by AC Arthur
“Fuck international agents!” Dane yelled. “You can’t even keep one witness safe! You can’t find thousands of girls that have been taken from their homes and you can’t stop one crime family from wreaking havoc across the damn globe! So yeah, fuck international agents!”
“Your language is deplorable,” Aunt Birdie said as she strolled into the living room. “You are definitely Bernard’s son.”
Dane turned away from her. The very last thing he needed to deal with right now was Aunt Birdie.
He’d been in the meeting with her when he received the text message from an unknown number about fifty minutes ago. He’d started to delete the message, but had seen Zera’s name just before he could hit the button. Once he’d opened the message Dane’s entire world went dark.
I got your little bitch, Dane. Haven’t you ever heard the American saying “Bros before Hoes”? Guess not since you were fucking Zera the same time as I was. But that’s okay. I’m just going to do her one last time and because I know the type of man you are, I’ll help you out. You can find us at the old house in the trees. The dumbass guards you’ve got didn’t even know I arrived here at the same time you did. So come on out, Dane and join the party. It’ll be just like old times. I might even let you take a turn, before I kill you both!
“Emmet Parks has her,” Dane said as he’d stood from the table.
Nyle was in the next room and when Dane had come out to tell him Nyle had insisted on contacting Jesse first, instead of going directly out to get Zera. Dane’s rage still simmered hot and raw.
“If he hurts her,” Dane told them now as the agents were still standing in the living room looking like he was speaking a foreign language.
“Hush!” Aunt Birdie said. “No need to add threatening federal agents to your assault charge.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Jon said.
Aunt Birdie waved her hand in his direction. “Don’t thank me,” she said. “If you don’t get your ass out there and bring her back here safely I’ll have your badge and then I’ll let him rip your balls off since it’s clear you need a new pair. How the hell do you let a deranged maniac stay in a house on the property of the people you’re trying to protect?”
Jon frowned and Nyle glowered. It was fine because Dane was fuming.
“I’m going to get her. You can either follow me, or sit here and twiddle your thumbs. At this point, I could care less,” Dane said.
He ran up the steps and into the room where he and Zera had been staying. He went to his suitcase and retrieved the gun he’d purchased the day he’d found out Zera was an FBI agent who was working on something involving the Russian mafia. Gun in hand, Dane came back down the steps only to run into Roark.
“What are you going to do?” Roark asked.
“I’m going to shoot that sonofabitch really dead this time around,” Dane told him.
Roark gave a curt nod and lifted his hand to show Dane that he had a gun too. “Let’s get to it then,” Roark told his cousin. “Like my daddy used to tell me, we protect our own.”
They went out the front door just as two SUVs filled with more agents pulled up. Jon and Nyle were already behind Dane and Roark and they signaled for some of the other agents to head into the house and some to follow them.
Roark knew the way to the house in the trees because he and his siblings used to play out there when they were children. They arrived at the house in less than five minutes, and were just about ten miles away when they heard the first gunshot.
Dane ran harder than he ever had before, fueled by adrenaline and the pounding of his heart that he knew for certain would break into a million pieces if Zera was gone. Nothing he had—the money, cars, businesses, clothes, stocks—none of it mattered without her.
Dane saw nothing else but the house and heard nothing but the way Zera had sounded last night when she was laughing with his nieces. He ran to the door, ramming into it with his shoulder, only to be bounced back as pain soared through his body. But Dane ignored that pain. He raised his arm and shot out the windows on the side of door, going through it without a care or regard for the others who were with him.
“Welcome to the party,” Emmet yelled when Dane’s feet hit the floor.
He had an arm around Zera’s neck and her back pulled up to his front as he used her as shield. Her face was streaked with tears but there was no blood that Dane could see.
“Ohhhhhh, look how revved up he is, Zera,” Emmet said. “I knew when I heard them coming that firing a warning shot would get to him.”
He chuckled, the grin spreading eerily over his face. Dane raised his gun once more. The door came crashing down seconds later and Roark and the agents poured inside. There were shouts for Emmet to drop the gun and let Zera go, at least a dozen guns were pointed at him. And at Zera.
Dane’s hand shook and when she looked up at him, his heart broke with the sadness he saw in her eyes.
“Kill him,” she whispered. And then in a louder voice, “Kill this evil sonofabitch!”
“Now that’s not nice,” Emmet said and squeezed her neck tighter. “Dane, I wanted it to just be the three of us. I told you I was gonna let you have a turn.”
“You’re not gonna have her,” Dane told him.
His entire body trembled as flashbacks from the night he’d held a gun on his mother came roaring back to his mind. He hadn’t fired the shot that night because Devlin had done it for him.
“I don’t care what you’ve done or how you think this is gonna end, you are not going to have her.”
“She’s old news anyway,” Emmet told Dane. “You know how much free pussy I get? Those girls have no choice but to give me whatever I want. Besides, I have to test the merchandise before I can sell it.”
“Drop the gun and let the woman go!” Jon yelled. “We can take you in willingly or in a body bag. It’s your choice, Parks.”
