Page 122 of Emerald

“Don’t worry, I didn’t kill your buddy, I need him alive for the time being.” He grins, wiping Brooks’ blood from his hands. “So, you’re the fucker who’s been fucking my woman,” Dmitri says before I receive knuckles to the face.

“She’s not yours, motherfucker, she’s mine.” I spit in his face, which is like waving a red flag to a bull and he launches himself at me. Hit after hit after hit he lays into me.

45

ELENA

“Wake up traitor.” A hand slaps me across my face, waking me up from my sleep. I squint at the sudden light as I shake my head, trying to clear the fuzziness from my mind. What the hell happened? I try to rub my eyes but my hands don’t move, they are tied to something, then I try to move my feet and realize they are tied, too. Shit. I blink my eyes a couple of times. “I mourned your death, you know,” Dmitri’s voice filters through my foggy mind. I shake my head again and the world comes back into focus. That’s when I see Dmitri standing in front of me. How the hell did he find us? How did he get in? Every single scenario runs through my mind, but none make sense, I don’t understand. I remember Nash’s warning text and I pray Mackenzie got her parents out before all this shit went down.

“After you put a bullet in my back.” I sneer at him as I try to tug at my restraints, testing whether they have tied me correctly or not. There is a tiny bit of give that might be enough to escape.

“You understand how our world works.” Dmitri shrugs as he leans down, grabs a strand of my blonde hair, and wraps it around his finger. “I think I like you as a blonde.” He chuckles asI try to pull myself from his grasp. “You’re looking good. Rising from the dead suits you.”

“You know I’m like a cat, I have nine fucking lives.”

Dmitri grins. “Heads up, you used up your last one.”

“Doubtful. Counting was never your forte.” I smirk at him, which earns me a slap across the face. My teeth rattle and I can feel his handprint burn against my skin, then a metallic taste fills my mouth and I spit blood from mouth, the fucker split my lip.

“I stupidly loved you.”

“And I loved you,” he says, those blue eyes narrowing on me. “Watching your funeral gutted me. I couldn’t believe you were gone.”

“I’m sure the one tear you shed for me was exhausting,” I snip.

Dmitri walks toward me and grabs my chin. “Your death devastated me, Elena. I loved you. You know how fucked up this life is. You were my shining light in my darkness. You loved my monster just like I loved yours. We could have ruled the Bratva together.”

“I was nothing more than a tool for you to use to get more power.”

“Killing my uncle did come in very handy for me, so thank you for that. I never got to tell you.” He smirks.

I roll my eyes. “What have you done to my family?”

“They’re fine for now.” He laughs darkly. I pull against my restraints, but they don’t budge. “I may have roughed up your brother.” I still, what did he do? “Payback for touching Grace.”

“I should have put a bullet between your eyes for what you did to Grace and Zoe.”

Dmitri laughs. “They wanted it. Grace begged me many times to fuck her.”

“And the times she didn’t?”

Those blue eyes darken on me. “Look at me. They were only too happy to spread their legs.”

I’m going to fucking kill him. “Guess the word no is lost in translation for you.” That earns me another slap across the face.

“Being reincarnated has turned you into a bitch.” Dmitri seethes.

“Being murdered by your ex-boyfriend will do that too.”

Dmitri shakes his head at me. “You left me no choice. You’re fucking CIA. You double-crossed me, you and your fucking brother.”

“You trafficked women,” I scream at him.

“You knew what I was.”

I shake my head. “No, I didn’t. I thought they were like me, women forced to be weapons.”

“That’s exactly what they were.” Dmitri sneers. His words are like a punch to my gut. “We used them to get what we needed. The jewels were the best weapons ever made. They strengthened the Bratva’s hold on Europe. The jewels worked so much better than common whores.”

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