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A smile pulled across my father’s face. “Thanks, doc.” He turned to me again just as his eyes fluttered closed, his energy dissipating as quickly as he’d found it. “Go pay the man. But come back tomorrow. There’s something we need to discuss.”
I nodded and waited until his breathing evened before stepping away. It was the most words I’d exchanged with him in weeks and nothing about the encounter settled the restlessness ripping through me. He was worse than I’d imagined. Closer to the end.
With cash in hand, Gerardo saw his way out and once I verified that Matteo was lounging by Luka, my nerves settled. “Take shifts with Denis if you need to. He’s lying about his issue with blood.”
Matteo nodded and I strode to my room.
She was pacing across the floor when the door creaked open. She froze, her hand wrapped up in a towel and held tightly against her chest. Embarrassment coiled in my gut. I should have brought Gerardo in here to look at her injuries too, but if I was honest, I wanted her all to myself. I wanted to be the one to tend to those wounds.
Her brows furrowed in worry when she saw me. “Is he okay?” She rushed to me, her eyes wide and red from crying.
Sharp pain in my chest nearly gutted me and I let my eyes flutter shut before her. She slammed into my chest, clutching at my blood-soaked clothing like she might blow away if she let go. Concern oozed from her and her fingers trembled on my back. She was too good, too pure, just like Lucia. “He’ll be fine,” I whispered, peeling her off of me and brushing past her toward the bathroom to take off the clothes drenched in my little brother’s blood.
She followed, a soft hand falling against my back. “Wait,” she called out and I stopped. “What about you?”
“What about me?” I growled, angered because I knew exactly what she was asking.
She ducked around me until we faced each other, her eyes turned down. “Are you okay?”
I balled my hands at my sides. The emotion I had desperately tamped down was breaking through, my nose tickling. There weren’t very many days when I was forced to admit the damage that the family business caused but days like today were the worst— days when I just couldn’t quite escape the crushing guilt that made it hard to breathe.
“What about me?” I repeated the question, my eyes glazing over. “It should be me in there, not him.”
I pushed passed her again and blinked back whatever moisture was building in my eyes. Once in the bathroom, I peeled my shirt off, a wet plop sound making me sick as it hit the floor. I didn’t care that my brother’s blood would be smeared along the white tiles, I needed to get it off of me.
“Come here,” I called to her. She stood just outside the bathroom, her shoulders pulled up in worry. “Let me see your hand.”
“I’m fi–”
“Darya,” I snapped. She flinched but took a step toward me. She lifted her hand and I started to unravel the damp towel. “What were you even doing outside of this room?”
She looked up at me through her lashes. “Lucia came looking for me. We were cooking a birthday dinner for Matteo.”
My jaw clenched and shame prickled my scalp. Something else I fucked up.
“I told you not to open that door,” I reminded her. It didn’t bother me that she spent the afternoon with Lucia– it bothered me that she didn’t obey. Even if her defiance was exactly what made me so crazy. There were moments for her defiance and obedience, and when I wasn’t here to protect her, I demanded that obedience.
The cut was clean but it was deeper than I was hoping for. It sliced right across her palm, nearly from end to end. I pulled out the roll of gauze from below the sink and she hissed as I wrapped it, biting her lower lip through the pain. My eyes were glued to her mouth and my body spurred to life, my member swelling in my pants by the time I finished with the gauze.
I turned away from her and tossed the gauze onto the counter. “Get out,” I barked. If she stayed in here any longer, I was bound to toss everything out the window and lose control with her again– this time, I wouldn’t stop with just a kiss. I needed a distraction and tasting her was too enticing to deny.
Chapter 11
Darya
With his shirt puddled on the floor, he stood under the harsh lights of the bathroom. He was pushing me away– I knew it in my bones. But I couldn’t blame him. The sight of Luka had made me sick to my stomach and I couldn’t imagine the way Yuri was feeling.
His shoulders rose and fell with each labored breath, and I let my eyes wander, actually looking at his bare back. It was a canvas of gorgeous skin covered in tattoos. His shoulders were impossibly broad in clothes but uncovered, I couldn’t look away. Intricate designs swirled from each bicep before cresting on his neck and leading lower like a growing batch of vines snaking across the hard surface of an abandoned home. In cursive lettering across his shoulder blades was the word familia and below it was scrawls of names embedded in rose petals and thorns. There were six and I narrowed my eyes, recognizing the top two, Matteo and Luka. Below that were Isabel, Sergio, Victor, and finally Lucia.
At some point, I had walked myself forward until I was face to face with the inky masterpiece, my breathing low as my hand darted forward to touch each name. He stirred but didn’t stop me as I traced the work of art with my fingertips. The warmth of his skin was comforting.
“Your siblings,” I breathed. He nodded quickly. “He’s not your brother,” I said, my thoughts spilling out. Denis’ name was nowhere to be found.
“He’s my cousin.” He confessed.
I let my fingers drag up his skin, outlining each name I saw. “Did it hurt?” My voice escaped as a whisper.
I heard a soft breath escape from his lips, “I wanted it to.”
