Page 54 of Deceptive Vows

I head to the water fountain and grab some water.

The moment I down the cold liquid, I feel slightly better, but my brain is still unhinged. The doctors said that would happen sometimes, especially if I didn’t rest, and I haven’t.

I’ve been all over the place, and I don’t even know where I’ve found the strength. What caused me to slip into a coma was knocking my head when I fell after the bomb blast. I remember being launched into the air from the impact. That must have been the thing to knock me out because I don’t remember anything after that.

When I found out what happened to Talia, it pushed me over the edge. Days before I set out to Mexico, we held a memorial for her. It was hard to accept my mother and sister were both dead.

Dead and gone forever.

Nothing, not even me, could ever bring them back.

I have family, but I couldn’t feel more alone with their passing. Father will go next, and as much as I love Sophia and she takes care of me, she’s always tried to keep the balance between me and Ivan. Doing so often means she tends to be with him more.

It’s understandable given the way we came into his life.

Father married my mother months after his mother’s death. They were having problems and weren’t even together in the end. Ivan was a child who saw that, and his resentment stems from my mother, sister, and me being the new family our father fell in love with.

At the family home, there were hardly any pictures of his mother around when I was growing up, and now that he has his own home, he probably has the ones that exist. It was like she was erased from existence and our lives.

Sophia is sensitive to that, and I guess I am, too, but only to some extent and only for business. Even my pursuit to get down to the bottom of this assassination plot is about business, and protecting Father and Sophia, of course.

In regard to Ivan, though, it was clear to me long ago that the only emotion I would ever feel for my brother is hatred.

Hatred that started after he tried to drown me in the river when I was only eight, and many otheraccidentslike that one.

Bastard.

The door to my left opens, and in walks the devil.

Think of him, and he appears.

Ivan sees me straightaway, and he comes closer, walking with that authority every leader exudes. It’s obvious he already thinks he’s Pakhan and I’m going to be his eternal subordinate.

I straighten and get ready to hear whatever shit he has to say to me.

He gives me a fake-as-fuck smile and stops paces away to look at me like I’m shit he’s trying to avoid stepping in.

He’s lucky the same blood runs through our veins. Any other man who dared look at me like that would be dead before they could think to do it.

He knows that, though. That’s why he’s pissing on me.

“You look happy, brother,” he states. “Seems like all is well in the nest.”

“It is.” I’m always either vague on purpose with him or blatant. There are never any in-betweens with him and me.

“Have you fucked her yet?”

“Why? Why’s that important to you?”

“Just curious. I didn’t think you’d be waiting for the wedding night. I also figured you’d use her as a fuck toy and throw her away when you’re finished.”

“So you can have her?” I’m not stupid. This interest from the other day is continuing.

He’s probably also pissed as fuck he didn’t come up with the idea to take Adriana and control the cartel.

That vengeance was mine, though. Mine alone.

“What if I did want her?”