in love with your captor?” Zaal snarled. “He tortured you and you fell in love? The male is evil, Zoya, too far gone. You can see the killer in his eyes. And you fell in love? Do you hear how messed up that sounds?”
I stepped up to my brother, his Russian fiancée moving aside. Meeting my brother’s huge chest, I peered up and said, “Do not judge me. You do not know how it is between us. You do not know me, Zaal. You do not know me as I am now, and you do not know Valentin. You do not know what that woman did to him and his sister.”
“His sister has been taken. The woman who was his captor sent her to her brother in Georgia. The Blood Pit.” Talia spoke from Zaal’s side. Tears dropped down my face on my hearing this information.
“Does Valentin know?” I asked Zaal, not Talia, my heart tearing at the thought of Valentin alone, no one to comfort him, to hold him, to share his pain. Inessa being gone would destroy him. My chest constricted at the sheer amount of pain he must be in.
“Take me to him,” I whispered, unable to speak out with all of this confusion in my heart.
“He’s in our cells,” Talia answered again. My eyes met my brother’s. My stare burned through him. I was talking to him.
“Cells?” I questioned coldly.
Zaal raised his chin. “I saw the video of him hurting you at the Mistress’s mansion. I saw him hurting you, torturing you, making you scream. Fuck, Zoya! He was breaking you!”
Realization hit. “You harmed him. You punished him for hurting me.” Zaal’s silence told me all I needed to know. “Take me to him!” I commanded. Zaal remained unmoving. A twinge of nostalgia twisted in my stomach. This Zaal I knew. The one fiercely protective of his little sister. The big brother who would never let me be harmed.
My Georgian warrior.
I held his stare, refusing to back down. Zaal never moved.
Surprising me, Luka’s wife moved behind me and, with her hand on my shoulder, quietly said, “I’ll take Zoya to Valentin.”
Her husband frowned at her, but she waved her hand in dismissal. She addressed Talia. “Tal, get Zoya some of your clothes—jeans, sweater, boots. They should fit well enough.” Talia looked at me with sad eyes. She seemed to want to say something to me, but she held back and quickly left the room. Part of me felt guilty seeing the desperation written on her pretty face, but I just couldn’t handle all this right now.
Kisa moved beside me and said, “Let’s go to the guest room, Zoya. My car will take us to Valentin, after you dress.”
Thankful for someone taking the lead, I followed her out of the room. Zaal took hold of my arm as I passed. “Zoya,” he whispered brokenly, almost breaking my resolve. “Please…”
Almost.
Confused to hell with my current reality, with the stream of revelations, I sighed and pulled my arm free. “I dreamed what this day would be like since I woke up, age five, alone and scared in Georgia. Avto was by my side telling me everyone I loved was gone.” I fought back the sting in my chest at the memory and said, “What was said earlier was right, Zaal. You’re not the brother I remember, and I’m not the sister you remember. Maybe I was naive to believe that after all these years we could be anything other than strangers.” I walked off before I broke down into his familiar arms. I winced when I heard him calling my name. I didn’t turn around. I couldn’t.
I just needed to see Valentin.
Talia passed Kisa and me in the hallway. She stopped and stated, “I’ve left the clothes on your bed, Zoya. It’s cold, so I’ve put a coat out for you.”
I kept walking, unable to talk to the woman right now. The pain was too much. This was all too overwhelming. I heard her sigh in defeat and enter the room where I’d left my brother. I almost stopped and ran back, freely forgiving him for finding love with the enemy. Because he had found love after all the pain. But a stubbornness and a sense of family pride kept my feet moving. It is peculiar, I thought. I had spent my entire life waiting to run into his arms, but now the opportunity presented itself I found myself running away.
It seemed that this answered prayer came with consequences.
My