Hunted By The Bratva Beast: A Bratva Stalker/Captive Romance by Jagger Cole (books to read in your 20s .txt) 📕

Lusting after her.

The rage explodes in me, until I can’t stand it anymore. I crank the hot water off and turn to leave. But suddenly, I freeze. I slowly turn back, and my eyes land on the word written by a finger across her mirror. It wasn’t visible before. But with the hot water running, that mirror has fogged up, revealing the message.

“Soon.”

I whirl, I bolt like a demon from hell, right to her.

11

Nina

I frown down at the phone in my hand—my own phone, that is. But it’s just gone dead mid-conversation with Fiona. It’s still on, but the call went dead. I try her again before I realize my cell service is gone entirely.

I glance at my other phone...that other phone. But it’s the same with this one too; no service at all. My brow knits as I glance between them both. Hmm… weird.

It’s been almost a full day since my late-night phone call with Kostya. Mostly, I’ve been resting and catching up on sleep. I’ve tried to jump into work a couple of times. But whenever I’ve tried to dial into the office network, Deb has shut me out, telling me it’s Viktor’s orders.

“You need to rest,” he growled at me when I called him to complain.

“I’m fine. My head is fine. I’m bored out of my mind.”

“So watch a movie.”

I was actually just on the phone with Fiona to try and get her to convince Viktor I was fine to do some catching up on work emails. But then the service cut out.

The door to my room opens, and the new shift nurse steps in with a smile.

“How’re we feeling today, Ms. Komarov?”

In my old life, my last name was Turgenev. Losing Bogdan and Dima’s name was one of the best feelings I’ve ever felt. Maybe third only to the day Viktor knocked on our door, and the day Bogdan died.

“Good, I think I’m ready to be discharged.”

Marie, as her name tag says, grins. “Nice try. Shelly filled me in before she left for her shift.”

I groan. “Please? I can bribe you.”

She laughs. “How much we talking?”

“Let’s haggle.”

She chuckles. “Shelly said you were fun. Look, you’re just fine, Ms. Komarov—”

“Nina is fine.”

“Well, Nina, you’re fine. There’s no immediately obvious lasting injuries from your ordeal. But the doctors want to keep you one more night, just to make sure. Apparently, your brother’s insisted on it.”

I roll my eyes. “I’m fine.”

“Well, I know that. You know that. But doctors are doctors, honey.”

I sigh, and Maria smiles kindly at me.

“You’ve been through an ordeal, honey,” she says quietly. She shakes her head. “And I thought Chicago was getting safer these days. But there you go driving home from dinner and you manage to get caught in a gang crossfire!”

She frowns and starts checking the readouts on the machines next to my bed. I glance at both of my phones again and grumble when I see they’re both still out of service.

“Yours too, huh?”

I look up sharply. “Wait, is your service out?”

She nods. “Right before I walked in here. It could be some sort of hospital-wide interference though. They did this a year ago when the First Lady was getting blood drawn. Her Secret Service team turned off cell reception for the whole hospital while she was here.”

My brow wrinkles. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, security protocol I guess.” Maria goes back to checking my vitals. But I keep frowning as the wheels turn in my head.

“Well, is the First Lady here now?”

She laughs. “Nope. Who knows? They’re always messing with the infrastructure of this place. It could be anything.”

I nod, but I’m still puzzled. Maria finishes her notes and then turns to head to the door.

“I’ll see if I can get IT on the phone and see what’s up. I’ll let you know if I hear anything, okay?”

I smile. “Sure, thank you.”

When she leaves, I go back to staring at my two useless phones. It’s funny that I grew up with barely a working TV. Now my phone isn’t working for four whole minutes and my anxiety levels go through the roof.

I stare at my phone—my normal one, as opposed to the Kostya phone—and sigh. I feel bad for the line going dead mid-conversation with Fiona about our plans to meet up tomorrow. But then my gaze turns to the other phone—his phone. It lingers there, and my face burns.

I can’t believe I did that last night. I blush, simmering in the naughtiness of it. I can’t believe it, but it happened. I called him, I let his deep, growly voice do thing to me and make me squirm, and then we…

I chew on my lip. Phone sex? Did I seriously just have phone sex last night with him? I tingle everywhere and sink under the bedsheets. I pick up his phone and start to text a “hi” to him before I remember that the service is out. I also remember how lame it would be to send that, so I delete it quickly.

Something catches my eye outside. I glance up, seeing nothing in the setting evening light. But then, just as I start to turn away, I see it again. I freeze.

It’s a man. There’s a man outside my seventh story hospital room window. He’s in shadow, slipping down on some kind of a climbing rope. For a second, I think maybe he’s washing windows. But then I see the gun. My heart lurches. But just for a second, I pause, wondering if it’s Kostya.

My lips start to curl into a smile, when suddenly, the man swings closer to the glass, and the light. He looks right at me, and I pale.

Yeah, not Kostya.

But before I can scream or yell for help, he lowers the rest of the way, and his feet touch the window ledge. Instantly, he explodes in a ball of fire and shattering glass. Then, I very much do scream.

Alarms are ringing. I gasp as the sprinkler system kicks on in