Diamond, p.1
Diamond, page 1
part #2 of Bratva Jewels Series
Diamond
A Bratva Jewels Series - Book 2
JA Low
Contents
Dedication
Foreword
Prologue
1. Maxim
2. Grace
3. Maxim
4. Grace
5. Maxim
6. Grace
7. Maxim
8. Grace
9. Maxim
10. Grace
11. Grace
12. Maxim
13. Maxim
14. Grace
15. Maxim
16. Grace
17. Maxim
18. Maxim
19. Grace
20. Maxim
21. Grace
22. Maxim
23. Grace
24. Maxim
25. Grace
26. Maxim
27. Grace
28. Maxim
29. Grace
30. Maxim
31. Grace
32. Maxim
33. Grace
34. Maxim
35. Maxim
36. Grace
37. Maxim
38. Grace
39. Grace
40. Maxim
41. Grace
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
About the Author
Also by JA Low
Also by JA Low
Also by JA Low
Also by JA Low
Copyright @ 2017 JA Low
All rights reserved. No part of this eBook may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including electronic or mechanical, without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. JA low is in no way affiliated with any brands, songs, musicians, or artists mentioned in this book.
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Thank you for respecting the author’s work.
Editor by Hachette Australia
Cover design by Jemina Venter/booknerdfangirl.com
Cover photograph © Can Stock Photo/konradbak
Created with Vellum
To all the strong women out there.
Never give up !
Foreword
This is book 2 in the series.
Please read
The Bratva Jewels Series
Sapphire - Book 1
An unconventional love is tested to its limits.
Mateo is used to being in the spotlight, he craves it in everything he does . . . except when it comes to his love life - that is firmly in the closet.
Tomas shuns the spotlight, the one he was born into, he wants nothing to do with it or his high-flying family who now reject him for his choices in love.
But Tomas' and Mateo's carefully constructed lives are turned inside out when they discover a beautiful, battered woman on their doorstep. The woman with the sapphire eyes has no memory of who she is or how she got there. She doesn't know about the Bratva Jewels - the Russian mafia's most desired escorts - or how her story intersects with theirs.
Can Tomas and Mateo help her remember before the men who are after her find her first?
Prologue
Maxim
Four Years Earlier
I’m standing on the beach in a place called the Hamptons looking out at the swirling grey sea, thousands of miles away from our home in Russia, wondering what the fuck happened. Elena can’t be dead. I only spoke to her this morning. She was excited to be getting out of the city for the weekend, away from school and the gruelling hours spent training to be a ballerina. She and her childhood best friend, Anna, had been invited to some socialite’s end of summer party and they were excited to go, said there would be celebrities there.
Sergei, my co-worker, mentor and Anna’s father, stands beside me.
‘I don’t believe it, Maxim.’ He shakes his head. ‘Nothing makes sense. Why would they have gotten into the surf when they don’t know how to swim? I don’t believe my little girl is gone. I won’t accept it. They never found their bodies, until they do, I have hope.’
A flash of lightning streaks across the sky. I keep staring at the storm rolling in. Witnesses said they saw the girls go into the water, but never saw them come out. I wish I had faith like Sergei does, but the police, coast guard—everyone—has been out combing the sea until it became too treacherous. It’s like they just vanished into thin air.
What happened, Elena?
1
Maxim
‘Please, please don’t kill me,’ Dmitri, the man I am here to scare, begs. He knows who I am. Everyone in the Bratva knows who I am. They call me The Shadow of Death, because there’s no way you’ll be seeing the light again after I’ve finished with you.
‘You fucked up.’ I push the end of my gun into his temple. The man is shaking like a leaf. It’s pretty disgusting really, he’s supposed to be some big deal in the Bratva, but he looks like he’s seconds away from pissing himself.
‘I know, I know. But it wasn’t me, it was my cousin, this is all on him,’ Dmitri pleads.
My bosses have informed me of the headaches Dmitri and his cousin Nikolai have caused for the organisation. They are not pleased at all with them. Lucky for Nikolai, he is already dead. Apparently his ex-opened him up like a bad tin of tuna just before Interpol turned up to bust him.
