Page 116 of Bratva Jewels Box Set
My body flinches at his menacing words. I go to take another step toward Nikolai, but the boys both reach out and stop me.
“No, no, no!” Nikolai screams. “Let her go, she’s mine. Mine!”
I look at Tomas and Mateo, memorizing their beautiful faces. I won’t let him hurt them anymore. “Please let me go.”
Mateo shakes his head, tears rushing down his cheeks.
“He will kill you,” Tomas says.
I turn and look at Nikolai, his hand waving the gun at us. “No, he won’t. He just needs to win.” I shuffle further away from my future. “Please trust me, I have a plan,” I whisper to them. I can see in their eyes that they don’t want to let me go. They are shaking their heads, but their hands fall from me. I turn around and start walking confidently toward Nikolai, even though my legs are shaking like Jell-O. I have to walk past Brooks’s still body to get to where Nikolai is. I pretend to trip over it and land right next to him.
“Fucking stupid girl,” Nikolai grumbles.
Tomas and Mateo flinch as I hit the earth, but I give them a reassuring smile as I see the knife holstered to Brooks’s leg and grab it as I pass. I continue my walk toward Nikolai, the satisfied look on his face as I move closer and closer irritating me. As soon as I am within reaching distance, Nikolai grabs me and pulls mecloser to him, turning me in his arms so my back is to his chest. I can see Tomas’s and Mateo’s horrified expressions now that Nikolai has me. His gun is still trained on them both.
“I told you she was mine. Zoe will always be mine,” Nikolai taunts the boys.
I watch in slow motion as he shoots them both.
“No!” I scream, watching the bullets slice through their skin, and they fall to the dirt with a thud.
Instinct kicks in, and my hand tightens around the knife. With as much force as I can muster, I drive it into the soft flesh of Nikolai’s stomach, over and over again.
“You fucking bitch!” Nikolai screams as he moves away from me, knocking the knife from my hand. I’m now defenseless. “You stabbed me!”
I can see the shock register on his face. His shirt is covered in blood, and it drips down his hand as he clutches at his belly. He tilts his head at me as if trying to work out why on earth I would have stabbed him. His gun is still trained on me, but his hand is a little shakier than it once was. Hopefully, he’ll miss me if he decides to shoot.
“I loved you, Zoe.” He shakes the gun at me in frustration. “I fucking loved you so much, but you never loved me. I was never good enough for you, was I?”
My heart is racing, all I can see is the barrel of the gun pointing at me, and all I can feel is my body waiting for the bullet to pierce it.
“You hurt me. Yousoldme. That’s not love.” They always say in the movies when in a hostile situation try to talk to the person, calm them down that way.
“To me it was.” And I notice a single tear slip from Nikolai’s eye. “When I saw you across the bar, I knew you were different. I wasn’t supposed to stay with you. My orders were to bring you straight to Moscow, but I couldn’t. I knew what would happen ifI did. I wanted a normal life with you, even if it was for a fleeting moment, Zoe.”
Tears are falling down my cheeks now. I’m stunned by Nikolai’s words.
“You were worth the trouble I got into for not bringing you sooner. For the first time in my life, I could see a future with someone. I asked my boss if I could keep you, if I could marry you instead of putting you up for sale, but he said that our family could get much more out of you working than being my wife.”
“I would have said yes,” I tell him. It’s the truth. I would have easily said yes.
“But it’s too late now, isn’t it?” The fight in Nikolai is slowly coming to an end, and maybe that means the end is coming for me.
“Yeah, it is. Too much has happened between us, you know that.”
“I know, but …” He lets out a heavy sigh. “Just know that no matter what happens now ….” His eyes scan the desert around us. “I love you, Zoe.” His hand steadies and his fingers curl around the gun. This is it. This is how it all ends. The sound of a gunshot echoes all around us, and I watch as Nikolai’s body slumps to the ground, the single bullet hole in his head seeping deep red blood. His eyes are wide open.
I turn to see who shot him and Brooks gives me a grin. The concealed weapon hangs loosely in his hand as he slumps back into the dirt.
Nikolai is dead.
Nikolai is dead.
Those words swirl around my mind.
I don’t realize I’m screaming until strong arms wrap around me.
“It’s over. You’re safe now, Zoe,” Tomas tells me.
