keeping my secret, I had to say I did. Sure, there was a tiny sliver of guilt worming its way into my heart at having to lie to my older brother’s face like that, but there was no way I could tell him I was hopelessly in love and obsessed with my stalker.

He just wouldn’t understand. He would tell me I was being crazy. Again. Acting irresponsibly.

I had to show not only him but everyone that Lyla and I were perfect for each other.

“I’m assuming that’s the betrayal she’s talking about,” I continued, gripping the box in my hands tighter. “Because this was her gift.” I didn’t want to part with it. It was the best gift I’d ever received in my life. Nonetheless, I placed the medium-sized box down onto the table and waited.

Aleksandr picked it up with trepidation and looked inside.

It was fingers. Ten perfectly manicured fingers of a woman Lyla thought I’d had sex with. The truth of the matter was, I hadn’t touched another woman since the first moment I’d laid eyes on her….because she was right. I felt our connection the first time I saw her.

Scrawled on the inside of the lid was:

She lost her fingers for daring to touch what doesn’t belong to her. Take care with who you allow to touch you, my love.

Lyla had been watching me, like she did most nights. I was at the club. I didn’t lie about that part, but I was there for business. The club owner had been late for his payment to the Bratva, so my father sent me to collect it.

The club owner didn’t have it. Surprise, surprise. And instead tried to offer me something else in a bid to buy more time.

Or should I say, someone else.

He pushed one of the girls who worked the club at me, thinking what everyone else thought.

The playboy of the Bratva couldn’t say no to pussy.

Neither one knew that my heart had been claimed a long, long time ago. I was firmly a one-woman man.

The woman ran her fingers across my chest in a sultry attempt to get in my pants—which I promptly declined—and then, the next morning, those very same fingers were sitting in a box on the hood of my car, wrapped nicely in a big, beautiful red bow.

I’d never been more turned on in my life. My little shadow was possessive of me. Killed over me.

It was the hottest thing I’d ever seen, and only made me more head over heels for her than I already was.

“Ring-a-ding-ding, you’ve got the king,” I answered.

“Where are you?” Nikolai asked.

I couldn’t tell him where I really was. So, I said the first thing I could think of that would garner no more questions.

“Getting my dick sucked. Why?”

“We need you home. Now. Family meeting.”

Say something Lukyan-like.

“Can I finish first?”

I could almost feel him rolling his eyes through the phone. “We have a lead on Father.”

My spine snapped straight and the binoculars fell from my hands. What? “Be right there.”

I silently cursed to myself as I hung up the phone and started packing away my gear. I didn’t want to leave. I’d brought enough food and water to be camped out here for days. But my father was in trouble, and if we finally had a lead on him, we had to act on it. I had to go.

I snapped the stand on my sniper rifle back into place and loaded it into my suitcase. After zipping my backpack shut, I flung it onto my back and picked up my binoculars again, needing one last look to tide me over.