Page 120 of Emerald

Brooks nods. “Sophie is such a free spirit, though, she doesn’t like anyone tying her down.”

“That’s okay, you don’t need to label shit. Elena and I don’t have a label, but we also know we aren’t fucking anyone else. Is she fucking anyone else?” I ask him.

He shakes his head. “We are together twenty-four hours a day. In the past she has but not recently.”

“Kind of looks like you guys are something already, you both just don’t know it.” I laugh. He flips me off.

We still.

Two people are arguing in Russian in the garden. I didn’t learn Russian, but Brooks did. His eyes widen in surprise and the hairs on the back of my neck stick up. I can tell in the way his face changes that something is up. He goes to reach for his gun on his hip, but it’s not there, we didn’t think we would need to be packing for a birthday party.

“What is it?” I whisper.

He shakes his head, crouches down, and starts giving me hand singles, the same ones we used in the SEALs.

Fuck.

“It’s Damon and Anna,” Brooks whispers. “They know each other.” I stare at him in confusion. How the hell do they know each other? Then his face pales.

“What?”

“Everyone’s in fucking danger.”

I freeze.

“We’re compromised.” He looks at me with fear and anger in his eyes. He doesn’t need to tell me anything else. We quietly walk through the gardens to where Damon and Anna are talking.

“That’s far enough,” a Russian voice says as I feel the cold barrel of a gun pointed at my temple.

Fuck.

Without thinking, I kick the person in the gut, catching them off-guard as we fight to grab the gun that has fallen to the ground. I get a fist to the chin but shake off the reverberations and continue to fight this man dressed in black for the gun as we both grunt and curse.

Whack.

Everything goes black.

43

ELENA

Nash and Brooks have been gone for a while. He said he was going to the toilet, but that seemed like ages ago. My phone vibrates in my hand and when I look down, I see a text from Nash.

Nash: House compromised. Not safe.

Ice fills my veins upon reading the text. When I look up, Sophie has gone pale as she stares at her phone. When she looks up, she stares right at me, and I nod, letting her know, I know.

Ellie: I’ll get Kenzie to grab your parents and get them to the safe room.

The beep of Sophie’s phone goes off and she stares at the screen.

“Kenzie,” I say her name sternly. We’ve both been overindulging in vodka, so it takes me a couple of times to get her attention, but as soon as she sees my face, she sobers up quickly.

“Ellie?”

“I need you to take your parents to the safe room, now, no questions,” I tell her. Her blue eyes widen with fear, and she freezes for a moment before reality hits her. She gets up and rushes over to where her dad is and whispers into his ear. He turns around, and I can see the panic in his eyes, but I nod letting him know I’ve got this. Whatever this is. He then turns to Sophie, and she gives him a look that tells him not to question a thing and go. Whatever is happening, I know Sophie can defend herself, as can Sergei and Max, and my brother will not let anything happen to Grace. Thank fuck, Zoe and her men are not here. Max notices Kenzie’s abrupt departure as she drags her singing mother out of the living room, he’s now on high alert.

I don’t get a chance to get up before Anna runs in screaming, “They’ve found me.” A second later, a smoke canister is launched into the living room, and a massive boom reverberates around the room as it fills with smoke. Grace’s screams fill the room as quickly as the smoke does. The moment the smoke hits me, I recognize it’s not tear gas, and before I get a chance to warn anyone, my entire world goes dark.

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