Page 13 of Brutal Bratva’s Owned Hostage

Something ugly rose up behind my ribs, faster than I expected, fast enough that I heard my own voice before I’d finished deciding what I wanted to say.

“No.”

The word landed harder in that room than I’d meant it to. Every head turned toward me, even Viktor’s, who rarely bothered to react to anything.

“She didn’t betray us.” I kept my voice level, though I suspected it was too late. “Whatever this is, it isn’t her.”

Mikhail studied me for a long moment, the kind of look that measured more than the words I’d just said. “How can you be certain?”

“Instinct.”

Viktor made a short, disbelieving sound. “Instinct isn’t evidence.”

“No, it isn’t. But I’ve spent my entire life around liars, Viktor. Cheats, manipulators, men who could smile at you while planning exactly how they’d cut your throat. I know what that looks like up close. Val isn’t that. She’s terrified half the time just by standing in the same room as us. She barely understood the scope of what this family does before that raid happened. She’s not sophisticated enough to run a double game against us, and she’s certainly not cold enough for it.”

I heard how much conviction I’d put behind those words, more than I’d ever used defending anyone outside my blood, and understood exactly how that must have sounded to men who’d known me my entire life.

Nikolai broke the silence first, setting his tablet down. “Whether or not she’s innocent, the perception problem remains. If other partners believe we’re protecting a potential leak out of sentiment rather than certainty, it signals weakness. Weakness spreads through an organization like this faster than almost anything else.”

“I’ll marry her.”

The silence that followed made Nikolai’s earlier quiet sound like conversation. Even Roman, standing at the back wall with his tablet still glowing in one hand, looked up sharply enough that I caught the motion out of the corner of my eye.

“You’ll what?” Viktor practically barked.

“Marry her,” I said again, steadier this time, the logic settling into place faster than my nerves could keep up with it. “If she’s my wife, she’s family. Not an employee under suspicion, not an outside liability the organization needs to manage or interrogate. Family. Investigating her publicly at that point means investigating one of our own, which no partner in their right mind is going to push for. Marriage signals exactly the opposite of division. It shields her, and it tells everyone watching that I stand behind her completely.”

“That’s reckless,” Viktor said immediately, with no hint of hesitation. “You’ve known this woman for what, six months? A year?”

Instead of correcting my brother, I said, “I’m aware of the timeline, Viktor.”

“Then you’re aware of how insane this sounds.”

Alexei hadn’t said anything yet, which told me more than anything Viktor was saying. He sat there quiet, clearly working through it.

“Marriage inside this family was never just about affection,” Alexei said slowly. “It’s protection. Allegiance. A declaration to everyone watching about where loyalty sits.”

“You’re defending this?” Viktor queried, turning to face Alexei.

“I’m saying I understand what he’s doing, which isn’t the same thing as saying it’s comfortable.” Alexei looked at me directly for the first time since the meeting started. “Are you certain?”

I felt every eye at that table land on me at once, waiting. Then and there, I understood that whatever I said next would settle something permanently, one way or another.

“Yes.”

I said it without the pause I thought I would need. The certainty surprised me more than the question had. Underneath every calculation about optics, politics, and protecting the family’s position, one plain fact remained: the idea of Val sitting in a locked room somewhere in this building, frightened and alone, being questioned by men who’d already decided her guilt before they started, was intolerable to me in a way that had nothing to do with strategy.

Mikhail watched me for a long moment, the head of the family weighing something none of the rest of us could fully see from where we sat. Then, finally, he nodded, slow and deliberate.

“Agreed.”

Viktor exhaled hard through his nose, clearly unconvinced but seeing he had no reason to oppose because it was more unexpected than bad. Nikolai returned to his tablet without comment; I suspected he was already considering the logistics of how quickly something like this could be arranged and announced without looking like the emergency measure it was. Alexei held my gaze a second longer, something unreadable behind it that I didn’t have the patience to decode just then.

Varley said nothing at all.

I caught him watching me as the meeting broke apart. Something crossed his expression for half a second before it smoothed back into the professional concern he wore. I didn’t have the energy to chase down what it meant. My mind was already three floors up, fixed entirely on the woman who had no idea her entire life was about to change.

Roman caught me in the hallway outside, falling into step beside me with the caution he used whenever he wanted to say something I probably wouldn’t like.