Page 91 of Endure the Pain

I had to bite my cheek to stop myself from laughing. Then I heard Dario snort and I lost it. Laughter erupted from me. Nicoli was only thirty-four, but her snub was funny as hell. Everyone stared at me and I forced myself to stop, cleared my throat, and said, “Sorry.”

If she had offended him, Nicoli didn’t let it show as he watched me regain composure. “I can already tell that she’ll surpass her brother, especially with you mentoring her.” He bid us a good night, and he and Dario left.

Dean and Asher pushed open our shared door and walked in. They both looked as if they had been eavesdropping the entire time.

“That was unexpected,” Asher said, staring at the door Nicoli had just left through.

“You laughed,” Dean said to me.

“I guess that proves I’m not completely dead inside.”

Brenna, Dean, and Asher did that thing where they exchanged looks. Ignoring it, I scooped my gun from the dresser and put it under my pillow. “Let’s go to bed. We have a busy day tomorrow.”

Dean and Asher returned to their room and Brenna turned off the light before climbing into her bed. I lay there until long after Brenna’s breathing slowed, thinking about how much I hated how cold and alone I felt in the foreign bed. I tried to convince myself not to move—that I needed to get used to their absence. With an aching heart, I scooted to the center of the bed, then placed a pillow on either side of me.

I hated that I missed them.

A single tear slipped from my eye as I thought back to the last time they had lain next to me. It had been the fourth night after I’d been released from the hospital. I had moved into the guest house. Not wanting me to be alone and wanting to help in any way that she could, Brenna had also moved in. I had refused to see or speak to Jamie and Louie because they had still been insistenton sending me to Boston while they went off and got revenge on the Aryans.

My life and all the progress that I’d made had seemed to be crumbling around me. Sean had been working to steal my position in drugs. Jamie and Louie had been treating me as if I were made of glass. Stefan had no longer been keeping me in the loop. I had lost my position of power, deemed by everyone as nothing more than a weak female for themento take care of.

Well, almost everyone.

That night, long after I had lain down to go to sleep, I'd woken to the sound of my bedroom door opening. At first, I'd thought it was Brenna or Dean checking on me. Dean and Asher had also been staying at the guest house with Brenna and I. With everything that had happened to me, plus Jamie and Louie’s determination to send me away, Dean and Asher had refused to leave me, especially in my weakened state.

I was lying on my side, facing away from the door. I still reached for the gun that I had hidden under my pillow. Just in case.

“It’s us.”

Jamie.

I hadn't rolled over and I'd kept my hand on my gun. “What are you doing here?”

The bed had dipped behind me. “Let’s not fight, please. Can we just hold you?” Louie had asked from behind me. Jamie had walked around the bed and sat down next to me.

Too exhausted to fight and too sad to make them go, I had moved my hand from my gun. “Alright.”

Louie had curled up close behind me and wrapped his arm around my upper stomach. His nose had brushed the back of my ear as he'd kissed the back of my neck. Jamie had lain down facing me and taken my hand in his. I could see his exhaustion around his eyes, and in them, I could see pain. I'd squeezed his hand and shut my eyes. I would've started crying if I'd stared much longer.

Before falling back to sleep, for a moment, I'd thought things might turn out for the better. Little had I known, I’d find out that their need to sleep next to me had been their way of saying goodbye before they'd tried to make me go to Boston the next morning. Little had they known, my darkness was in control and blood was going to spill.

CHAPTER 31

“He just pulled up outside,” Vincent said into my earpiece.

I got comfortable in the leather chair behind what looked more like a sculpture than a desk. Sasha, the pakhan—the boss—of the Bratva here in the States, had a very nice office in Anarchy, the nightclub he owned. One wall was a giant two-way window that overlooked the club’s dance floor one story down. On the wall behind his desk were shelves with photos of his Bratva brethren and family and Russian knick-knacks that looked valuable. On the wall directly in front of his desk was a huge TV that showed all the different areas in the club under surveillance.

When Dean, Asher, and I had broken into the club ten minutes prior, Vincent had disabled the cameras and the security alarm. He would do it again when it was time for us to leave. I didn’t want there to be any trace of me here that Stefan could use to track me.

I watched Sasha walk into the club via the security cams. He wasn’t alone. Eitan was with him, the man I hadstabbed in the hand during Stefan’s test before he'd officially asked me to join the fold.This should be interesting.

I glanced at Dean and Asher, who were standing on either side of the door. They also had earpieces in and had received the heads up from Vincent that we had incoming. They appeared calm. Their stances showed different. They were waiting—prepared for shit to go belly up.

The office door opened, and Sasha stepped in first. He and Eitan were in the middle of talking about ordering more of a certain type of vodka in Russian. Sasha’s words trailed and his steps halted when he saw me sitting behind his desk. Eitan also noticed me, then Asher, and went to draw his gun, but Dean came from behind the door and put the barrel of his gun to the back of Eitan’s head.

“Don’t,” Dean warned.

I fixed my attention on Sasha. “I like your office.”