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“And let it be known.” His voice was gentle, as if he was afraid his words would break me. “I only need a single word from you, and your brothers will meet the same fate.”
I glanced up at him to see determination written over his face. “That would be suicide. Even if you managed to get to one, the other would kill you.”
His body vibrated as he chuckled. “Don’t worry. I’d make sure both were dead before I died too—that way, every man capable of hurting you would no longer walk the Earth.”
“What happened about that whole we’re-together-till-we-both-die speech?”
He turned his head to the side and placed a soft kiss on my forehead. “It took some time for me to realize that the two of us won’t be going to the same place after our death. I was born this way—you were forced. But I have a feeling, if soulmates exist, we’ll find each other in another life.”
He couldn’t have been more wrong. Yes, I was made to be the way I was, but he’d only seen a glimpse of who I truly was. Some information was untraceable and had been destroyed long before he’d appeared in my life. Unless he had the ability to raise the dead, he would never find out.
Some monsters were made, but if they’d been truly pure, they couldn’t have been turned into the worst of the worst. The predispositions had been there for me all along—Bogdan just knew how to take advantage of a child who was nothing but gullible, innocent, and seemingly happy.
He’d noticed the dark spot in my soul when I was six years old. Mom had been playing hide and seek with Viktor and me, and we had been hiding behind the same wall. Behind us there’d been a big flight of stairs, and right across from that was a small piano room that Dominik used for practice.
I hadn’t thought twice before I’d pushed Viktor off the stairs. His screams and yells had brought help, but I’d been able to hide. He’d ended up breaking both arms and a leg, and I’d been the winner of the game.
Bogdan had watched the scene unfold. He’d noticed that I hadn’t cared about harming my brother as long as it brought victory, and unbeknownst to me, that was when he’d decided he wanted me to always be like that—cold, indifferent, and inattentive to other people’s emotions.
However, at the time, I hadn’t known the severity of Viktor’s wounds. Immediately after he’d been admitted to the hospital, I regretted it. I’d spent night after night crying myself to sleep, but the damage had already been done. I’d felt awful, guilty, and remorseful.
“Does that mean you’ll keep finding me, wherever I go?”
He responded without missing a beat. “I’ll hunt you down if you ever try to leave me, little lion. Now that I’ve had you in my life, I will never experience not having you in it.”
I smiled, my heart skipping a beat. “Something tells me I’ll never want to escape.”
As we sat there in silence, watching the sun rise, I felt too much inner peace. As if his words had healed a part of me I’d never thought could be healed. Not even the best doctors had a cure for my diagnosis, yet this was the calmest I’d felt in years.
The tranquility was defeating. Our heartbeats were synchronized—the thought of having him this close until the day I died made me feel comfortable. He’d kill for me; he’d live for me. He was made for me. There would never be another person that matched yet clashed against me this much.
Yet, the moment the soft April breeze hit my face, something felt heavy, as if some weight had been dropped onto my heart. The feeling of security slowly began to vanish, leaving nothing but a trace of what it used to be—like a warning.
Nothing was ever easy in life, especially not for me.
Not for us.
The sun wasn’t too warm, just like the thoughts that sneaked their way into my brain. My mind was my biggest enemy. Whenever something started going right for me, it was there to remind me how unworthy and undeserving of good things I was.
And after hours sitting in silence, our proximity speaking for us, I realized just how bad all of this was. My gut feeling was telling me to brace myself for what was about to happen.
Because this was just the calm before the storm.
T W E N T Y – T W O
AS soon as Davorin’s hand was on my back, slowly tracing random patterns, I dozed off. I didn’t dream of anything, but I managed to get a good five hours of uninterrupted sleep, which was better than I’d ever slept.
Rhea woke me up, and if she hadn’t been so anxious and scared, I would’ve killed her. She refused to tell me over the phone what the issue was and suggested we meet for a late lunch in her restaurant.
I hadn’t been hungry until she mentioned food and hung up the phone with a groan. It took me longer than usual to get ready, mainly because my feet were still sore from the party two nights ago.
I’d found it odd how Davorin was never to be found most mornings. His jobs were done late at night, and he hadn’t been accepting any of late. I was growing suspicious, because as far as I knew, being a hitman was his primary—and only—source of income. The possibility he had another job had never truly crossed my mind.
He’d yet to return by the time I left, and he wasn’t answering his phone either. I was getting irritated that I was unaware of his whereabouts, and the fact that I was losing my touch.
“Where’s the fire?” I teased Rhea, who was staring off into space as I took a seat across from her. A steaming plate of food was waiting for me, and I smiled in delight. The amazing smell hit my nose, and my stomach growled.
Rhea snapped out of her daze and looked at me. “I’m fucked.”
