Page 67 of Bratva Jewels Box Set

Message received loud and clear. “What about her family? They must be worried sick about her. These fuckers were able to make her disappear. They were able to convince her family she is safe and well.”

“Like I said, they are very powerful, and if they can make hundreds if not thousands of women disappear from the streets without a trace, they can make one girl disappear easily. I will find her family and keep an eye on them. My main concern is her sister Gracie. They have probably stopped watching her now that they think Zoe is dead, but we can’t be too careful.”

“Do you think we should bring Gracie here? Keep them safe together. That might help Zoe.”

Enrique thinks my request over. “Leave it with me. I’ll look into her a little more and see if we can maybe extract her off the books without alerting Nikolai’s men.”

Thanking him, I send him on his way.

I walk back into the lounge room and find Zoe asleep in Mateo’s arms. The image of the two of them together thaws myheart. I love them more than life itself, and I will do everything in my power to protect them.

21

ZOE

The boys have been acting funny all day today. It’s been a week since I found out who I am, and the memories have started flooding back a little more regularly. I wake up every night with nightmares, but Mateo and Tomas are there, helping me come back. I know these nightmares are taking their toll on the boys, I can see it in the secretive glances they give each other. They hate the things that have happened to me. I don’t tell them about what I see because they don’t need to know how tainted I am. If they do push, they get a censored version.

But today they have both been jittery, which has my instincts on high alert.

There’s a knock at the front door, and my stomach sinks as I watch Mateo and Tomas jump up and rush to it.

“Where is she? Where the hell is she?”

That voice.

I know that voice. My eyes widen as I see my sister’s stricken face.

“Zoe, Zoe!” she screams as we sprint to each other, both of us dissolving into sobbing tears, clinging to each other as if our lives depend on it. “I had no idea, Zoe. I thought you’d fallen inlove and run away with your boyfriend,” she confesses through uncontrollable tears.

She’s safe, she’s here with me. Nikolai can’t hurt her now. Then it hits me, the boys arranged this. That’s why they’ve been nervous all day. I pull myself out of Gracie’s arms, making her frown.

Then I launch myself into Mateo’s arms and kiss him. “Thank you, thank you so much. She’s safe, my sister is safe.”

Mateo kisses me back. “Anything to see you and the people you love safe,” Mateo adds.

Disentangling myself from him, I turn to Tomas and jump into his arms. Wrapping myself around him as I kiss him too.

“Thank you,” I say, pulling back from his lips.

“We told you we would do anything for you,” Tomas says.

“What the fuck, Zoe?” Gracie gasps.

Guess we have a lot to catch up on. “What about the rest of my family?”

Enrique clears his throat from the doorway. “Your parents are fine. They live on a very tiny island in the middle of nowhere—there is no way in the world the Bratva will get to them there, and if they do, I have a feeling the people of the island will come to their aid.”

My body relaxes at this news. “But what about my other sisters?”

“Well, in all honesty, I think Sophie has more to worry about being in a war zone than anything these guys might throw at her. She knows probably just as many bad guys as they would. And your other sister Mackenzie is safe working in Haiti. I know the Bratva don’t have a stronghold there thanks to the South American cartels. Gracie was the most vulnerable.”

“Thank you all so much for bringing her back to me,” I tell the boys.

Gracie wraps herself around me again, and neither of us wants to let the other one go. For the first time in a week, I can breathe knowing it’s all going to be okay now.

Gracie and I move over to the pool cabana, and neither one of us is ready to let the other one go as we stay curled up beside each other.

“How can you ever forgive me for leaving you there with those men,” Gracie says, wiping away her tears.