‘Blaming the dead, come on now, Dmitri. That’s pretty low, even for you.’ Unfortunately, my job today is not to put a bullet between his eyes like I want to, because Dmitri is annoying as fuck. ‘Now, what the hell should I do with you?’ I taunt him.
‘Please, I will give you anything you want. You want girls, I can get them to you—young girls, even barely legal ones.’
I pistol whip his face for that comment. I’m no fucking paedophile.
‘The fact you just offered me underage girls is enough for me to end you.’
Dmitri gulps and tries to swallow, his eye bleeding where I hit him.
‘But today is your lucky day. The higher ups don’t want you dead, yet,’ I say, and his body relaxes for a moment. ‘But your time is limited. Because of the stunt your fucking cousin pulled selling the jewels and not telling anyone, they believe you are the only other person alive who knows the whereabouts of these jewels.’
I step away and stand in front of him. He looks up at me, right eye closing over where I hit him. ‘You have six months to find the jewels or I kill you. So if I was you, I wouldn’t fuck around, time’s a-ticking.’ I tap my watch.
He stands up, shakily. ‘I need your help then.’
His statement makes me laugh, and I turn and look at Sergei, who just shrugs, a bemused look on his face.
‘And why the fuck would I help you?’
‘I already know where two of the jewels are.’
‘How is this my problem?’
‘I can’t go anywhere near them—they know my face. You could steal them, or at least one of them.’
This makes me laugh. Is this fool serious?
‘And why would I do that?’
He reaches around to his back pocket and pulls out his phone. He swipes it a couple of times and shows it to me. ‘This, this is them.’ He points to two beautiful girls, both blonde, one with sapphire eyes and the other with jade green eyes.
‘Cute. And?’
‘This one.’ He points the second blonde. ‘Grace. She gives the most phenomenal blow jobs.’
‘Not interested, I can get blow jobs anywhere, don’t need to kidnap some chick to get one.’
‘I’ll pay you.’
Now he’s got my attention. ‘Not sure if you can afford me.’ I cross my arms over my chest.
‘Name your price.’
‘One million dollars.’
His face pales. ‘One … million …’
‘My services don’t come cheap. They’re paying me half that just to rough you up. Also, don’t forget you have to find all the jewels, so do you seriously want to waste your time on those two when you could be finding the others?’
‘You can’t kill them.’
I roll my eyes; I know how precious these jewels are. I’ve never seen them before, but I’ve heard about them, they’re some kind of modern courtesans.
‘You’ll have to give me time to get the money to you.’
I shrug. ‘It’s not my neck on the line, Dmitri.’
‘I know, I know. I promise I’ll get the money to you.’
‘Good. Now that that’s all sorted. I need to finish this job.’
Dmitri’s eyes widen, and I let out an evil chuckle. Did this fucker think he was just going to get a little pistol whipped after the stunt he pulled? Fuck, no.
Sergei and I descend on him as his screams fill the abandoned warehouse.
2
Grace
‘I am so happy for you all.’ I give my sister and her two fiancés a hug. We are celebrating their engagement before Mum and Dad have to head home to Kiribati to fi nish off his time as ambassador. After that, they’re coming back to Ibiza to help Zoe with her charity. I am in awe of my sister. She’s been through horrific things because of her ex, a crazy Russian mobster who had a very unhealthy obsession with her, but here she is on the other side, wanting to help others, functioning normally with her two extremely hot and committed fiancés. To say I am jealous is an understatement. I’d just like one hot guy to hold me and chase away the night terrors that plague me. Instead I chase them away with a magic little white pill called Xanax.
‘Thank you, I am so happy.’ Zoe smiles, then her voice lowers to a whisper. ‘How are you doing?’
Today is her day, so she doesn’t need to know that I’m not coping, that I wish I had died instead of having to relive the things Dmitri and those men did to me. She doesn’t need to know that I need these white pills the psychiatrist gives me to just get through the day. Or that I’m supplementing my ‘official’ supply with the help of a local dealer—not that I quite know what it is he’s selling me. I put on a good front, I smile, I laugh, I talk it out with professionals and yet still I can’t escape the images of Dmitri as I sleep. Mac, one of the Mercenaries who saved Zoe in Morocco, and his security crew have been teaching us self-defence, commando style: how to kill a man with your bare hands. How to disarm a man with a knife or a gun. Survival skills, negotiating skills. Every day we’re at the gym getting stronger, because Dmitri is still out there and I know he will be seeking revenge for us killing his cousin. And yet I still can’t function without medicated help. It’s my dirty little secret, one I’m ashamed of, but I just need to get through this and then I’ll be okay. I’m not as strong as Zoe, I’m not as streetwise as Sophie and I’m not a smart as Mackenzie. All my sisters are extraordinary and it’s hard to live in their shadows.
