Page 121 of Emerald

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NASH

Fuck my head hurts.

When I go to rub the back of my head, my hands don’t move, and that’s when I realize they are tied. Panic rises in my chest as I try to move, but I can’t, I’ve been secured against a chair.

Elena.

Where the hell is she? Is she okay? Does she know who’s behind this breach? Is the Clark family okay?

“Fuck,” Brooks curses beside me as he wakes up.

“We’re in a bit of trouble, brother,” I tell him.

Brooks stills and then his eyes come into focus as he realizes he’s restrained as well. “Where the hell are we?”

“I have no idea where we are, but these restraints are fucking tight.” I pull against them.

“They really don’t want us to get free. How long have you been awake?”

“Seconds before you,” I tell him.

He shakes his head as if trying to dislodge the mental fog. “Fuck, Sophie. If they fucking touch her, I’ll kill ‘em.”

“I’m right beside you.”

Brooks scrunches up his face. “Damon, that motherfucking traitor. I can’t believe he betrayed us like that.”

“Did you know he was Russian?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “No, I thought he was American. He worked for the fucking CIA.”

“Sleeper agent?” I question.

“He must be. Fuck. This is big.” he curses.

“How does he know Anna?”

“Anna? He doesn’t know her,” Brooks replies.

“Isn’t that who he was talking to before we got our heads smashed in?”

Brooks stills and I can see he is going back through his mind. “They were talking in the garden.”

“I couldn’t understand what they were saying because they were speaking Russian,” I add.

“That’s right, shit, I can’t remember what they were talking about,” Brooks says.

“It doesn’t matter, you two won’t be alive long enough to find out,” a Russian man says.

“Dmitri,” Brooks sneers.

Is that Dmitri Petrov, Elena’s ex? The one who murdered her.

“Brooks Campbell, the motherfucker who killed my cousin,” he says before launching himself at Brooks and laying into him. “I’m going to fucking kill you.”

“Give it your fucking best,” Brooks says as Dmitri continues laying into him. I shuffle about in my chair, trying to get loose, but it’s no good. Five minutes later, Brooks is out cold, I hope he is anyway, and Dmitri didn’t go through with his threat of killing him.

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