“My name’s not Parks!” Emmet yelled. “It’s Pepple and I don’t answer to you or your western laws! I was born to be a king. And she was going to be my queen.”
He turned his head and kissed Zera’s hair.
“I only needed to finish one more deal, but Luka wanted more girls. He wanted more merchandise to sell. I was tired of giving him my people. I’d done enough to get what I needed to be a good king. I had land, houses, cars, everything my queen would need to be happy. And then I found out she was a liar. And Luka’s dumbass goons tried to kill me. But I fooled them. I fooled them all because I’m smarter,” Emmet insisted. “And I’m better than you, Dane! I could have given her more than you! You are not one of us!”
“And neither are you!” Zera spat. “We would never turn against our own. You were angry that Aasir wouldn’t join you. Well, I am glad he didn’t because you are the coward!”
After she spoke those words, Zera elbowed Emmet hard in the abdomen. He stumbled back and his arm loosened enough at her neck for her to slip away. But Emmet was fast, he aimed the gun at Zera and opened his mouth to yell something in a language Dane did not understand.
But it didn’t matter what he’d said, Dane pulled the trigger. Not once, but repeatedly as he watched Emmet’s body jerk with the entry of each bullet.
Dane heard Roark saying something as he continued to pull the trigger. The gun was only making a clicking sound at this point and Emmet’s body had fallen in a heap on the floor. Dane pulled away from the hand on his arm and dropped the gun to the floor. He ran to Zera just as she stood up straight and leapt into his arms. She cried, her body convulsing with the action and held onto him tightly. Dane lifted her in his arms and carried her out of the house. He carried her all the way back to the chateau and straight up to their room. She did not stop crying.
Chapter 17
It was close to six in the evening when Dane was finally able to convince Zera to take a hot bath. Aunt Maxine had food waiting for her while Aunt Birdie waited very impatiently to see her. Dane had been adamant that everyone leave them alone once they’d returned to the ho
use. He had no idea what Emmet had said or done to her and he did not want her upset any more than she already was.
“Just nod your head if he touched you, baby,” Dane had said as he’d sat in one of the chairs in the bedroom, holding Zera on his lap.
She’d kept her face buried in his chest where his shirt was now damp from all her tears.
“Not like that,” she’d finally whispered. “I told you he never touched me like that. Even though I know that’s what he wanted you to think.”
Dane had sent up a silent prayer.
“I’m going to run you a hot bath and then I think you need to eat something,” he’d said.
“I don’t want to see anyone.”
Her voice seemed so small and so distant.
“No. I’ll go down and get the food and bring it up to you. Nobody will come in,” he promised her.
“Alright,” she said and moved off his lap.
While he was in the bathroom running the water, Dane checked his cell phone. Agent LeAmbette and Cade had both sent him several text messages. He answered them now, telling them that Zera was okay but that he did not know how or why Emmet Parks had faked his death and then came back for Zera. But he was going to find out. Dane was determined to ask the questions and get the important answers with Zera this time around.
When he returned to the bedroom he saw that she was already undressing, tossing the clothes into the nearest trash can. Her polka dot tennis shoes too.
She walked naked to where he stood in the doorway of the bathroom and grabbed his hand.
“Join me,” she said softly.
Dane removed his clothes and seconds later joined Zera in the soaker tub. He’d added bubbles and wasn’t sure he was going to like smelling like jasmine for the rest of the night. But whatever Zera wanted, he was willing to do. He settled in behind her and leaned back against the lip of the tub. He wrapped his arms around Zera’s waist and pulled her back against him. Bubbles floated around them as they sat in the hot water for endless minutes in total silence.
“How do I tell them she’s gone?” Zera asked quietly.
Dane didn’t think she really wanted a response, so he remained silent.
“She would be eighteen now. Her birthday was April 4th,” she continued. “I told them, each time I spoke to them on the phone that I was going to bring her home. They thanked me for all the hard work I was doing to find her and said they couldn’t wait to see us both. There was pain in their voices each time, but there was also pride. I wanted to make the pain go away for them. And for me.”
She took a deep breath and Dane hugged her against him a little tighter. Zera told him everything that Emmet had said in that house, all of his sordid reasons for doing the illegal and unconscionable things he’d done. She told him about the man she’d thought was her friend, Aasir N’Joru. How he’d betrayed her.
“I know it’s not my fault,” she said a few moments after that recitation. “I did not order her kidnapping, just as I did not shoot Ines. But I cannot ignore that I am a common factor in what happened to both of them.”
Dane could not hold his tongue any longer because he definitely did not like where he thought this conversation was going. “And so were the criminals that did what they did to both of them, Zera. You are not to blame for being the caring and intelligent person that you are. Everyone is responsible for their own actions. They are adults and they will all be held accountable.”
Except for Emmet who was now, thankfully, most assuredly dead.
“He faked his death just to come back and get me. He hated me that much,” she said.
“He hated himself, Zera. Emmet Parks hated everything he thought he should be, and everything he was not. He would have never been happy no matter how much money he obtained or which woman he would have ended up with,” Dane told her.
“I know what you’re saying is right, but it hurts Dane. It hurts so bad.”