I’ve given up my work in The Hague. I love the law, but after what I’ve seen, how easily the law is flouted, I’ve lost my faith in it. The law should have been able to protect the women kidnapped and sold into sex slavery, the law should be able to put these terrible men in jail for their crimes, yet all they have to do is pay off the right people and they’re out again to continue destroying people’s lives.
‘I’m doing fine,’ I tell Zoe, plastering on the fake smile that seems to be permanently stuck to my face.
‘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.
I follow Gabriel. He pretty much shat himself recently when I busted him smoking pot in the gardens during his break. I told him that I wouldn’t tell if he could get me some extra pills. I’m technically not a junkie, because I have this under control, I just need an extra boost to what the prescription provides. I mean, it’s only been a month, as soon as I’m better I’ll stop.
I walk past the marquee set up for the engagement party in the back yard and through the makeshift kitchen to the driveway where the white van is waiting. I take a couple of steps, my mind already focused on the pills.
Hugo—my dealer, I guess—looks a little nervous, his eyes flitting around as I walk past him. I give him a reassuring smile, but he ignores it. His mate Donny will be in the back with the goods. The doors swing open and I see Donny slumped on the floor.
‘Donny!’ I call. Fuck, 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 behind the glass divider, then I see it, a gun pointed at Hugo’s head. Fuck! 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 a bomb. Oh shit, shit, shit. I’m 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. Fuck, this has to be one of Dmitri’s men.
Think, Grace, think. But my mind is a little fuzzy, it’s waiting for its next hit. I crouch in the corner, shaking my head. Fuck, why did I have to be a screw up? Why couldn’t I cope like Zoe? I am so fucking pathetic.
‘I am going to get you out of this, okay?’ Gabriel says confidently. ‘It’s my job.’ He takes his phone from his pocket to send a text. He presses the button and frowns, then he presses it again, then he starts hitting the phone.
‘Oh yeah, 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 just nod, my mind shutting down, my anxiety and PTSD returning. I know I need a pill just to get me to the next step. I start searching the van. They have to be here, they have to be.
‘Grace, you need to focus,’ Gabriel hisses at me. ‘Forget the pills.’
I look at him. ‘I need one, just one.’
He shakes his head. ‘I should never have helped you. You needed to be alert just in case they came back here—I need you to fight Grace, please.’
‘I’ll try but—’
‘Good. Now, we need a plan. They’re either taking us to the airport or to the port.’
I nod, but in all honesty I’m not listening at all, my brain is shutting down. I can’t go through this again, I can’t go back to Dmitri. This man can kill me if he wants—I would rather die than go back.
‘When the van stops, I need you to take cover, I’ll start shooting when they open the doors.’
I shrug.
‘Grace, do you understand?’
‘Yes.’ I want to go back to my safe place.
‘You need to hide in the bed, okay? Get in now.’ He pulls the covers off and I slip in, then he piles the cushions all around me. I close my eyes and just pray this nightmare will end quickly and I can go home to my family, and get myself cleaned up.
We haven’t been travelling for long when I feel the van slowing down.
‘Get ready, Grace. Stay hidden.’
I pull the covers over my head. I can hear the sound of feet crunching against stones. My heart is racing. Please let me survive, please. I hear the doors creak open, sunlight filtering through and then Gabriel screaming. I squeeze my eyes closed as the van shakes with his convulsions. Arms grab me and I hear Gabriel’s slurred words as I hit and scream and kick against the strong arms.
‘Hey, easy there, wildcat, you don’t want to hurt yourself.’ The man laughs. The blanket falls from me and I see Gabriel with a taser electrodes sticking out of his back, his body crumpled. His eyes widen as he helplessly watches me get dragged away.
‘Let go of me!’ I yell, hoping someone will see a man kidnapping a girl.
