Page 123 of Emerald

I rock against my restraints.I’m going to kill him.“How did you find me?”

Dmitri bursts out laughing. “You don’t know you have a viper in the nest.” What the hell is he talking about? “I had no idea you were alive until recently.” He glares at me. “Your little trip to Mexico.” He knows the cartel. Did someone see me there and I didn’t realize? “You hid well,” he says, running the edge of the gun along my cheek. “And if it weren’t for this source, I wouldn’t have believed anyone if they had told me you were alive.”

No.

I don’t believe it.

I don’t believe him.

Dmitri smirks. “You’ve just worked out who betrayed you, haven’t you?”

I pull again against my restraints. “I’m going to fucking kill you,” I scream at him, which makes him laugh darkly.

“You had your chance in Moscow, and you choked.” He’s right. I did. I won’t this time. “You don’t get a second chance.” He pushes the gun against my temple. “Don’t forget I know you. You were mine, you could be mine again.”

“Excuse me?”

“I underestimated you, I won’t do that again,” Dmitri says. “You and I could rule the Bratva. The two of us controlling the world, imagine all that power. There is no one else I want beside me but you.”

“Are you insane? I fucking hate you. You’re despicable. I despise you.” I spit in his face.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” he says coldly, and the next thing I know, he is turning on the TV.

It’s security camera footage of the back garden sheds. I can see Nash and Brooks tied to chairs. Nash’s face is black and blue, one of his eyes is swollen shut, and his lip is split. Brooks isn’t faring much better. Then another screen opens and it’s Sophie and Grace. They are tied up with rope hanging from the ceiling in the garage, and the last screen turns on, and it’s Sergei and Max. They are as black and blue as Nash and Brooks, and they look to be in the pool house.

I see red.

“How fucking dare you,” I scream.

“How dare I? How fucking dare I?” Dmitri spits. “This is all on you. I gave you a chance, but you spat in my fucking face and now I am going to make you pay.” He sneers and then turns to the TV screen. “Eeny, meeny, miny ...” he sings as his fingers bounce across the screen, “… moe.” They land on Sergei and Max’s screen. He presses a button on his vest. “She’s watching, give her a good show, boys.” Two large men with baseball bats come into view and start swinging against my brother andSergei. The first swing against Sergei’s arm shatters it and he howls in pain. Then they do the same to my brother and it shatters his leg.

“No, stop, please stop, I’ll do anything, make them stop,” I scream through my tears.

“Hold it, boys, sounds like we’ve broken her quickly,” Dmitri speaks through his radio, and they stop hitting them. I can see them both trying not to scream.

Tears stream down my cheeks. “Please,” I beg for my brother’s life.

“Ah, the way you beg gets me hard.” Dmitri moans as he rubs his hand over his cock. He can’t be serious, can he? “Say it again, Elena.”

I swallow the bile that rises in my throat. “Please, Dmitri.” I give him what he wants, and I beg him seductively.

“Fuck, Elena,” he groans as he unzips his pants. He can’t be serious right now. He puts the gun down on the floor and pulls out his cock. “Did you miss this?” He chuckles as he touches himself. The man is hard as steel and those blue eyes zero in on me. This is going to be my only chance to save my family, and I’m going to have to take it. “Bet that fucking American’s dick couldn’t satisfy you like mine could,” he mumbles as he bites his bottom lip and continues to jerk himself off.

“No one can,” I whisper to him. Those blue eyes widen in surprise.

“See, I knew you would come around, you just needed me to remind you.” I nod, letting him think he’s got me wrapped around his finger. “Baby, beg again, please,” he asks.

I suck in a breath, I’m going to need it to get through what happens next. “Please, Dmitri, fuck me. I’ve missed your hard cock so much.”

“Yes, I knew it, I knew you still loved me.” Dmitri moans as he continues to jerk himself harder. The moment he closes hiseyes, I pull from my restraints. Thank fuck for Elizabeth seeing an ad online and purchasing a bulk load of these self-defense rings that have an inbuilt knife in them for all the girls as a, just in case, and giving them to us tonight, otherwise, I don’t know how I would have been able to get out of this situation. I move so quickly and quietly while Dmitri is jerking himself off that he doesn’t notice me picking up his gun from the floor, not until he hears the click. He lets go of his dick, but I don’t give him a chance to say another thing as I put a bullet through his cock and another between his eyes. His body slumps to the floor. Then I quickly go about untying my feet from the chair.

I head to the garage out the front to go find Sophie and Grace.

46

ELENA

There’s one guard waiting by the door, but from the brief video, there didn’t look to be anyone inside. I grabbed a knife from the kitchen before I left and slowly stalk the long way around the garage until I’m right behind. Then I strike, grabbing him, slitting his throat. I drag his twitching body and dump him in the garden. I suck in a deep breath and calm my body, I don’t know who or what is behind it, the monster in me has now taken over and I am working on instinct. Slowly, I push open the door, and with my gun raised, I walk in and access the room. It doesn’t look like anyone else is in the room besides Grace and Sophie, who are strung up like ragdolls. Grace has tape over her mouth while Sophie has a black eye. When they see me walking in relief floods their faces.

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