Dane kissed the top of her head. “I know it does, baby. But it’s okay. I want you to let go and just hold on to me right now. I’m here for you and I’m not going anywhere.”
She cried some more, turning in the tub until she could lay on his chest.
“I’ve got you, baby,” he whispered over and over again, until she settled down once more.
Two days later, Zera still had a headache.
She and Dane were still at the country house along with Aunt Birdie who had been hovering and fusing over Zera every chance she could get. The other Donovans had returned to their homes. Dane laughed when Zera admitted that she liked the mean and feisty Aunt Birdie better than the concerned and not-quite-compassionate one.
Today was the day that Zera was going to speak to Necole and Cade. They were both coming to the country house to see her because Dane didn’t think she was ready to return to the city just yet. He was right. She wasn’t ready to go back to Paris. Zera didn’t know if she ever would be.
She’d dressed in jeans and a baggy gray t-shirt, with black flats on her feet. The minute she’d come down the stairs she’d heard voices coming from the living room. She took a deep breath and released it slowly, resigning herself to whatever she was about to hear. Hiari was dead. Things could not be any worse.
They stopped talking the moment she entered the room. Dane came over to take her hand. He led her to the couch and waited until she was seated to sit down beside her.
“How are you feeling?” Necole asked first.
She wore a skirt suit this time, navy blue with a crisp white blouse. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she sat in one of the high-back Victorian chairs with one leg crossed over the other.
“I’m fine,” Zera lied. Fine was something she wasn’t quite sure she would feel again. “We can begin now. I’d rather get this over with.”
“We understand,” Cade said. “And we appreciate you typing your statement and emailing it to us ahead of time.”
“No problem,” Zera told them. She’d wanted to document her words for a concise record and so she would never forget all that two of her people had done to her and her family.
“So this meeting was really just a formality and a way for us to see you to make sure you were doing alright,” Cade continued. “You did good, Zera. You really did.”
Dane was holding her hand. He squeezed it at that moment and when she looked at him he was nodding his agreement with Cade.
“He’s right. Everything you were able to find out while you were with Emmet and the book you gave us is making a huge difference. We’ve been able to trace some of the girls in those groups. Some of them were sold to wealthy rulers in other countries and others were sent to work in the clubs owned by the Belyakov bratva. But we’re working with all of the countries in our agency to bring each of them home,” Necole said.
“We’ve also been able to use some of the information you gathered to help with the investigation into the bratva’s dealings in the States. While we still haven’t arrested any of the top two operatives in the bratva, we’re steadily chipping away at their empire. I’d say that means the four years you spent here in Paris have proven to be time well spent,” Cade added.
Tears filled Zera’s eyes and she didn’t even care when they slid down her cheeks. Hiari would not be coming home, but her work had made a difference.
“That’s wonderful news,” she said anyway. “Thank you so much for keeping your word.
“The SSA also detained Aasir,” Cade added. “He told them everything that he had done. He told them he knew that Emmet was still alive and that he suspected the Belyakovs had killed Debare because he was unable to bring Zera to them. He seemed to know a lot more about the dealings of the bratva in South Africa as well as members of actual FTOs working throughout the area. He will tell them everything, but he will never be released from prison.”
Zera’s hands shook as she wiped the tears from her face. Necole stood and brought a tissue box to Zera. She waited while Zera took a few and then touched a hand to Zera’s shoul
der.
“Cade and I have also discussed how we might be able to help you get your job back,” she said.
Zera immediately shook her head. “Not yet. I’m not ready to think about any of that yet.”
“Fine,” Necole told her. “You let us know when you’re ready.”
Zera nodded and wiped her face again.
“Mr. Donovan,” Carlisle said as he silently entered the room.
Dane and Cade looked at him. Carlisle stared at Dane and said, “Your guests have arrived, sir.”
“Perfect timing,” Dane said.
“Guests?” Zera asked when he stood.
“Just sit tight,” he told her. “I’ll be back in a second.”
Necole stayed next to Zera while Dane was gone from the room. She rubbed her shoulder, but did not say another word. Zera was grateful because she was already tired of talking about this situation.
“My girl.”
Zera’s head shot up at the two words spoken in a voice that sounded just like hers. She jumped up from the couch, blinking away more tears as she ran across the room and into the arms of Jacinta Kennedy.
“My girl. My precious girl,” Jacinta continued to mumble. “I have missed you so.”
Zera held onto her mother until she thought she might be squeezing the breath out of her. When she finally released her the words tumbled from her lips, “Hiari is dead, mama.”
Tears had already been rolling down Jacinta’s deep-brown complected cheeks. “It is well,” Jacinta said. “We are at peace with it, my girl. We have been for some time now.”
But Zera hadn’t been. She didn’t know if she ever would be, but right now there was another emotion besides grief filling her soul. She turned from her mother to see Dane standing a few feet away, a small smile on his lips. She walked over to him, laying a hand on his cheek.
“You did this for me,” she said softly. “You brought my mother to me because you knew I was afraid to go home to her.”
Dane reached up to hold her wrist. He turned his face to kiss her palm.