Page 137 of Bratva Jewels Box Set

She’s serious. I can see it on her face. She isn’t afraid to die in this moment. She’s given up.

What the hell am I doing?

“No. I won’t do that.”

Grace chuckles darkly. “Oh, that’s right. If I’m dead, you won’t get paid.”

That’s not it.

She’s confusing me with her words. I rake a hand through my hair nervously trying to get a grip on this unfamiliar feeling inside me.

“Maybe I’ll take my own life then.” She pulls out the steak knife.

Everything turns into slow motion as soon as I see the glistening silver knife in her hand. I never noticed her taking it from the table. I lunge for her, but I’m not quick enough, and she slices her wrist, luckily not badly. Grabbing the knife from her hands, I throw it away from her.

“No. I want to die,” she screams.

“Not tonight,” I tell her, pulling a handkerchief from my suit pocket and wrapping it around the wound.

“I’m not going back, Maxim. Do you hear me?” she says, grabbing the lapels of my suit jacket. “I would rather die than go back to Dmitri.”

I know Dmitri isn’t the best of people. But I’ve only heard how well looked after the jewels were. That they adore them and treat them all as if they were real precious gems. They are revered in the Bratva circles.

“What did he do to you?”

Grace laughs wildly. “Everything. Every depraved thing you could think of doing to a woman and then times that by ten. And I only got a small portion of it, he and his fucked-up cousin hadmy sister for months, and they did so much worse to her,” she tells me before breaking down again.

I stare at a clearly traumatized woman who is willing to kill herself than ever go back to being a jewel. Does the Bratva know what Dmitri and Nikolai have been doing to these women? Have I been naïve over what goes on with them? Technically, I’m a free agent, I’m not affiliated with anyone. I’ll do jobs for the Bratva, motorcycle gangs, dictatorships, politicians, and whoever can afford me.

Reaching down, I pick her up in my arms. She buries her face into my chest. I walk out of the powder room and down the corridor toward the staircase. I make my way up the grand stairs and turn toward her room, thankfully the door is open as I walk in. She’s still sobbing as if all the hurt, grief, and sadness is purging from her body. If what she says is true then I understand now why she was medicating herself with the drugs, trying to block out whatever Dmitri and Nikolai did to her and her sister.

Gently, I lay her down on her bed, tucking her in under the blanket. She curls up on her side, her shoulders still shaking with her tears. It’s as if I’ve broken through a block inside her, and now everything she’s hidden is coming out of her. Staring down, I take my phone from my pocket and type out a message before placing it back.

Then I kick my shoes off, slide my jacket over my shoulders and place it on the chair. I unbutton my dress shirt and roll up the sleeves before I do the stupidest thing I’ve ever done before and get into bed with her. I wrap my arm around her and pull her tightly against my chest. She’s so lost in her mind she doesn’t fight me on touching her.

What have I got myself into with this woman?

“Is she asleep?” Sergei asks, walking into my office hours later.

I’m sitting, staring out over the estate, lost in my thoughts as I watch the stars on the horizon. Tonight has been a mindfuck.

I’d spent the past hour in the gym trying to clear my head. A couple rounds with the punching bag usually helps me.

“Yes, it took me a long time to get her to settle.” Grace cried for an hour as I held her, soothed her, and protected her.

“And the cut?”

“Only surface, it’s wrapped up now,” I tell Sergei. I can’t forget the look in her eyes when she pulled that knife out. She was done. If I hadn’t come when I did, I don’t know if she would be alive. “Something fucked up happened to her.”

“You think we should look into her then?” Sergei asks.

“I do. Something doesn’t sound right about this situation.”

“I’m not willing to send a girl back to a monster, Max. She’s the same age as Anna. She reminds me too much of her.” The sadness of losing his daughter creeps across Sergei’s face. Now I understand why he’s developed a soft spot for Grace since she arrived. “Wasn’t there media coverage about Nikolai and Dmitri? That’s why the higher-ups want him dealt with,” he suggests.

That’s right.

I type their names into the computer, and all these searches come up. Sergei and I look at each other surprised at the coverage in the mainstream media about Nikolai especially. No wonder the Bratva is upset, they have outed them. I press play on the first video, and there’s a blonde interviewing two men. We watch the interview in stunned silence as the two men explain how they found a woman called Zoe bloodied at their gate and went on to explain how she had no memory of who she was. They spoke about how over the months of her living with them they slowly fell in love with her. That must be Grace’s sister the two men are talking about as they explain that she used to date Nikolai. He took her home to Russia under the guiseof meeting the family, and instead, she was sold into a human trafficking ring. And that they had come back and found her again, but this time they had stolen her sister Grace as well. They then go on to explain every aspect of Nikolai’s operations and how he used the jewels; he traded a night with a jewel to get what he wanted.