Owned by the Badman (Russian Bratva #1) (17 page)

“I miss you so much. I have been so lost without you these past weeks.”

Catia begins to cry, but she must realize her tears do not affect me. Tears, in general, do not affect me—except for Haleigh’s tears. They
gut
me. That thought is frightening; that something as trivial as her tears brings me to my knees.

“I am married man now, Catia, devoted to my wife,” I announce coolly. She sucks in a breath, nodding.

“I would have been a good wife to you, Maks. The best of everything for you,” she whispers. My eyes cut to hers. I don’t see the calculating wheels turning as in the past; she looks genuine.

“You need to move on. I love my wife,” I admit.

Catia gasps and her mouth makes an O shape at my declaration of love. I should not have said it the first time to
her
. I should have waited to tell Haleigh first before telling the world, but I can no longer hold it in.

I love Haleigh Lasovska, my wife. The feeling is foreign, but I like it.

The workday escapes me. I have many meetings on and off the books. Men who do not know how to control their impulses and owe me much money. They will pay one way or another. Today was warning day. Next week, we start breaking things. I grin as that is my favorite part of my off the books job—the violence. I need it to function, to escape my mind. I haven’t needed it as much since I have had my sweet wife by my side, but a raw part of me still needs to take out my anger violently.

My on the books business is acquiring properties for Pasha and investing in them so we can trade guns without as much worry. Our own supply, our own warehouses, our own men under our employ. Keeping everything close and wrapped up tight.

I look up to see Dimitri is at my office door, asking if I am ready to go home, as it is past nine in the evening. How could I have worked so hard? How could I have lost track of the time of the day this way?

“Shall we, Maxim?” he asks. I nod.

I shut off all of my electronics, lock all of my drawers, and double-check my safe. I lock the office door behind me—you can never be too safe these days. Even if there is nothing of
Bratva
importance in my office, I still don’t need people snooping.

“Did Haleigh contact you today at all?” I ask.

I usually find time to contact her a few times a day, but today honestly got away from me. I know if I am busy, she will contact Dimitri if she needs anything.

“No,” he says. Dimitri is cold to me. This never happens, and it confuses me.

“What is wrong, friend?” I ask. Dimitri really is my friend; I have known him for years, and he has been nothing but loyal.

“I should not say, but I will. You did not treat her right at that dinner. You lacked respect for your wife,” he informs me. I am shocked, taken aback by his angry words.

“What, because I did not engage in conversation during the meal? How do you know any of this, anyway?”

“This has nothing to do with ignoring her. You fuck her in that room, where everybody can hear her moans and screams. Then you parade her around in front of your associates and their wives. The men ogled her all evening, the women gave her disgusted looks, and you were too busy being oblivious to notice,” he growls. I notice that Dimitri’s knuckles are white on the steering wheel; he is gripping it so tightly.

“How do you know these things?” I bark. I am angry now—angry with Dimitri, but angry with myself as well.

“I met with Alexi this afternoon to talk about possible shipment of new product,
better
product, and expansion. He asked me if your wife is available for fucking, if you share.”

I see nothing but red. My vision is completely blocked, and I roar my anger.

“I hoped that was how you would feel, so I warned him off her. But Maxim, he will not be the only one to ask that question. Everybody knows
how
you obtained her and then you fucking her like that for the entire party to hear? Makes them think you do not care about her, that you only possess her,” he points out. He makes so much sense.

How could I not have thought through that moment?

I rake my hands through my hair and pull on the strands, hard. I have ruined it all with my fucking hormones.

“That was why she was angry with me,” I point out the obvious, and Dimitri snorts.

“Why didn’t she tell me? She didn’t hesitate to tell me to stop fucking Catia and every other woman on earth, so why didn’t she yell at me about this?”

“She wasn’t mad?” he asks.

I shake my head.

“I asked her and she said
nothing
was wrong, that she was
fine
, so we went to sleep,” I say with a shrug. Dimitri throws back his head and laughs. I want to slice his throat.

“You have much to learn, Maxim. When a woman says that she is fine, she never is,” he says with a stupid fucking grin on his face.

I rub my forehead again and try to calm myself. We are getting close to home, and I need to be kind and gentle or she is going to become angrier.

“That is stupid,” I reply as Dimitri pulls up to the house.

“Well …
yeah
,” he confirms. I wave him off as I climb the steps.

I stand at the front door and freeze—something is off. The roses I purchased for Haleigh are just sitting in their vase on the front porch – untouched. I can feel it hanging around in the air, thick and evil. I know evil
, I am evil
, but it isn’t me who I sense. It is something different. Sirens are going off inside my head.

I need to find out what has happened inside of my home.

I am fucking terrified.

I lift my hand to Dimitri in a signal that all is not right inside. I hear his shoes crunching on the gravel driveway as he walks up behind me, my backup. I slip my gun out of my shoulder holster and wait for Dimitri to do the same. I hold it out in front of me before I open the front door.

I am immediately assaulted by the smell of soured milk. My eyes flick over to Dimitri, who smells it too, judging by the way his nose turns up. I walk into the kitchen and suck in a breath of air. Somebody has taken the milk jugs and emptied it all over the kitchen, along with every single item of food we own from the refrigerator and the pantry.

It is a disaster.

“Haleigh,” I whisper to Dimitri in horror.

We immediately run upstairs to the bedroom. It is so dark in this house, I can only hope that Haleigh is asleep up in bed—
she has to be asleep in bed
.

