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“Gia—”
She doesn’t let me finish. She interrupts me. “You leave to go out drinking and run into her and make plans to meet up again.”
“For work!” I insist, growling out my frustration.
“Go eat, Victor. You’re running out of time. You need to leave soon.”
“I don’t want to. The last thing I want to do is leave when you’re feeling like this, Gia.”
“I’ll be fine. I always am. Besides, you need to get to the airfield, right? Where did you say you were going again?”
“Greece,” I murmur, studying her because I’m sure I’m missing something.
“You sure you aren’t going somewhere else?”
The question makes my blood run cold for a minute. It feels like she’s insinuating something. That’s not possible. There’s no way she could know about my plans to go to EZ’s club. I mentioned it to Morgan, but only because I didn’t want her to track me down at Gia’s. Still, she is a professional. She wouldn’t have mentioned Phoenix in whatever small conversation the two of them had. I can fix this, it’s just that it may have to wait until I return.Motherfucking hell.
I feel like I’m torn in half here. I want to tell her about going to Phoenix, but I know it would hurt her. That’s the only reason I’m keeping it from her. Gia would know the only reason I’m going to Phoenix is because that’s where her attack was. Okay, the university she attended was in Tucson, but she lived in Phoenix and that’s where the attack took place. She doesn’t want me digging into her past. I know that because I’ve begged her to let me find the bastard numerous times in the last year. It’s a familiar refrain that always ends with her crying and yelling that she just wants to forget it ever happened. She doesn’t want me to go searching, afraid it will make whoever it was come after her again. Or hell, maybe she just wants to forget it everhappened. I can’t stop, though. What that bastard took from her is indescribable. He needs to pay, and I intend to make that happen.
“You know, I’m only going to help Marco. I wanted to surprise you, but I think we both need something to look forward to right now.”
“What’s that?” she asks, her eyes kind of dull. There’s no sparkle like there usually is. She is holding her stomach.Maybe she’s still in pain.That makes sense and I relax a little. I stand and put my hand over her two on her stomach. “When I get back, you and I are going to go on a trip. I want to take my woman somewhere warm and sunny. We both need a break.”
I don’t know what I expected. I sure didn’t think she’d just stand there not saying a word. I feel her flinch a little in my arms too, her hands tighten and press in more on her stomach. God, she’s hurting more than I realized.
“You’re still hurting today aren’t you, baby?”
“Yeah. I really am,” she says, sounding hopeless.
“Go take your shower, Kitten. Maybe it will help.”
“Maybe.”
Even I can tell she doesn’t believe it. She nods and turns away. My heart hurts. She just looks defeated. “We could shower together,” I suggest.
She doesn’t even turn around, she just shakes her head no. “Go eat. I’ll save you some hot water.”
“Okay.” I wait for her to say something back. She doesn’t, she continues walking into the bathroom. The closing of the door feels like it’s suffocating me. I need to get to Greece and get home. Clearly my woman needs me by her side.
angelina
. . .
I hear someone at the door and sigh. That’s probably Zane. I enjoy spending time with him, but I really don’t want to be bothered with anyone right now. I just don’t. Victor finally left, but spending time with him almost destroyed me. He kissed me when he left and I tried not to respond, but I couldn’t stop myself. I didn’t cry when he left, but I’m sure he saw the unshed tears in my eyes. I don’t know how he could have kept from it—unless he just doesn’t care.
At this point, that’s a clear possibility. I don’t know how he can act so loving with me when he arranged to make a date with another woman the night before. I might have thought it meant nothing to him. I could have written it off completely if he hadn’t lied about going to Phoenix. There’s a chance I’m wrong. I’ll have to confess to Emilia and ask her to let me know if whatever Victor has been doing in Greece is done. Then, I’ll know. She has loyalties with Victor, I know. Still, she would tell me. I know she would.
I open the door, still deep in thought, expecting to see Zane’s goofy but cute smile. Maybe he can cheer me up. When I look up to see Samuil Garin, my stepbrother, the smile dies on my lips. I haven’t seen him since I was fifteen. Sam is older than meby about twelve years. That would make him in his mid-thirties now.
My mother left my father about six years after I was born. She told him that she wasn’t happy, and he let her go. He did stay in touch with me, but he worked all the time, meaning we spoke or met sporadically. My dad was cold around me. However, he did make sure I was taken care of. I’m pretty sure if he knew how my mother treated me, he would have put a stop to it. I also think that’s why he took her back, even though she had been living with Sam’s father since we left.
Sam’s father was a Russian named Abram Garin. I can’t say I liked him at all. Then again, he didn’t allow me to find anything to like about him. My mother liked his money. My father might have been cold, but Abram was cold and cruel. He didn’t bother me. I wasn’t worth his time—that made me mostly invisible in the Garin home. I’d seen his cruelty when it came to Sam and the house staff, though. I may have only been six—almost seven—when we moved in, but that was more than old enough to see the evil that lived inside of the man. I was glad when my mother left to return to my father. She only did it because Maxwell pulled strings to get him promoted so he made more money.My mother is nothing if not predictable.
“Hey, runt,” Sam cracks while giving me a lopsided smile. I don’t think, I just run into his arms. He wraps them around me and pulls me up. “That’s my girl,” he says close to my ear making me smile.
When he puts me down, I’m smiling sincerely, so happy that I can barely stand it. I’ve missed his presence in my life. That was just one more thing my mother took from me. Sure, Sam tried to keep contact, but between my mother and his father, it became impossible. He came in for my fifteenth birthday, but both my parents banded together to make him leave. I don’t know whatthey said to him, but it had to be bad, because Sam never tried to see me again.
Sure, we exchange emails from time to time, but that’s it. Sam is easygoing and completely different from his father—at least when he’s not around the man. He takes after his mother. He has muddy brown hair, brown eyes and this cleft in his chin that looks super sexy on him. He did take his height after his father. He’s like six-three and broad-shouldered like a linebacker. Girls used to throw themselves at him. Heck, I might have too, but to me he’s always been my brother.
