Page 122 of Bratva Jewels Box Set
“Well, you know I’m here for you, that I understand.”
I can see that understanding on her face, and I hate it. I feel ashamed, I feel dirty and tainted. I look at her, happy with the two men she loves, and I know that will never happen for me. There is no happily ever after for me.
“Grace.” Gabriel, one of our security guards, grabs my attention. “There’s a delivery for you.” Our code for my pills.
“Delivery?” Zoe questions me.
“I’ve been shopping online again,” I joke with my sister, hoping to ease her fears for me.
“Guess there are worse things in the world you could be addicted to.” Zoe chuckles.
She has no idea how right she is. I can stop at any time, but I don’t want to. My mind needs a break from the atrocities it’s seen, and these magic pills give it one.
I hug my sister and follow Gabriel. I busted him smoking pot in the estate’s gardens during his break. I told him I wouldn’t tell if he could get me some extra pills. He wasn’t sure at first, but I was able to persuade him, it’s our little secret. We walk past the marquee set up for the engagement party in the backyard and through the makeshift kitchen to the driveway where the white van is waiting. I take a couple of steps toward it, my mind already focused on the pills.
Hugo, my dealer, looks nervous, his eyes flitting around as I walk past him. I give him a reassuring smile, but he ignores it. His friend Donny will be in the back with the goods. The doors swing open, and I see Donny slumped on a makeshift bed in the van.
“Donny!” I call. He hasn’t OD, has he?
Gabriel jumps into the van, and I follow. He tries to shake Donny awake, and then the doors slam shut, and the van starts moving.
“Hugo, Hugo!” I scream, but he ignores me.
I can see him through the glass divider, the sweat dripping from his face, then I pause. My heart accelerates, my stomach turns into knots, and I sway as my already fragile mind computes what it’s seeing. A gun is pointed at Hugo’s head.
Gabriel notices it as well and pulls his weapon out.
“I wouldn’t do that,” a deep voice warns. “Have a look under the guy’s shirt.”
Gabriel lifts Donny’s shirt and we see wires coming from his chest.
No, no, no, no. We’re going to die.
“Put your gun away, and I won’t detonate him. But if you choose to be a hero then you will all be dust,” the man says in his thick Russian accent.
This must be one of Dmitri’s men.
Think, Grace, think.My mind is fuzzy, it’s waiting for its next hit. Instead, I crouch in the corner and shake my head. This can’t be happening to me again. My mind begins to melt down as the rickety scaffolding holding it together starts to crumble, and my entire world starts to crash around me. Kill me now. Press the fucking button, you asshole, because I can’t cope seeing Dmitri again.
“It’s going to be okay. I’m going to get you out of this, okay?” Gabriel says confidently. He takes his phone from his pocket to send a text. He presses the button and frowns, presses it again, then starts hitting the phone.
“Jammed the signal. Nice try though.” The kidnapper laughs.
Gabriel throws his phone against the van in frustration, smashing it to pieces.
“I think there’s only one, maybe two of them. I can take them on,” Gabriel whispers to me.
I nod, my mind shutting down, my anxiety and PTSD returning. I just need a pill to get me to the next step. Jumping up, I frantically begin searching the van for my pills. They musthave them with them it’s the reason they were coming.No, the reason was they were kidnapping you, Grace.
“Grace, you need to focus,” Gabriel hisses at me. “Forget the pills.”
I look at him as the tears fall down my cheeks. “I need one, just one to help me through. Please.”
He shakes his head. “I should never have helped you. You needed to be alert in case they came back here. And now they have I need you to fight Grace, please.”
“I can’t. You don’t understand.” I’m not Zoe.
Gabriel grabs my arms and shakes me. “Wake the fuck up, Grace. We are in serious trouble. This is not how I’m going to fucking die,” he curses at me.
