Bratva Prince (Bratva Series Book 2)

“For fuck’s sake Drea, really? A Bratva guy? What the fuck is wrong with you?” Juan hissed low in his throat after Aleksandr, Nik and Logan left the room.

I laughed halfheartedly. I knew Juan would see the connection between Aleksandr and I in a heartbeat. Though to be fair, Aleksandr’s actions made it pretty fucking obvious.

Ordinarily, I wasn’t a big fan of the whole jealousy thing, but I had to admit watching him get all territorial over me made my skin all tingly and shit.

Logan and I had a ‘will they-won’t they’ kind of relationship for years. After Daniel, I wasn’t interested in a serious relationship, and Logan loved his playboy lifestyle, so fucking whenever the need arose worked out really well for the both of us.

People in the cartel wondered if we’d ever get together ‘officially’. We were similar in a lot of ways. We got along really well, and he wasn’t threatened by me or my position, which was a damn hard thing to come by. To be honest, if I was going to get with someone, he would have been the ideal choice.

Until I met Aleksandr, that is.

He’s getting married, remember?

Ugh. Sometimes I hated my inner voice. She was always a bitch, pointing out rational shit I’d rather forget or ignore.

“Calm down, it’s not what you think.”

He snorted, giving me a derisive look. “Who do you think you’re talking to here? I’m your twin. I know you better than anyone and I know you’re hot for that guy. And he’s hot for you.”

“Really? You think so?”

His jaw dropped. “Do you even hear yourself right now?” he hissed, the glare on his face the same as the one I’d seen on my dad’s face countless times before. “Is this some weird case of Stockholm Syndrome or something? This guy kidnapped you, Drea. You understand that, right? Please, oh please, don’t tell me you fucked him.”

I stared at him blankly. “Do you want me to lie to you?”

“Of course I don’t want you to lie to me,” he whispered harshly.

“Then don’t ask stupid questions,” I snapped back. “Obviously I fucked him. Are you telling me you wouldn’t if you got the chance?”

He stuck his nose up in the air. “We’re not talking about me.”

I scoffed. “That means yes.” I couldn’t tell you how many times I’d walked in on Juan fucking one of his boyfriends.

“No, it doesn’t. It means—oh no. Don’t you dare try and change the subject. You fucked the enemy, not me. I can’t believe—”

“Okay, we don’t have time for this,” I said, cutting my hand through the air. “Aleksandr gave me five minutes, and trust me when I say he won’t go a second longer than that.”

“Oh, I trust you. If anyone would know it would be you, wouldn’t it, hoe bag?”

“I’m gonna get you back for that later. We’re accepting his deal.”

“Well obviously. It’s not like I was going to leave you with them. We have to get you out quickly before they find out who you are.”

I bit my lip, glancing away.

Oh man, he’s gonna kill me.

“They already know.”

Juan stared at me, unblinkingly. “Come again?”

“They found out a while ago. They’ve got some contacts in high places. He managed to get his hands on a fingerprint ID scanner and he scanned my prints the first night. He was able to figure out my identity from there.”

“He knows you’re Don?”

I nodded. He was taking this a lot better than I thought he would.

“What the fuck am I doing here then? You could have negotiated this deal on your own and come home ages ago.”

“You don’t think I tried? The Bratva are old school. They’ll only make a deal if there are others there to witness it.”

He scrunched up his face. “What? Why?”

“I don’t know. It’s just the way they do it and Aleksandr refused to budge on it.” I glanced at the door that Aleksandr, Nik and Logan had walked out in and back to Juan, lowering my voice. “Did you find out who ratted me out to Nero?”

“No.” Frustration streaked across his face. “But Oliver is missing.”

Oliver was one of Juan’s longtime bed pals. They’d been friends since they were kids and were actually each other’s first. Deep down, I knew Oliver loved Juan—but he loved power more.

When my dad passed and named me as his successor, Oliver had tried to convince Juan to take it from me. He wanted Juan in charge so that, by extension, he would be too.

“You think he’s the rat,” I stated, feeling sorry for my brother. It made sense. Oliver wanted me out of the way so Juan would be Don.

“I think it’s suspicious. You and Oliver get into a fight, Nero all of a sudden reaches out and requests a meet, he kidnaps you and I get put in charge by default. Oliver went missing shortly after you were taken. I’ve been looking for him but so far, no luck.” Guilt shone in his eyes. “I should never have pushed you to take that meeting. It’s all my fault. All of this.”

“No, it’s not. It’s Oliver’s.” If he actually was the rat, that is. “One thing I don’t get is if he was the one to tell Nero who I was, why did he run? He would want to take advantage of you finally being Don, or acting Don, but whatever. It doesn’t make sense that he’d just bolt when he finally got what he wanted, unless—”

“Unless he’s dead,” Juan finished, his jaw clenching. “It occurred to me, and I’ve wondered about it. Maybe Nero killed him when he got the information he wanted, I don’t know. I’m not ruling anything out. I’ll keep looking for him until I find him, dead or alive.”