I wonder where my fucking staff is? I have men around this house most of the day, in and out, checking things, doing things. Though, lately, I have not had nearly as many as I have in the past. I have not
wanted
the men around my beautiful wife day in and day out. Still, there should be a few people milling around the grounds, minimum.

Where in the fuck are they?

I can tell just by the feeling in the room—the
empty
feeling—that she is not here. My heart hammers in my chest so hard I think it might explode out of my body. Somebody has taken
my
Haleigh,
golubushka
.
They will pay
. I will torture every single one of them, whoever they are, but unfortunately, none of them will bring Haleigh back into my arms.

“The fuck, Maxim?” Dimitri asks. I look back to see him holding a note with a pair of ripped panties—Haleigh’s ripped panties—attached.

“What does it say?” I croak, unable to take my eyes off her gorgeous black lace thong.

“You get cocky with your new pussy and now it belongs to us.” Dimitri sounds confused, but I am not.

I never thought that they would follow through; in all honesty, I had forgotten about the whole deal. I had made it so many years ago. I go to the bathroom and I throw up.
They
have her. How will I ever get her back now?

“What is all of this, Maxim?” Dimitri demands. I close my eyes, hoping it will all go away, but I know that it won’t. Now, I have to try to save my little dove
,
my
Haleigh, before they hurt her or kill her.

“Call Pasha. Tell him to put guards on Sonia and tell him
they
have come and
they
have taken Haleigh.”

Dimitri pulls out his phone and tells Pasha exactly what I have instructed him to, verbatim. I know Pasha is probably scrambling around like a madman at this exact moment.

I leave the room and walk into my office. Once I sit down, I allow myself to fall apart. I only allow this for a moment,
only a moment
, because I will not be able to when Pasha arrives.

“Maxim, tell me what the fuck is happening?” Dimitri demands.

He has every right to be confused. For somebody who knows everything about me, he knows nothing of this, and he knows nothing of my true past.

“Pull the surveillance tapes and when Pasha arrives, I tell you,”
I tell him in Russian. My mind is too far gone to even try to speak English at the moment.

Dimitri does as I ask, and I hold my head in my hands and cry like a pussy.
I am a pussy
. My woman has been taken and it is all my fault. They are right; I was being too cocky, and I got sloppy.

“How in the fuck did you not take care of this years ago, Maxim?” Pasha screams. His face is so red; it looks like it is going to pop off his shoulders.

“I have not received a message for so long, Pasha, I thought they forgot,” I shrug, the motion jerky and not convincing.

“They never forget, Maxim,” he says, his voice low and deep.

I nod because I knew this. I
know
this, and I was just being cocky.

“The surveillance is ready,” Dimitri says, nodding at Pasha. I stand, walking down to the basement where three computer screens are set up and ready.

I sit down and press play on my bedroom camera. I watch myself lean down and kiss my beautiful Haleigh on the cheek before leaving for work. She is in a sexy little nightie and wrapped in the blankets of our bed.

I want to make Pasha and Dimitri turn away, but I will need their eyes. I fast forward an hour and watch as Haleigh wakes up and then she looks around, her shoulders slumping. She showers and changes into shorts and a tank top, her blonde hair pulled into a ponytail.
I hate it
. She walks into her closet and appears with a suitcase.

“What the fuck?”
I ask nobody in particular.

Haleigh turns and faces the camera. That is when I see that she is crying,
hard.
My heart breaks. I have done this to her. I have made her cry.
What an ass I am
. I watch in silence as her body shakes with sobs while she packs a suitcase to leave me.

Once her bag is zipped, she sits on the bed and cries for a few more moments. Then, all of a sudden, she wraps her hand around her stomach and runs to the bathroom. I can only guess that she has made herself sick. She returns and rubs her stomach for a moment.

I watch as she opens the suitcase and unpacks everything she had packed. Hope flares inside of me.
She changed her mind.
Once the last item is unpacked, she puts the suitcase away and walks down to the kitchen.

Haleigh is pouring herself a glass of milk when I see a figure in all black come up behind her. I grit my teeth as he wraps his hand around her mouth. I watch in horror as he injects something into her neck. Her body slumps, and I know the drugs have taken over.

The dark figure turns around and looks right into the camera; his covered face conceals his identity. His dark eyes are smiling as his hand slides down Haleigh’s limp body. I growl when his hand goes down the front of her shorts and he touches her.

Touches my pussy.

My woman.

My fucking wife.

His hand only lingers a moment before he brings it back out and fucking waves. He fucking
waves
at the camera, then they are gone.

I don’t say a word as I switch to the outside camera to find him loading her into the backseat of a black Range Rover with missing plates. The driver holds his hand out of the window as the man who took my wife slides into the passenger seat and they speed down my driveway.

“Explain,” Dimitri barks once the video is finished. I sigh and Pasha narrows his eyes at me.

“Dimitri is your security, and he knows not of this, of
them
?” Pasha asks, his eyes cold and dead on me. I deserve it.

I push my chair back and stand.

“I told you, Pasha. I thought it was finished. I thought
they
were done with me.”

I look at Dimitri and then I decide to tell him all of it, all of the dirty, gritty, fucking bullshit that I did as a kid.

The promises I made to save myself.

The commitments I did not think about at the time.

The harsh reality that what I have done could forever haunt my sweet wife,
my Haleigh
.