Owned by the Badman (Russian Bratva #1) (34 page)

“Dmitri, I am here with Maxim and the girls,” he announces.

“I must find her. We must find her. She cannot be whore again,” Dimitri croaks, and I know he is crying. I can hear it through the phone as he moans softly, mourning the loss of who I assume is his lover and friend, my sister-in-law and Maxim’s sister.

“We will find her, Dimitri. I have connections here in Moscow,” Maxim says, his voice lethal and his tone no-nonsense.

“I fly out in one hour. I see you soon, my friend,” Dimitri calls out. Maxim stops him from hanging up.

“You are not my friend, you are my brother, Dimitiri, and we will find her. I called my
Pakhan
and my
Sovietnik
and they are on their way. My
Pakhan
has also called Yakov who may be able to help us,” Maxim offers.

Pasha is nodding his head, but the whole situation has gone above mine; I don’t know what Radimir and Yakov can do to help. He has been trying to play the grieving son for the public while taking over his father’s business. In private, he is the one who killed his own father, a hitman for the
Bratva
, and extremely, frighteningly handsome.

“I thought Yakov was in the states?” Pasha asks. I wrinkle my forehead with confusion.

“He was. He brought her back with him. She has proven to be extremely difficult,” Maxim clucks and they both chuckle at his joke, whatever that is. The whole conversation goes right over my head, and I decide to just ignore them.

The four of us and Maks eat dinner, but it is tasteless and sad. Our hearts are not into the conversation because one of us, Maryia, is gone, and the hell she is living in is completely unimaginable. How can this poor woman survive being used and abused
again
? Will she have a mental breakdown and forever be changed? There are so many questions, and I don’t want to know the answers. I just want her back, safe and with Dimitri. We all quietly go to bed, preparing to start another day, to worry another day about Maryia.

“You are thinking so loudly,
angel moy,
my head aches,” Maxim groans. I roll to the side to face him, my belly pressing against his firm stomach.

“How can she survive this?” I ask, the question that has been rolling around in my head over and over again.

“Because, Haleigh, she is a strong woman, a good woman, and she will dust herself off and survive as she always has.”

I sigh and cup his cheek, my thumb running along his cheekbone.

“How did
you
survive, my beautiful Maxim?” I ask softly. A shiver runs through him. We have ignored this topic since he told me weeks ago.

“I survived. I dusted myself off, and I got revenge,” he admits. I just look at him, urging him to continue. He sighs, knowing I want more from him. “The boys who … did those things to me …” He pauses, inhaling and exhaling deeply, looking as if he is in so much unbearable pain.

“When I finally worked up the ranks in the
Bratva
, I found them. I made them watch as I cut off each one of their cocks and balls, and then I raped them with a knife and shot them in the head,” he admits his eyes closed. He is hiding from me, and I lean in to kiss his full turned down lips.

“
Haleigh
.” He looks at me questioningly, worried and afraid I won’t love him for getting back at the boys who hurt him.

“You are strong, so very strong, Maxim. I love you
so
much,” I whisper. Just like that, we don’t discuss the situation again. I want to say more to him, to comfort him, but he is still so destroyed by his horrific past that talking about it would probably upset him more at this point. I will be here for him when he’s ready.

If he is ever ready.

It is a situation and a story that will never be forgotten, but it isn’t one we need to rehash constantly. Maxim was abused, he survived, and he got revenge.

Do I think that the revenge healed him completely?
Absolutely not
.

Do I think it helped him feel stronger, more powerful?
Absolutely
.

We fall asleep wrapped in each other’s arms, and I know no matter what hell we have been through, it has all been worth it because we have found each other. Our love has made us better people and made our hearts whole.

Dimitri bounds into the apartment the next morning, and I can’t help myself; I run to him and wrap him in my arms. He was my best friend for so long, and he helped me so much. I cannot imagine the pain he is feeling at the moment.

“Dimitri,” I whisper. His body begins to shiver and shake.

“She is gone. I cannot find her, and she is just gone.” His words are hoarse, and his arms tighten around me.

“I find her, brother,” Maxim says from behind me. Dimitri and I break our embrace.

We all three walk into the living room where Sergei, Alex, Yakov, Radimir, and Pasha are sitting on our sofas and chairs, along with a familiar looking blonde girl. They have information for Dimitri; they are ready to find our Maryia, bring her home, where she belongs, and keep her there.

Six Months Later

I
ROCK MY SWEET
baby girl, my Maryia, in my arms. Her bedroom of three light pink walls and one shimmering gold wall surrounds me. I look to the right and smile at the black and white photograph of Maryia Lasovska, the original Maryia in our lives. Dimitri took the photo as she laid out in the sweet sunshine by my favorite lake at our home in New York. She was so happy there, and the pure joy shone deeply in her eyes, erasing the horror that once filled them.

Maxim, Dimitri, Yakov and Radimir found Maryia, but it was too late. We were able to give her a lovely funeral, and shortly after, I gave birth to Maxim’s and my sweet girl. We named her Maryia, as no other name would do. She will forever be our girl’s guardian angel, and I know she is smiling down from heaven on her. It took Maxim and me a long time to come to terms with the fact that Maryia was taken from us too soon, but eventually, we decided she was now at peace. No more pain and no more suffering.

