Page 66 of The Bratva’s Stalked Pregnant Bride

I had dreamed up a scenario like this so many times before, trying to find the courage to ask for help when Rand was breathing down my neck and threatening to cause a scene. I let her hang up my selections, but then blocked the hallway, holding out my hands.

“Listen,” I said in a low, desperate voice. “That guy that came in with me?”

“Yeah,” she said slowly, nodding. “I thought he was going to insist on helping you undress.” At first she tried to make a joke out of it, but saw my very real distress.

“Can you please help me?” I asked, with the same dread that kept me from pleading for assistance before. If she refused, I was screwed. “Is there a back way out of here?”

With a brisk nod, she told me to wait, then went back to the archway that led from the main shop back to the changing area and pulled a curtain across it. With another nod, she beckoned me forward.

“Thank you,” I whispered as she led me down a short hall, past a tiny office and a stock area, then opened a door leading into a long hallway behind all the shops.

“Follow that, go down the stairs, and turn left, and you’ll get to the parking garage,” she said. “And don’t go back to him, okay?”

I didn’t have time to feel bad for besmirching Georgiy’s reputation, reckoning I had about ten minutes before he got suspicious and crashed into the shop again. The saleswomen might be able to buy me another couple of minutes after that, but it hardly felt like enough to get out of the mall before he caught up to me.

I tore off like I was trying to win a race, with the knowledge that I was doing the right thing being the prize. Mik would be pissed at Georgiy, and probably worried about me for a while, but he could open his restaurant in peace and have all the success he deserved once Rand got off his back for shielding me.

Bursting out from the dim parking garage, I blinked in the blazing sunlight, glancing left and right to see one of the big city buses rolling to a stop at the corner. At least ten people waited to file on, and I walked briskly to get in line, my heart thumping out of my chest from the short run and the paranoid feeling that a hand was going to clap over my shoulder at any second.

It would be merely embarrassing and frustrating if it were Georgiy, but what if it was Rand? He could be anywhere now that I knew he was no longer hiring people to do his dirty work but had left for LA again to find me himself.

I got on the bus and flashed my old TAP card onto the reader, and miraculously, it hadn’t expired yet. Collapsing into a free seat, it was about ten minutes of catching my breath before I looked up to see where we were going. I checked the bus schedule app and a map loaded with Nell’s aunt’s address, and decided to stay on as long as I could since we were roughly heading in the proper direction for the moment.

Then I remembered to turn off my own phone and tucked the now useless gadget into my purse. So much for a plan, but at least I was doing something on my own and no longer relying on Mik’s kindness and pity. I’d spend the night with Nell and then move on before Rand tracked me to her. Other than that, I was flying by the seat of my pants.

I wasn’t sure if my stomach was acting up because of nerves or the baby, but I was sure the tears I was fighting while sitting on the bus were for a lost future. There was no doubt in my mind that Mik would be a great father. If only I didn’t have a psychopath determined to hunt me down and destroy everyone I was involved with along the way to further punish me, Mik and I might have been able to make things work.

Now I was on the run again, this time with the prospect of being a single mom looming on the horizon. Not to mention the guilt that kept trying to get me to get off the bus, turn my phone back on, and call Mik to come pick me up.

I had grown used to the safety and was wild about that infuriating man. If only, if only, if only. That was as bad as ‘maybe one day.’

The bus from the mall finally made its final stop at a hub, and the driver told me which one to get on next to take me further up the coast. I walked a little ways to find an ATM and took out the hefty sum of four hundred dollars. It wasn’t like I had so much in there, but it pissed me off that I couldn’t have all of it at once, since this was the last time I could use my card if I didn’t want to be traced.

It felt oddly distressing not to be able to search my phone for a nearby pawn shop to cash in Mik’s watch, and I didn’t really want to do it, anyway. The heavy gold watch weighing down my bag was like having a piece of him close to me, and in more practical terms, I didn’t want to ask anyone for directions and tip them off that I might have something valuable on me.

After about eight more bus rides and what felt like forever, I was finally close enough to decide to shell out for a taxi to the neighborhood. I had to turn my phone back on to get the address, but immediately turned it off again.

“This is fine,” I said, about four blocks from my final destination.

I hadn’t been paranoid enough the first time I ran. Now I was doubling down on everything. On the bus, I had tried to distract myself by coming up with a new name, but it was too depressing, and I gave up on it. Getting a fake ID and a new Social Security card seemed out of my grasp with the measly amount of money I had. The only thing to do was keep moving and get as far away as I could. It had been little more than two hours, but life on the run was already wearing me down.

After the driver dropped me off a block away, I easily found the house and looked all around before opening the gate and walking up the tidy gravel drive. Since the multiple buses had taken so much longer than driving, I figured Nell would already be there waiting for me, and I hoped her aunt was fine with me staying with them at least for a night or two.

It wasn’t a kindly older lady who answered the door when I knocked, but a man I had never seen before. He wore low-slung pants and a button-down shirt with a gas station logo on it, his hair spilling down his back from underneath a red bandana.

I looked up at the number over the door. “I think I might have the wrong house,” I said, confused. But it was the number Nell gave me in her text. It was emblazoned on my brain since I didn’t want to keep turning my phone on.

“Nah, you don’t,” the man said, reaching out to lock his grip around my wrist.

One swift, alarmingly strong tug and I was inside. Reaching behind me, he slammed the door shut and twisted two deadbolts into place. Was this Nell’s cousin? I followed dumbly because I had no choice. His hand was still clamped around my arm. He dragged me to the back of the house, kicked a door open, and shoved me into a bedroom.

“Wait here a sec,” he said, looking extremely pleased with himself. Then he shut the door and left.

I was swinging the door back open, about to follow him and demand answers, but he had already returned, waving a package of zip ties around. “Oh, no you don’t,” he said. “Not when you’re worth so much money.”

“What’s going on?” I demanded, fighting the urge to shut my eyes and disappear. That wouldn’t work here, with no Mik around to catch me when I collapsed. “Where’s Nell?”

He shrugged. “Not here. Now don’t fight me. You’re not supposed to have any marks on you.”