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“Isn’t going to change anything,” I say truthfully. “Vanya is still a Castellanos.” My best friend shakes his head. It’s almost like he’s disappointed in me.
Let him be.
I won’t let a woman nearly destroy us again.
Vanya can never be anything more than a tool for me to use.
Fourteen
The house is cold.
Empty.
There is no life in it anymore. It had been snuffed out. Something I don’t entirely understand. Why kill the staff? What purpose did it serve? The back door opens into the kitchen. My favorite room in the entire house. Here I was free to be myself. To laugh and bake alongside the staff without a care in the world.
My bottom lip trembles as I take in the state of the place I once called a sanctuary. Bowls are spread half-smashed on the tiled floor. Spilled flour is mixed with the dark red of spilled blood.
Innocent blood.
Ignoring the hushed whispers behind me, I straighten my shoulders and hold my head high as I stride through the massacred room and into the dining area. I keep my eyes up and ahead, refusing to look down at the carnage surrounding me. If I do, I will break down and the last thing I want to give the asshole behind me is my tears.
He’s had enough of those already.
I stop in front of my father’s office door. It’s just off the living room. He liked to be close to the tunnels beneath the house in case of an emergency. Not that it helped him any when death came calling.
A moment of longing washes over me when I open the door and my father’s scent hits me. I loved my family. How could I not? They were all I had besides Ada. They never hit me or raised their voices at me. If they had, it might be easier to let them go.
Instead, they simply neglected me until I was old enough to be useful. When Ada’s mother died, they only kept her so that I would have a playmate to keep me entertained. She had simply been another tool they crafted to control me.
When I misbehaved, they would lock us away from one another. If I refused something, they starved her. I became meek and docile in their presence because I learned that being defiant meant my friend, my sister, became the target.
We used to dream of running away together. Meeting our prince charming.
Until one day, she met him. Married him. Died because of him.
Sighing, I step into the opulent room, scrunching my nose in distaste. I’ve always hated this room. My father believed that grandeur and opulence portrayed wealth and power. All it did was telegraph how much he was compensating for his lack of power.
The Castellanoses weren’t as powerful under my father’s rule as they had been with generations prior. Mostly because he liked gambling and whores and my mother loved to shop. Not that any of that mattered any longer. The Castellanos family died with my father.
And soon our name will cease to exist altogether.
“Show me his safe, little mouse,” Adrian’s gruff voice interrupts my thoughts. I stay quiet, afraid to speak. My emotions are bouncing around inside of me and I’m not sure which one I will release. Sadness? Anger? Frustration? Murder?
Yep. That is an emotion all right.
Homicidal rage, get it on sale now for the low, low price of being irritated by an asshole.
I walk to the large bar my father had installed in the office and pull out one of the large drawers. The two men meet my expectant stare with befuddled looks. Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I point at the drawer.
“Clever,” Anton murmurs as he comes to stand over the drawer. “Not somewhere a thief would look for a safe.”
“Indeed,” Adrian agrees. His gaze shifts to me. “What’s the passcode?”
I shrug. “I don’t know,” I tell him honestly. “I was never allowed to know the inner workings of the business. The only reason I know it’s there is because I saw the plans for the customization on his laptop one day. He’d left it open at the dinner table.”
“It’s moveable,” Anton grunts as he tries to lift it out of the drawer, but it’s solid steel and welded into the side. “Maybe not.”
“Great,” Anton mutters. “See if Jakub can crack it.” Anton nods before pulling out his cell phone. He begins to type away furiously, no doubt texting whomever the hell Jakub is.
