AllFreeNovel
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His reply is swift.
I type back that I’ll see him there in five. I jump out of bed and race into my bathroom. A quick brush of my teeth, a rake of my hair with my fingers, and spray of deodorant and I’m pulling on a light sweater and heading out the door.
I race up the stairs, hoping to God I don’t bump into Kirill. I think he has gym right now, if I remember correctly. He takes some extra evening classes because he’s so good at fighting.
In the past, before Mackenzie, I knew both my honorary brothers’ schedules like the back of my hand. I realize that now, I only know hers.
It feels like everything is splintering. There are fracture lines developing between us. Worse, I had a message from back home, and my sister is in the hospital again. She’s the one out of my family I love the most, yet my parents want to marry her off and be rid of her. The thought makes me sick. The idea of being on that compound without her and only them and my father’s hard and vicious men makes my stomach twist.
What do I have to look forward to after this?
Dom will stay here, and he will take vacations in beautiful parts of Italy, and he might end up running a nice big patch of New York State for his Daddy Dearest. He’ll probably marry some gorgeous Italian girl and have lots of pretty babies, while he screws his side pieces in some Manhattan duplex.
Kirill, well, he’ll likely go back to Russia and rule there, or maybe London because Grigoriy Stepanov has his fingers in a hell of a lot of pies in a lot of places. He’ll marry a stunning socialite—hell, maybe even a high-end model—and he’ll travel the world.
Me? I’ll be expected to live on that fucking compound on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. That violent place where raids happen and families fight for control. I’d rather live with my mother in California, where she spends much of her time these days, but my father would go crazy.
My mother is American, all blonde and fair skinned. I certainly take after my father with my dark hair and eyes. Thank fuck, because the women love how I look. My sister doesn’t look like either of them, with her warm coloring and green eyes. I sometimes wonder if my mother had an affair but then discount the idea as ridiculous because my father would have killed her for such a transgression.
Still, the way my mother leaves Argentina for longer and longer periods makes me think he’s not as in love with her as he once was, or he wouldn’t let her. She can’t be safe alone, not really, yet she prefers to take the danger of being out of the compound on her own to being with my father, and he seems to care so little that he lets her.
My home life is fracturing, my life here is seemingly starting to tear apart, and my damn body is letting me down by only giving me endless pain and nothing else.
God, I’m so tired.
I reach Mackenzie’s room and knock quietly once. It’s late, and I don’t want to alert her mother or Nataniele, who are just a couple of doors away, to my presence.
The door swings open immediately, and she smiles at me. It’s a tight smile, though, and it barely reaches her eyes.
I step inside and nod at Dom, who is already here. He’s lounging on her bed as if he’s right at home. A stab of jealousy hits me.
Does she like him the best?
A twisted little thought occurs to me. If I had the Duchess with me, going home wouldn’t seem too bleak, and if I had her on my compound, the others wouldn’t be able to get her back.
Not even Kirill with his father’s sprawling network could penetrate our compound if we were on alert with any real chance of success. Never mind that they’d get on the radar of all the other cartels if they dared to venture into our territory.
No, if I took Duchess home with me, I’d have someone who cared for me, and who would give me comfort, and no one could take her from me.
Dom won’t stick by her, anyway. How can he? At some point, if that cursed marriage ever takes place, he’ll legally be her stepbrother, and his father is far too uptight to let Dom get away with marrying his own stepsister. The scandal that would follow would be hilarious.
Yes, the more I think about it, the more it makes sense for Duchess to become mine. She needs to be safe from her professor, and I can certainly offer her that safety in a way none of the others can.
I smile at her as I take a seat on a chair in the corner. “So, what gives? Your message sounded urgent. Why no Kirill?”
“It concerns Kill.”
She bites at her lip, and it’s adorable, but I don’t let it distract me right now. I can tell from her expression that this is serious.
“What’s going on?” Dom demands. “Did he hurt you?”
“God, no.” She shakes her head vigorously. “Nothing like that. You know he wouldn’t do that.”
Dom shrugs. “He’s been acting fucking weird recently.”
“Yeah, well, he’s got all that shit with his dad going on,” I point out. “Can’t be easy having that fucking ogre breathing down his neck all the time.”
