Page 65 of Sapphire

“I can’t believe I am meeting one of the famous Bratva Jewels,” he says, holding his hand out for Zoe.

She gives him a small frown before shaking his hand.

“Enrique,” I say, annoyed at my cousin’s lack of manners.

“Shit, sorry that was so inappropriate of me. I got excited. It’s just that no one from the jewels ever escapes alive. We’ve never been able to help one of their elite girls before.”

“Elite girls?” Mateo questions.

Enrique looks at Zoe then at me, wondering if he should continue.

I’m guessing what he’s about to explain isn’t good.

“A lot of what I know is fuzzy still,” Zoe explains to him.

Enrique nods and begins explaining the jewels—code for Nikolai’s girls. Girls he sends out to service people he needs things from. Then there are his Precious Jewels. Nikolai’s elite ladies, the most beautiful women on his books. He uses them as favors and bribes to officials, police chiefs, presidents, kings, and people of a higher caliber. Enrique then pulls out surveillance images of Nikolai and his crew with some girls to show us.

Zoe visibly recoils when she sees the photos before reaching out and grabbing one of the images to bring it closer to her to get a better look at it.

I can see it on her face, the way her brows pull together, the way her top teeth are sinking into her bottom lip as she concentrates on the photos, trying to bring forth long-forgotten memories.

Staring down at the close-up images of Nikolai Petrov, I can see why Zoe fell for the guy, he’s gorgeous. Has the whole bad boy image pulled together, brown hair that has been shaved. Tattoo’s up and down his arms. T-shirt, tight jeans, he works out as you can tell by the muscles hiding under his clinging shirt. I hate that this motherfucker tricked Zoe into this depraved way of life. If or when I find him, I’m going to kill him.

Enrique then explains how Nikolai and his friends spend their summers frequenting the hottest places all over Europe looking for the most beautiful women he can find. The group usually picks girls up at nightclubs, takes them home, drugs them, then they shuffle them across borders, and have them in Russia before the girls even know what’s happening.

“That’s not what happened to me? We dated for a couple of months before he took me to Russia,” Zoe says, shaking her head as she stares at Nikolai’s picture.

“See, that’s what’s strange, we’ve never seen him do that before. Nikolai isn’t always the main perpetrator in these scenarios. His cousin Dmitri, his second in charge is the one that mainly focusses on grabbing the girls. But this time with you it was Nikolai,” Enrique states, pointing to the man in another picture.

I can see why Dmitri and Nikolai are tasked with grabbing the beautiful women because of their looks. Dmitri is as handsome as his cousin. It’s a shame their souls are as black as tar.

“I was with my sister Gracie. She had just arrived in from ...” Zoe shakes her head unable to pinpoint the location. “… somewhere I don’t quite remember. We went out to my favorite place for drinks to catch up as I hadn’t seen her in a long time. Dmitri and Nikolai came up to us. They then took us to a party and then we went home with them. My sister and I both spent the weekend together with them. When my sister left that was the last she heard from Dmitri. But Nikolai, he stayed, he courted me. He wanted more. Why would he do that to just feed me to the wolves?”

“Not sure. But this is really good information you’ve given our investigation. There was something different about you and your sister, but I don’t know why it changed months later. I can’t imagine he was playing a long game with you. As horrible as it sounds, there are plenty of other beautiful women around Barcelona that he wouldn’t have to make a connection with,” Enrique explains.

“You think he fell for Zoe?” I ask.

“Maybe. It doesn’t fit his normal steps. Who knows, as far as I am concerned, these men do not have hearts. So not sure if they could fall in love.” Enrique scoffs. “Do you notice anyone else in these photos?”

Zoe shakes her head as she places the photo of Nikolai back down on the pile.

“The guys were saying you have been getting back bits of your memory. Do you think you can remember who any of your clients were?”

“Enrique,” Mateo warns.

“I have to ask these questions, even if they are uncomfortable.” Enrique looks between Mateo and me.

“I don’t remember anyone. The only person who made themselves known was that man from the other night with one of the girls.”

Enrique nods. We’ve already given him those details from the other night.

I don’t think I gave Zoe enough credit for what she is going through knowing that she was kidnapped, and sex trafficked by her ex-boyfriend. The same guy who put a hit out on you and assumes you are dead but thankfully through the sheer incompetence of the hitman you’re alive. That would break anyone mentally. I’m grateful now that her memory has only now started to come back when she is much stronger and has Mateo and me beside her. It makes me feel sick to my core that our beautiful angel was touched by the devil. She’s never going to have to live in fear ever again. Mateo and I will never ever let any harm come to her. Nikolai will have to take our last breath before we ever let her go again.

“We’ve been tracking Nikolai for years. That part of the Bratva’s operations is hard to track because moving humans is a little easier than drugs because they have legs.” Enrique chuckles, but no one else does. My cousin composes himself realizing the room is not about jokes. “Nikolai is high up in the Bratva especially here in Spain. We know that he has a lot of corrupt police and politicians in his pockets. Any time we get close to him, he is tipped off. Tomas knows what we’ve been dealing with, regarding this case, they are always one step ahead of us. That’s why our meeting here today is off the books, no one knows about it. I took leave for family reasons so I could do this without someone in our office tipping them off.”

“Ruby warned me that they didn’t know I was alive. That’s why she was so insistent on me disappearing again. That if they found out I was alive they would hunt me down,” Zoe explains.

“She’d be right. No jewel has ever been found alive. That’s why you are the key to putting these assholes behind bars.”

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