Chapter 39 Zoe
ZOE
No—there is no way in hell they are here with me. My eyes don’t believe what I’m seeing behind me.
Tomas and Mateo looking at me, tears in their eyes.
“Oh my god.” I burst out crying, launching myself over the seat and into their arms. “You saved me.”
“We were never giving up on you,” Tomas says, smiling, touching my face.
Mateo has hauled me onto his lap, his strong arms around me. His lips softly touch my neck.
“We fucking love you, Zoe.”
Hearing those words makes me break. I can’t believe this nightmare is over.
“We are never leaving you, okay?” Tomas whispers as my sobs fill the car. “We are going to keep you safe, and you will never have to look over your shoulder ever again.”
I nod because I understand exactly what they are saying. Nikolai thinks I have been bought by some brothel owner, but instead I have been saved. My hands touch their faces, not really believing they are real.
“You’re real.” I stare at them both in awe.
“Damn right we are,” Mateo growls.
Tomas swipes the tears away from my cheeks. “We can’t believe you are finally in front of us, it’s been too long.”
I nod as I reach out and hug him.
“I thought I would never see either of you ever again.”
“Us, your family, they would never have stopped,” Tomas says.
“How’s Gracie?”
Mateo laughs. “She can’t wait to see you.”
“I was so worried Nikolai wouldn’t let her go.”
“She’s upset you sacrificed yourself for her,” Tomas says.
“I’m sorry.” I look down at my hands. I have done so much since I left them.
“Hey, no.” Tomas lifts my chin so I can look into his hazel eyes. “We don’t care what you had to do to stay alive. All that matters is that you are safe and well.”
I try to give him a smile, but I know it doesn’t reach my eyes.
“No, Zoe, no—you will not feel guilty over anything. Gracie told us what happened.”
“Actually, we kind of demanded she tells us,” Mateo adds.
“Yes, she was not very forthcoming with what she had been through and what she had seen happen to you.”
My stomach churns at the images running through my mind. Now that they know even a small portion of what happened, they must be disgusted.
“Hey, you don’t think we’re going to look at you differently?” Tomas asks.
My eyes catch his.
“We love you, all of you, the good, the bad, and whatever ugliness happened to you,” Tomas declares.
I move forward and press my lips against his, feeling their warmth, their softness.
I need this, I need to feel his lips on mine.
I press my tongue against his lips, urging them to open, and he tentatively opens for me and everything, all the ugliness and bad, melts away as I feel his tongue against mine.
He opens and takes me against him, those soft lips making me feel safe, his tongue lovingly caressing my own. I’ve come home, I’ve finally made it.
He pulls away from me and gives me a smile. “I think Mateo is getting a little jealous.”
I turn to see Mateo’s stunning face looking at me, a slightly worried expression on it. “I haven’t forgotten you.”
“I’ve missed you, angel.” He takes my lips ever so softly.
“I missed you both so much.” I snuggle into Mateo. “I can’t wait to get home.”
We travel in silence, my hand in Tomas’s and my body on Mateo’s. We are comfortable and happy.
“Someone’s following us,” the driver says. “Buckle up.”
My heart races as Mateo puts me beside him and pulls the seatbelt across me.
We turn and see the black SUV getting closer and closer.
“I think he’s going to hit us,” Tomas says.
“Okay, everyone, brace yourselves for impact. We’re going to try to get you all to safety.”
And just as he says those words, bullets hit the car.
I scream as they ping off the metal.
“Get down,” one of the big guys yells at us.
The driver is swerving, and we are being thrown around like rag dolls; thank goodness I’m wearing a seatbelt. I’m so scared it’s Nikolai and his crew coming to take me back.
Mateo shields me as the man who bought me opens the window and fires back. There is rapid gunfire exchanged.
“Shit, Brooks, they’ve shot out the tires,” the driver yells at the big man.
“Where’s the bag with the guns?” Brooks asks.
“Next to me.”
There is silence, then the sound of metal. The car swerves as another round of gunfire hits it.
Then another loud pop.
“Fuck, we’re on the rims!” the driver screams.
“Stock up, man. Police are ETA ten minutes; we are going to have to hold them till then.”
A lot can happen in ten minutes.
Then there is a massive bang and the car shudders.
“Fuck, they’re ramming us— not sure if I can hold them anymore,” the driver says.
“Brace yourselves, guys, it’s going to get ugly,” Brooks tells us.
Mateo pulls me in tighter. There’s another big bang as they ram us again, and the back window shatters as a bullet goes through it.
