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“What crawled up your ass and died?”
He took a sharp intake of breath before pressing on the brake. Had I not been buckled up, I would’ve flown through the windshield.
“What is the matter with you?” I breathed out, though barely.
He snapped his eyes in my direction, and it immediately became a staring contest. I wasn’t backing down, but neither was he. His intense gaze made my heart flutter and I tried my best not to burst out loud in a fit of laughter.
“What’s the matter with me?” he repeated slowly. “Do you need a recap of what happened a while ago?”
I blinked. “If this is about me coming with you, then it’s been decided.”
“Decided my ass,” he retorted. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you are the blueprint for trouble. Just stay put for one night. It will make everything so much easier.”
“You know,” I started, trying to keep my anger under control, “this is about me. I’m not some weak little girl, incapable of taking care of herself. I didn’t just say it on a whim, Adrik. I’ve been preparing for this day for years.”
“I understand that you want to be the one who takes his life, and I will do everything to make it happen. But dying in the process isn’t unlikely, Ekaterina. It’s like you have no sense of self-preservation. Bogdan isn’t just some lowlife you’d run into on the street. He kept his best men with him, and they will all come. You can’t handle it on your own.”
A sharp sensation ran through my chest. His voice was stern, as if he was trying to make me back down. The pain I felt morphed into rage.
I wasn’t stupid. I knew all the risks, and I was willing to take his life, even if it meant losing mine in the process.
“I won’t be alone. And just like all of you, I was trained for this lifestyle. Although it was a little too late, I am a part of this family. I’m a soldier, just like my brothers. I can, and will, do this.”
“This isn’t about whether or not you can or can’t do it, Ekaterina.” He raised his voice slightly. “It’s about doing what’s best for you. You’re so blinded by rage towards your father that you can’t see how this could end up being fatal for you.”
“I’m not someone who will die easily.” Why was I trying so hard to convince him to let me come? Why was his validation so important? “I want revenge, Adrik. I’m thirsty for blood. You can help me or get out of my way, but this isn’t something I’m willing to compromise on.”
“You never do!” he shouted back. “You always do whatever you want. I fucking worry about you, day and night, hoping that you don’t get so fucking blinded by fury that you end up dead. Compromise?” He scoffed. “Is that word even in your dictionary?”
“Why are you acting like this? What happened to the whole speech about how you’d help me with killing him?”
“It’s like I’m talking to a wall.” He tried to calm down, but his breathing gave him away. “I will help you. I’ll burn the entire world down for you. I will even crawl to hell and make you the queen of the underworld, if that’s what you wish. But your safety? It’s far more important to me than your need to kill him that night. It can be the day after, or even once we capture him.”
“It has to be me who gets to him first. Not you. Not my brothers. Me.”
Adrik ran his fingers through his thick, curly hair. It was messy, and it looked sexy as fuck. A hot sensation crept its way up my neck, making me take a deep breath. This wasn’t the time or place for such thoughts.
And yet, my heart fluttered. His fierce gaze never left mine and, no matter how much I wanted to, I couldn’t look away. He had captured me in a mental prison where all I could see was him, and all I could think of was him. He completely tore my brain inside out, filling it with himself.
“It’s a no.” He broke eye contact, leaving me in a state of confusion for a brief moment. “I am not losing you.”
“You won’t lose me.” I could feel myself slowly giving up. “I’ll be fine.”
He snorted. “Yes, just like you were fine when you got taken. You go headfirst into everything, but that’s not the solution here.”
Chills spread through my body. Somehow, I was struggling to decide. Was I aroused or upset? Perhaps, it was both.
Adrik had made it known, loud and clear, that he saw me as an incompetent person. He didn’t trust me enough to take me with him. I understood wanting to protect me, but this was too far. Quite frankly, if he had simply asked me not to go, I might’ve caved. Provoking me only made me want to go against his words more.
I unbuckled myself, opened the door, and left the vehicle, slamming the door behind me.
The path was unknown. Since the beginning of the ride, I hadn’t been paying attention to anything other than him. The road was deserted with a forest on the left side.
Did I know where I was heading? No, but that was a problem for later. Right now, I needed to get away from him as quickly as possible.
He was poisoning my brain, and I was close to backing down. I couldn’t back down, not when something as big as this was happening.
He was likely not aware, but Dominik and Aleksei were never going to allow me to kill our father. Knowing the two of them, they would keep him as a prisoner for years, torturing him, then healing him and doing it all over again until the bastard died in misery. Just how he made me suffer through hell, they’d bring hell to him.