I nodded. “I’m sorry, brother. I know you—”

“Don’t say ‘love’. I don’t love him.” But he did though—he just refused to admit it because Oliver had hurt him more times than either of us could count. He was the one who outed Juan to our parents because he was sick of hiding their relationship. He took it upon himself to tell Juan’s secret before he was ready to share it.

Despite that, and everything else that bastard had put my brother through, Juan still loved him. He just wouldn’t admit it. Not even to me, or to himself.

“One thing I don’t understand about this whole thing with the Bratva is why they’re even willing to make a deal with us,” Juan said, changing the subject entirely. I got the feeling talking about Oliver was just too hard for him right now.

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“We’re small-time compared to them. It probably wouldn’t be hard for them to squash us under their boot and move on. So why don’t they? Why are they even bothering to negotiate with us?”

It was a good question. One I’d wondered about myself, to be honest. Juan was right in saying we were small-time. We didn’t have the same reach the Bratva did. But we were fierce and cutthroat.

Juan leaned closer, his voice barely above a whisper, “There’s talk, on the streets.”

“What kind of talk?” I asked suspiciously.

“That they’re losing their edge.” Aleksandr? Losing his edge? The idea was laughable. “There are rumours circulating that they’re in the middle of some brutal internal war or something and are spread thin. Can’t even monitor their own territories properly. A bunch of their buildings have burned down and there’s been zero retaliation for it.”

“That doesn’t mean they’re losing their edge. It could mean they haven’t found the people responsible for it yet.”

“We should take advantage of the situation,” Juan uttered, completely ignoring what I’d said. “If the Bratva are distracted, it’s the perfect time to strike. Can you imagine? The Los Zetas being the one to cripple and take down the all-mighty Bratva? We’d be goddamn legends.”

I growled, baring my teeth in anger as I grabbed him by the ear and pulled him down to eye level.

“Ow! Drea!” he whined.

“Shut up,” I hissed, my eyes darting to the door and back in alarm. I prayed they didn’t just hear what he said. “Don’t ever say something that colossally stupid again, you hear me? Even if what you’re saying is true—and that’s a big fucking if—we’re still no match for the Bratva. I’ve seen what they can do. I’ve seen their men. They train every morning like they’re in the fucking army. They have a military-type focus, Juan. Trust me when I say they’d crush us with little to no effort.”

Juan’s face was scrunched up in pain, his whole body hunched over as I kept a tight grip on his ear. “But—”

“It’s this kind of stupid, ambitious thinking that got me kidnapped to begin with.”

He snapped his mouth shut. Guilt clutched my chest at the heart stricken look flashing in his eyes, but I couldn’t think about that right now. I let him talk me into the meeting with Nero even though all my instincts were screaming about what a bad idea it was. I wasn’t doing it again.

I let go of him and he straightened, rubbing his ear in discomfort. I gave him a level stare. “The Bratva are far better to have as an ally than as an enemy, Juan. If there’s ever a time in your life when you listen to me, it’s now.”

He blew out an irritated breath. “Fine,” he nodded. “Are you excited to come home?”

I hesitated in answering. The truth of it was, I wasn’t. Not really. I missed Juan and my mum, but I was afraid I’d miss Aleksandr more. I’d taken a peek through his hard, rough exterior, getting a glimpse of the person he was inside, the one he hid from everyone else. And I loved it.

He was strong, caring, selfless. He always put others before himself, especially his family.

I didn’t set out to like him, or even care for him for that matter. But it happened. I was powerless to stop it. It didn’t matter how I felt though, because in six months he’d be married. Come to think of it, leaving today before I got even more attached to him was probably for the better.

I’d get over him.

Eventually.

Maybe.

Probably not.

“How’s mum?” I asked instead of answering his question. I hoped he wouldn’t notice the blatantly obvious subject change.

He didn’t, thank God.

“She’s about as good as you’d expect someone who’s had one of their children kidnapped to be. I had to lock her in one of the rooms in the main house to keep her from showing up here. She wanted to come and wouldn’t listen to me when I told her I could only bring one person, and that one person had to be someone who could shoot a gun.”

I felt a chuckle rise up in my throat. Sofia Ortega was like a big mama bear. Fiercely protective of her babies, with a pension for destruction built into her very core.

“I bet she wasn’t happy to be left at home,” I laughed. “Do you think—”

An angry roar ripped through the air, followed by loud shouting and a hard thump.

Juan and I looked at each other. “What the fuck was that?” we both said at the same time.

I ran for the exit, Juan hot on my heels. I flung the door open and froze.

Shit.

Aleksandr was straddling Logan’s chest, his hands wrapped around his throat and squeezing so hard there was blood seeping into Logan’s eyes.

Shock slammed into me at the ferocious look on Aleksandr’s face, at the way he bared his teeth an inch away from Logan’s face, his eyes burning with rage.

