Page 152 of Bratva Jewels Box Set
His eyes fall back onto the photo frame. “You should put that photo of his sisters away before he gets home. It will only cause him more pain seeing it.”
Everything in me stills. The photo of his sisters. He just said they were both dead. But I know that girl in the photo is alive, at least she was a few months ago. She looks older than she does in this photo, but I still know it’s her.
“How long have his sisters been dead?” I ask as my heart begins to beat crazy wild in my chest because something isn’t adding up.
“Does it matter?” he answers curtly.
“Please, Sergei.”
“Alexandria died five years ago, and for Elena, it’s been four,” he replies.
Wait, four years? No. That can’t be right. She was alive and well months ago. “You sure it’s been four years?”
Sergei frowns at me. “Of course I am. It was the same night I lost my own daughter, they were best friends.”
Oh, shit. He lost his daughter. Is she alive too? I need to speak to Maxim because none of this is adding up.
“I really need to speak to Maxim, please.”
“I told you no. Maxim’s on a job. He’ll be back in a week.” Sergei bites out.
On a job as in he’s off killing someone. My mind’s finding it hard to put the two together. Maxim the killer and Maxim the captor as the same person.That’s stupid, Grace. He ruthlessly kidnapped you. Remember the bomb strapped toDonny and the gun they pointed at Hugo’s head. Don’t forget how they beat Gabriel up.So much has happened since that night. It feels like a lifetime ago.
“Did you kill those people you kidnapped with me?”
“No,” Sergei answers sternly.
“Was Gabriel okay after you hurt him?”
Sergei shrugs. “Yes, from our reports he has healed well.”
“And you strapped a bomb to Donny. He probably has PTSD from that night.”
Sergei huffs. “The bomb wasn’t real. Anyway, those two little fuckers needed a lesson to stop selling drugs to people.”
The bomb wasn’t real.
“Any more questions for me? Or has your interrogation finished?” he asks.
I thought Sergei was the nicer of the two, he was when I first arrived, but today, I’m seeing a different side to him.You were caught snooping in Maxim’s things.This is true. Okay, I’ll let his attitude slide then.
“I have one last question,” I say to him, raising a brow.
Sergei seems surprised by my comment as his fingers drum across his tanned forearms impatiently.
“Why is one of Maxim’s sisters a jewel?”
Sergei stills and his face pales at my question. “What the hell did you say?”
Picking up the photo frame, I turn it around and point to Emerald in the photo. “This girl here. I knew her as Emerald. We met briefly. She was close with Dmitri and Nikolai.”
Sergei stumbles back as if my words sucker-punched him. “What the hell are you saying, woman. That girl is Elena, andshe is dead. She and my daughter drowned in the Atlantic Ocean during a party. They are not alive. How could you be so fucking cruel after everything Maxim has done for you? I was on your side, I wanted you to get better so you could go home to your family one day. And now, you repay our kindness like this,” he screams at me before launching into explosive Russian. Sergei is scary as the anger explodes out of him and directly at me.
“I’m telling you the truth. If you don’t believe me, contact my sister Zoe. She had more to do with Emerald than I ever did.”
“This is a cruel trick to play to get you home. You’re lucky that Maxim is away and asked me to stay and protect you, otherwise, I would be putting a fucking bullet through your head for talking this way about the dead.”
My hand shakes as I hold the photo frame. I can see how serious Sergei is. He would put a bullet in me if he hadn’t promised Maxim.