Dimitri hasn’t recovered, not even close. In fact, he asked us to sell the New York house. He never wanted to see it again, and we agreed. There were good and devastating emotions mixed with that home, so Maxim put it on the market and it sold to a celebrity couple within weeks.

Dimitri moved into a penthouse in Manhattan and drinks himself into a stupor every single night. I wish I could help him, and I have sent Sonia and my friend—recently widowed Natalia—on the mission of keeping him from starving to death and wallowing in a dirty apartment. They check in with me weekly, and although he is no better, thankfully he is no worse.

Natalia thanked me for the mission. She was becoming depressed herself mourning her husband. I asked Maxim how her husband died, and he just shot me a sideways glance and cryptically told me that this life of theirs was not for every man. He informed me that some men have problems maintaining the correct level of loyalty, which is one hundred and ten percent. I didn’t ask him again about the man Natalia was married to. Some demons are better left lying.

“She sleeps?” Maxim asks quietly, shaking me out of my thoughts.

“She does.” I smile as I rise to my feet and set the sleeping girl down in her gold wrought-iron circular crib. A princess in her little castle.

“I wish my sister could be here to see her,” Maxim confesses as we make our way toward our bedroom.

“I know. Are you any closer to finding the man who did it?” I ask.

Maryia’s body was found abandoned in front of Maxim’s office building. Radimir, Maxim’s boss, was the first to see her and had her body taken from the street. It was horrific, and unfortunately, they are all no closer to discovering who would have done this. No other attempts on any of the other women have been made and everything has been quiet.

Yakov, his sweet looking blonde haired lover Ashley, and Dimitri left shortly after her body was discovered and went back to the states. They had their own pressing matters of business to get back to. Pasha and Sonia stayed until the birth of our girl, but soon after, they had to leave as well.

Radimir has been fairly quiet as of late. He has had a lot on his plate with Emiliya, Ivan’s daughter. Yakov opened up to me one evening when he was drunk and told me he felt badly for discarding her the way he had to Radimir. He confessed that he didn’t know what to do for her and he did not want her to be a target, which she would be. He needed her safe and who else to keep her that way but a
Sovietnik
? I didn’t know why he was opening up to me, but I accepted it and smiled. I told him that I would watch out for her, be a friend. He looked at me sideways before murmuring a small thanks and leaving.

I take my time to get ready for bed. I cherish my nighttime routine because my daytime one is so hectic. I like to take my time, showering, removing my makeup, and slathering myself with sweet smelling lotion.

“Come to bed,
angel moy
,” Maxim calls out. I take one last look in the mirror.

I am still carrying a good ten pounds from bringing Maryia into the world, but I still feel like the sexiest woman on earth when Maxim looks at me. He appreciates my body, but more importantly, he appreciates my mind. It feels good. Being loved feels good.

Maxim slides deep inside of me, and I arch my back, trying to stay quiet as the children are in the next room. He swallows my cries with his mouth, muffling the sound and thrusting his tongue deep down my throat, just as he plunges his cock deep inside me. I whimper when he picks up speed and starts to bury himself harder and deeper, thrusting so rough my body starts to shake under him.

“So good,
golubushka
, every fucking time,” he growls, biting down between my neck and my shoulder, leaving marks as he always does. As soon as his teeth leave my skin, his tongue snakes out to soothe the bite of pain. I come hard, my pussy clenching and my thighs shaking.

“Oh, yeah,
fuck,
you feel
good
,” he moans before I feel his release filling my body, probably making another child.

I love them, and I love my husband, with all of my heart. My life is beautiful, gorgeously beautiful. If my Maxim wants another baby to fill his home with love, then I will gladly deliver it into our little world. Maxim deserves everything good he wants in this life, and I aim to give it all to him.

“Do you think I put a baby in here tonight,
golubushka
?” he asks, a large grin on his handsome face.

“I’m sure you did, baby,” I whisper, chuckling as he pulls me a bit closer.

“I love you,
angel
moy
,” he whispers.

“I love you so much, Maxim.”

Maxim and I will never be perfect. We definitely don’t have a perfect story; it is full of neglect, abuse, bartering, and violence, but it is ours, and we have made it the best life we possibly could have.

I watch Maxim as he sleeps, and I still, even after the years we have been together, cannot believe how fortunate I am to have found him, to have been sold to him to pay off a debt.

I believe everything happens for a reason, and I know that all my years of verbal abuse from my family made me who I am, made me strong, and led me to a man I would need all of that strength to love—to love, in spite of everything he tried to deny, and every time he tried to push me away from him.

I will spend my entire life with this man, loving, and accepting
his love
, raising our children, and hopefully being able to hold our grandchildren one day in the future. I fall asleep next to him happy, healthy, and free.

Stay Tuned for more from these Badmen in
Seducing the Badman
— April 2016

SNEAK PEEK

ROUGH & ROWDY

Notorious Devils MC #1

Available MARCH 2016

CHAPTER ONE

KENTLEE

I sigh out a frustrated puff of air as I stand in front of the boutique. I don’t want to go inside. I know what lies ahead, and none of it is good for me. It isn’t good for my sanity, my self-confidence—and it certainly won’t be good later tonight, when I will assuredly be crying into a pint of chocolate fudge brownie
FroYo
.