I’d never seen him this way before. Even when we went to the Rage Room (where the sole purpose was for people to express their anger by beating the shit out of stuff), he’d still been in control, hitting things with precise, direct blows, never truly releasing the reins on that tight self control he possessed.

What the fuck had Logan done to make Aleksandr snap?

“Zander! Enough!” Nikolai barked, trying to pull his brother off Logan and failing.

Aleksandr was like a brick wall. Completely unmovable. He didn’t even seem bothered by Nikolai’s attempts, he just kept his rage-filled eyes locked on Logan as he strangled the life out of him.

Something spurred me forward. What specifically, I couldn’t say. Maybe it was the fact that Aleksandr was literally seconds away from killing Logan. Or maybe it was the click of Juan’s gun as he cocked it, the barrel now pointed right at Aleksandr’s chest.

Whatever it was, it propelled me towards Aleksandr like a magnet.

I wrapped my arms around his huge bicep, pulling back as hard as I could while Nikolai did the same with his other arm, both of us working in unison to try to dislodge Aleksandr.

“Damn it, Big Guy, let go,” I grunted with exertion.

Nikolai unwound himself from around Aleksandr’s arm and ran to his front. He threw a brutal right hook into Aleksandr’s face, the blow stunning him and making his grip on Logan’s throat loosen. Nikolai ploughed into his brother with the force of a linebacker and we all tumbled to the ground in one big heap.

Ow.

Juan rushed to Logan’s side, checking his pulse. The relief that washed over his face told me all I needed to know.

He was alive. Unconscious, but alive.

I picked myself up, wincing at the slight pain shooting across my chest. Getting crushed under over two-hundred pounds of hard, toned muscles wasn’t nearly as much fun as I thought it would be.

Aleksandr shoved his brother off him and got to his feet, the anger still evident on his face. His eyes snapped to Logan’s unmoving form. It looked as though he was debating lunging for him again.

“The deal is off,” Aleksandr growled, his hand clamping around my forearm. He pulled me close to him and I was too shocked to do anything but follow.

Wait, what? What the fuck is happening right now?

Juan jumped up, aiming his gun at Aleksandr, which prompted Nikolai to aim his gun at Juan. “Let her go!” my brother yelled.

Fuck. I needed to deescalate the situation as fast as possible. “Guys, stop. We don’t need to do this. Everything’s fine.”

Aleksandr didn’t say anything, marching me towards the elevator that would take us down to the undercover parking lot while Nikolai covered him.

“Hey! I said let her go! I’ll shoot you, I swear to fucking God.”

Aleksandr punched the button to call the elevator and turned, placing me behind him protectively as he stared down the barrel of Juan’s gun. “No you won’t. Because we both know you’re not the one in charge here. The deal is off. You hear me? Take your man and go home before I change my mind and kill you both. We’re done here.”

A ding announced the arrival of the elevator, the door whooshing open. Aleksandr ushered me inside with Nikolai at his back. Juan looked at me for guidance. He didn’t know what to do, whether to let me leave with them or put a stop to it.

I shook my head, urging him to stand down. I wasn’t sure what happened with Logan. But whatever it was, it was bad enough to not only make Aleksandr lose control on that tight leash he kept on himself, but also make him go back on the deal he put forth.

I needed time to figure out what was going on and what I needed to do to fix it before an all out war broke out between the cartel and the Bratva.

The elevator ride down to the underground parking lot was silent and tense. Like an awkward family dinner where everyone hated each other. Neither Aleksandr nor Nikolai spoke a word. I was standing, wedged between two hulking men who were both fuming with rage. It made for an unpleasant time.

“Okay. Someone going to tell me what happened?”

Fucking crickets. I might as well have been talking to myself.

The elevator dinged. Aleksandr’s hand tightened on my arm as he steered me out of the elevator and towards his car, our footsteps echoing around the empty lot.

“Aleksandr, we need to talk about this.”

He said nothing, just unlocked the car and shoved me inside without so much as a ‘how do you do’. He slammed the door shut and locked it.

Not again.

I opened my mouth, ready to yell my fucking head off, but the words died on my tongue. It wasn’t only anger rolling off Aleksandr. It was also distress, something I’d never seen in him before.

He and Nikolai stepped far enough away that I struggled to hear what they were talking about. I could catch little snippets as Nikolai yelled at his brother, veins throbbing in the side of this neck as he pointed an accusatory finger at him.

“What is wrong with you…get yourself together…who cares if he…she’s not yours—”

Aleksandr struck him hard across the face. Nikolai dropped, taken completely by surprise.

Aleksandr stomped away, his jaw clenched and brows lowered in an angry glare. He flung the driver’s side door open, climbed in and started the car, not looking at me once.

Nikolai picked himself up, scowling in our direction. He rubbed his jaw as he marched towards the car. Once he was inside Aleksandr sped off, heading towards the house.