Page 79 of Bratva Menace

“Where do I even fucking start?” I blew out, bowing my head. My elbows were braced on my thighs, my hands clasped together tightly in frustration.

I told him. I fucking told him to be careful. Warned him that the woman stalking him was wildly unpredictable. It fucking figured. If any of my children were going to be stalked by a crazy person, it would be my youngest son. And of course, the fool would be nothing but excited by the notion.

I should have put a security detail on him. Should have had someone watching his back, but even I couldn’t have foreseen what would happen. As hard as I had tried, I wasn’t able to dig up a lick of information on his stalker. She was lithe and sly, always able to avoid any tails I’d tried to stick on her. Always covering her face with masks. No matter how hard I’d tried, I was never able to uncover her identity.

It fucking irked me.

Now that insane bastard had kidnapped my son. She’d orchestrated an elaborate and, quite frankly, ingenious plot to have him all for herself, taking Anya’s place.

It was goddamn fucking brilliant, even I had to admit.

Autumn laid a hand on my shoulder, her touch instantly comforting me. “We’ll find him,” she whispered softly.

“Will we?”

“Yes. We will.” Autumn’s voice held nothing but strength, and I grasped onto it like a lifeline, desperate for her words to be true. “She’s been obsessed with him for so long, adamant on having him. I don’t think she would do anything to hurt him, so we have time. Time to do everything possible to find out where she’s keeping him.”

I wished I could believe that. “When stalkers finally get the object of their obsession, it almost always falls short of their expectations. What they imagined it to be like. If Lukyan doesn’t live up to her vision of him, the version she’s created in her mind, she could punish him for it.”

Her lips twisted in thought. “I don’t believe that’s the case here. I think it’s more than just some silly obsession for her. Think about it. Look at everything she’s done. The way she looks out for him. I think Looney Tunes really loves him. Why else would she break in here? It’s a highly guarded mansion filled with the family of the man she’d just kidnapped. The risk alone should have been enough to keep her away, and yet, she’d been right here, less than a foot away from us.”

I frowned. “You think she came here for him?”

“What other reason could there possibly be? Maybe Lukyan asked her to check in on you. Make sure you were okay after what happened, and she did it just to make him happy.”

“I think you’re reaching.” But she did make a good point. What other reason could she possibly have for breaking into Sergei’s estate like that? I’d been questioning it since the moment it happened.

I was still pissed off that she’d managed to escape so easily. If I’d only been just that little bit faster, I would have her in my possession. Would have been able to torture her until she coughed up the location of where she was keeping my son.

“Maybe. Maybe not. There’s something else troubling you about the whole situation, though. I can see it in your eyes.”

Autumn was right, as I’d come to often realize about her. She was right all the bloody time. “I fear…” How could I even put it into words? Just thinking it made me sick to my stomach. “I fear that he might not want to come back.”

Autumn immediately started shaking her head. “No. No, I don’t believe that. He loves you. He loves his family.”

“We’ve treated him pretty shit lately.” Honestly? I wouldn’t even really blame him. I’d come to realize my mistake, but I feared I’d realized it too late. That the damage was done. “If he falls for this woman, which is highly likely considering how much their personalities match, he might choose to stay. He might not even give a fuck that she kidnapped him to start with. Lord knows he fucking wanted it.”

“Are you afraid she’ll kidnap me?”

“Yes.”

“If she did, I’m pretty sure I would like it.”

Those had been his words. His own fucking words. Granted, Lukyan might have been joking, but then again, he might not have been.

“Have you told the rest of the family yet?” Autumn asked.

I sighed. “No.” I knew I probably should. It had been two days. Aleksandr had already messaged, asking how the wedding went. If I didn’t respond soon, he would know something went wrong.

“You know you need to.”

“I’m worried about how they’ll take it.”

Autumn crossed her legs, her mind ticking as she tried to carefully pick her words. “They won’t take it well. They’ll want to drop everything and come out here to help find him.”

“And that would be disastrous.”

“It would be.” Autumn nodded because she knew exactly what I did; they would tear that country apart to find him. “So you’ll need to explain that to them. Make them see it. I’d start with Aleksandr. Get him onboard, and Nikolai and Illayana will follow.”