I scream. I’m so fucking scared. These maniacs are trying to kill us.
We get bumped again, and this time we are pushed sideways. We hit something, and the world turns upside down, repeatedly as if we are in a washing machine. My body is flung around, my head hits something hard, and everything goes black.
I come to from the haziness, and as my ears pick up the sound of gunfire, the adrenaline in my body kicks in, but I stay where I am, slumped on the ground. Slowly, I open my eyes, surveying what is happening before me.
“Give her to me!” Nikolai screams as he and his bodyguards take shots at Brooks and the driver.
“Zoe, are you okay?” Mateo whispers behind me.
I turn my head and see him and Tomas huddled behind a big clump of grass in a ditch on the side of some deserted highway in the middle of the fucking desert in Morocco.
“Yeah, just sore.” I rub my body, checking myself, trying not to draw Nikolai’s attention. Everything aches.
Mateo gestures. “You need to come to us.”
Looking around, I can see everyone else is distracted, so I commando crawl to where Mateo and Tomas are huddled. They pull me into their arms as soon as I reach them.
Tomas presses up against me. “I promise we’re not going to let him take you, no matter what.”
“I will not let him hurt you two.” Don’t they get it? He will kill them.
“Fuck.” We hear the driver groan as he is hit and drops to the ground. Brooks fires off a couple of rounds and takes out Nikolai’s two guards.
I scream as I watch the bullets go through their heads, their lifeless bodies falling. I start to shake as shock sets in.
“We are going to get out of here. We just need to hold off Nikolai until Enrique comes,” Tomas says calmly, stroking my back.
Nikolai lets off a couple more rounds and they hit their target. We watch as Brooks gets hit and slumps to the ground. Blood seeps through his black suit, pooling around him in the desert sand.
No!
“Come out, come out, wherever you are, Zoe,” Nikolai taunts.
“You are not going anywhere,” Tomas whispers, holding onto me tightly.
“I must. He won’t stop until you are both dead.”
“No, we lost you once; we will not lose you again,” Mateo says.
But this is my fate, there is no happily ever after for me. Nikolai always said I was his and now I truly believe it. He is never ever going to let me go, especially not to Tomas and Mateo. The bloodthirsty look in his eyes tells me this.
“I love you both so much, but I have to do this.”
Mateo tries to stop me. “No, you don’t.”
I push them away from me as I move from my hiding spot.
Nikolai notices me and trains his gun directly at me.
“That’s a good girl. Your time is up, your fate has been decided, Sapphire. You must come home now.” Nikolai sounds calm as he speaks.
I take a step closer to my fate until I notice Mateo and Tomas stand up as well. What are they doing? I notice an evil smirk cross Nikolai’s face.
“So, these are the two you love? You’ve lost. I’m the one with the gun and believe me, I will happily put bullets through both of you.”
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 me closer 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. You sold me. 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 if I 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.
That’s when I collapse to the ground and start hysterically crying. I can hear distant police sirens.
“It’s over, Zoe, it’s over,” Mateo repeats as they join me in the sand.
Moments later we are swarmed by police. Thankfully ambulances arrive not much later. I watch as Brooks and the driver are taken away, and I pray they will be okay.
Tomas and Mateo were looked over, and thankfully, it was only a flesh wound from the bullets skimming them.
Enrique walks over to where we are sitting, huddled under blankets, sipping coffee, as the shock of today’s events sinks in.
“Nikolai’s dead, but Dmitri hasn’t been found. If he knows what’s good for him, he will go back to Russia and stay there.”
“What about the girls who got sold?”
His eyes don’t meet mine. “We couldn’t save the other Bratva Jewels. We don’t know where they are, but we have made some arrests and hope they will speak and give us some more information.”
Dammit.
Enrique gives me a smile. “But we were able to find where the Bratva kept all their lower-tiered women. We found many houses filled with them both here in Morocco and back in Spain.”
“At least that is something. Those girls can go home now and start the healing process,” I say sadly.
“You saved them, Zoe. Everything you did today saved those women. Women who have been held against their will for years, some even their entire lives. Please know that I won’t stop until I have found the rest of the jewels for you,” Enrique tells me honestly.
I give him a solemn nod.
Someone calls out to Enrique, and he’s pulled away from us.
“I want to go home,” I tell Tomas and Mateo.
“Home looks a little different since you left,” Tomas says.
“I couldn’t stay in that house without you in it,” Mateo adds.
“Wherever the two of you are is home,” I tell them.