He looks at me fully, so I can see the truth written in his cold, dead eyes. “Roman killed her.”
I’m rendered speechless.
The logic is painfully, blatantly flawed. Even if the facts are true, Roman wasn’t directly responsible for that woman’s—Dimitri’s mother’s—death. He couldn’t have been.
But I know firsthand how a desire for vengeance can lead someone down a dark, lonely road.
Anton shifts away, his dark eyes flicking over Dimitri’s face before going to Pavel’s, then to the floor. No one speaks.
I certainly don’t. I’m not suicidal enough to argue with Dimitri in this moment.
Telling the crazy man he’s crazy while he’s got two armed guards—and casually pulling his broken arm straight as it crunches and pops—won’t get me out of this.
Calming Dimitri down and escaping is what matters now.
My mind stutters, then replays the conversation again, stuck on the revelation that I’m related to this psycho. “You’re…my brother?”
Dimitri flashes me a twisted smile, drawing a shudder from deep within. “Hi, sis.”
This rewrites my entire existence.
My half-brother raised me and never told me. That truth at least explains why he felt somewhat responsible for me. A sibling’s duty reminiscent of the one Max felt toward his younger brother and sister before they died.
But…heraisedme. Got me through my first period, my teenage years.
He also put cameras in my bedroom and shower.
Revulsion rockets through me, and I heave, spitting onto the dusty wooden floor. Thank God I haven’t eaten.
Dimitri keeps talking. “In case you haven’t caught on yet, I didn’t save you on the island. I abducted you after our dad ran off in the wrong direction to look for you.” He ties off the wrap around his arm. “All those fires I set really had everyone confused, so I suppose I can’t blame him for not knowing where you were. Your nanny was dead, and so was your mom. I just wish I’d been able to see his face when he found Lilia’s body.”
“Found?” Chills that have nothing to do with the weather run through me. “What do you mean?”
Dimitri laughs, a low chuckle I’ve never heard from him. “I let that slip, didn’t I? Oh, well. Yeah, Roman found Lilia after I stabbed her to death. I lost track of how many times. Do you remember? I know it was in her autopsy report I got you for your tenth birthday.”
The floor tilts as my vision grays. Everything in me recoils from all the nightmarish implications. “You killed my mother?”
“And had her portrait, crafted by her loving daughter, mounted on my wall like the hunter’s trophy it was.” Dimitri gestures for Pavel to tighten the sling on his arm. “We’re even. Roman killed my mother, and I killed yours. An eye for an eye.”
Hatred burns through my chest, and my vision blurs from rage-fueled tears.
Dimitri. Killed. My. Mother.
I lunge.
Lashing out with my bound feet, I catch him behind his ankles. He goes down heavy, lands on his broken arm, and screams.
I squirm, trying to get in a position to do more. Anything. Anton and Pavel appear in a heartbeat, just waiting for my next move.
Dimitri holds his hand out as he gets back to his feet. “You showed such potential. You’ve got as much hate and cunning inside you as I do. We’re a match made in heaven.”
The pride in his voice sickens me. We’re nothing alike.
“Although, to be brutally honest, Nika, you made a mistake.” Dimitri pauses. “You shouldn’t have let Max take down my cameras. That hurt my feelings even more than you giving your first time to someone else.”
Max was right. Dimitri had them set up so he could watch from a distance. He’s secretly recorded everything I’ve done in that house, all for his own viewing pleasure. Sick bastard probably got off by watching me.
Hopelessness takes root in my chest, curling alongside the revulsion in my stomach.
