Page 1 of Kidnapped Bride

1

NIKOLAI

My black Escalade idled two blocks south of Tatiana, and I sat in the back seat watching Brighton Beach Avenue through tinted windows.

Three of Xavier Markin's men had been camped on that corner for six days now, dealing product on a street deep in my territory, and they stood there in the open, peddling their garbage to anyone who walked past, as if the name Dragonov didn't mean a thing anymore.

That was going to change tonight.

Yakov sat in the driver's seat glancing between the street in front of us and the side mirror where he could watch for lurkers that might pop up on us.

We had a whole team ready to move at a moment's notice.

We were just waiting for the final piece of this puzzle to arrive so we could put my plan in motion.

"She's not here yet," Yakov said. He tapped his thumb on the steering wheel nervously, despite being snapped at multiple times to knock it off.

"She'll be here." I adjusted my position and kept watching. This night had been written in blood for weeks now, and I'd be damned if I was going to go home without getting what I wanted.

"But what if she doesn't show?" Vlad looked over at me with skepticism burrowed into the lines on his forehead. Always the doubter—how many times had I taught him not to doubt me?

"Then we handle the corner anyway and I find another way to get to Markin." I leaned forward and checked the time on the dash. The clock showed just before eight, and the reservation I made was for eight on the nose. "She'll show."

Yakov glanced at me in the rearview with a glower of unspoken thoughts I wanted to wipe off his face.

If I spelled out every detail of every thought that went through my head to these men every time I had a plan, all we would do was talk. Vlad had learned to follow my lead even when he doubted.

Yakov had not.

"Say it," I growled, narrowing my eyes at his reflection in the mirror.

"I don't get it," he said. "We've got enough firepower in these two trucks to wipe that corner clean and send Markin a message he can't ignore. Why are we sitting here waiting on some girl?"

"She's not some girl. She's Xavier Markin's daughter." These fools knew nothing of how to manipulate a man.

If this war between Markin's men and mine would ever end, it would come after he bowed.

Because God knows I had zero plans to bend a knee to him.

And the best way to bring a powerful man to his knees was to take something he valued more than his own life.

"Markin will replace any men we remove in a matter of a few hours. He's got men to spare. But he can't replace his own daughter…" My explanation got their wheels turning and Yakov's eyes darkened as he turned again toward the side view mirror.

A woman in a dark dress walked past, catching my attention, and it made me think of Kira again.

It had been so simple to set this all up.

A woman like her was thirsty for attention.

Raised by a man who drove his own wife away and ignored his children, Kira was nothing but low-hanging fruit.

He sheltered her so much, she was starved for attention, and when a man like me came across her path, she ate it up.

We'd been texting for two weeks now.

This little meet up was inevitable despite her reservations about my age.

She couldn't help herself.