Page 14 of Obsession of the Bratva

“I spent months imagining it.” The words came out before I could stop them. “I imagined finding her and dragging her away and making her regret all of it.”

The stool beside me shifted, but nobody interrupted.

“I spent months surviving because of that one thought, but I couldn’t even follow through with that.”

“Nico—”

“No.” I pointed at Kliment. “Let me finish.”

His jaw tightened, but he nodded. So I continued.

“I thought revenge would fix it.” The confession tasted worse than the whiskey. “I thought if I could make her hurt the way I hurt, maybe everything would balance out, and I would finally feel better, but I don’t fucking feel better.”

The silence stretched. Long and heavy. Because they all knew exactly who I was talking about.

Vera Stavros.

There had only ever been Vera. I hadn’t dated anyone since her or before her. I hadn’t even looked at another woman since her and had definitely not wanted anyone else. Before her, my life was a jumble of women who wanted me for sex, and I wanted them for the same thing. Until Vera had entered and changed everything.

But just like that. Everything was gone.

“What did you do, Nico?” Jarek asked, his expression serious now.

“I kidnapped her from her wedding.”

Jarek’s eyes widened, and Fyodor straightened. Kliment went completely still. Interesting. Apparently, that got their attention. I hadn’t told my brother about my abduction plans. No one knew besides Viktor and my immediate team.

“What?” Fyodor asked carefully.

I laughed. “What do you mean, what?”

“Nico.”

“You heard me.”

I leaned back, suddenly exhausted.

“I took her.” The bartender wisely moved farther away. “I walked into the church, walked into her dressing room, and forced her to come with me so she would not get married to that man.”

“You kidnapped a bride,” Kliment sighed, his jaw hardening.

“Yes.”

He rubbed his face slowly as if trying to understand what I had just told all of them. A part of me was failing to understand it myself.

“I don’t know why you’re upset. I was very professional.”

Jarek burst out laughing, and even Fyodor looked horrified.

“You were professional!?”

“I had a plan.”

“You kidnapped a woman.”

“You are acting as if you have never tried doing something like this in the past,” I replied, throwing Kliment’s own life choices in his face. Not long ago, he had tried to kidnap and kill Misha Chernykh for revenge, but had ended up falling in love with her.

“Justifying your actions through my bad choices does not make it better.”