AllFreeNovel
Share Us
In two beats, I was at my cousin’s door and trying the handle. Locked. With a determined growl, I pushed against it with my shoulder. I soon realized I was wasting time with my injured body. Not wanting to call out because I feared he couldn’t respond, I rushed to the kitchen. Finding a fire extinguisher under the sink, I returned to the door. It only took three strikes with the end of it to break the doorknob off. A chunk of ice had formed in my gut. It taunted me that I was too late once again. Fingers fumbling with the inner workings of the latch, I finally got the door opened.
Mercifully, the angel of death hadn’t visited a second time. Adrian was leaning against the tub, half undressed. The knife glistened on the ledge, but he’d not yet entered the steaming water. A half empty bottle of vodka was gripped loosely between his fingers.
“It’s too hot,” he murmured, looking plaintively at my face.
“Adrian,” I whispered, sinking down beside him and pulling the bottle from his grip. I reached to set it on the vanity top.Shit. Shit!He was drunk. He’d almost slit his wrists. I was a fool to wallow in my own misery and not ensure he was stable.Too close; this was too close!I grabbed him tight, pulling him hard against my chest. My lungs didn’t quite work properly. I knew he was unstable, but clearly, he was also breaking.
“Iryna was mine to protect. I failed her,” he whispered. “I’m such a coward, cuz. I couldn’t do it.”
The words sliced through me like a thousand cuts. It was a fitting punishment for letting Iryna fall into danger. Adrian was wrong—she was mine to protect.My response was curt. “No. It was my fault that she was taken. I thought I could simplify my responsibilities by pawning my sister off so I could focus on winning my wife to our side. That hubris cost Iryna her life.”
“I still want the devil’s daughter dead.”
“I—” The sentence died in a croak.
“You should have done it. Ended this all.”
But then what would I have left?I shook my head, clearing the ice the ghostly thought left. “I need to know the truth, Adrian. My resolve won’t change until I get my answer, but that doesn’t mean I won’t punish her brother or father.”
“We don’t know where the bastards are—we haven’t for years! What makes you think we’ll find them now?”
“We have nothing more to lose, cuz.” I scrubbed my hands over my face. “Let’s get you to bed.”
“No, I’m going to sit up for a while,” Adrian declared, brushing past me.
I tried to ignore the fact that he’d swiped the half empty bottle of vodka off the bathroom vanity. Trailing after him, I watched as he stumbled into the living room and sank into the chic modern sofa. Only when I felt I had a second to turn my back did I drain the tub, grab a pair of sweatpants, and return the knife to the kitchen. There would be no sleeping. I needed to watch over the one person I had left. Tomorrow, we could begin the process of getting him the help he needed. I couldn’t not let him help with revenge for our Iryna, but I hated to admit he wasn’t going to be much help. In this broken mental state, he might even be a liability and put himself in danger.I won’t let anything happen to him.I couldn’t bear that.
Out of nowhere, Adrian blurted out, “Whoever said it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all was a fucking moron.”
With that drunken rationalization, he uncorked the vodka and pounded a long pull. I winced as the poison worked its way down his throat.
“I disagree,” I said, sliding into the armchair across from him. “I’m a better man for having known Iryna.”
“Even though she would never look at me like a partner or a spouse, she was my world, Constantine.” With a sudden rush of sloppy violence, Adrian slammed the glass bottle down on the coffee table. “That’s why you can’t kill her. Talia’s wormed her way into your heart, hasn’t she? Hasn’t she?!”
“No!” I snapped. “That’s not why; you’re not listening to me. I won’t end her without just cause.”
“Your assassin’s code is a front for your feelings. You might not want to admit them. Hell! You might not even know them yourself, but I can see it, Con.” Adrian waggled his finger at me.
From the way he swayed in his chair, it was clear his rational faculties were muddled. He might think he saw things clearly, but his mind was broken with grief and saturated with drink. My feelings for Talia were purely a means to an end.But...I wanted to save her.
My fists tightened. But I didn’t need to get angry. That wayward thought had no ground to stand on. Separating her from her family and offering her a different life didn’t imply it was anything other than altruism on my end. It didn’t mean Talia meant anything meaningful to me either, and certainly not on the level Adrian was suggesting. If my cousin wasn’t sloshed, I would have pointed out he was making one of the most basic logical fallacies; that kind of shit they taught kids in classical middle school.
Instead, I broke the silence by calling him out. “Make up your mind, cousin. First you counsel me to not strike her down in Webber’s office, and then you rage that I don’t kill her. What would you have me do?”
“I wanted to escape,” Adrian rasped, dropping his face into his hands.
Ah...shit. I don’t blame you.I let out a long breath. He wasn’t capable of an actual discussion, even more proof that I wouldn’t be able to rely on him with my plans for revenge. “I’ll get to the bottom of this, cuz.”
All my cousin could do was nod. We didn’t speak another word, and he didn’t touch the bottle again during our long vigil.
The predawn hours found us still sitting in the living room of his penthouse suite. Adrian had spent most of the night staring at the remainder of the vodka bottle where it sat on the coffee table. There would be time for proper mourning once the enemies of our house had paid for their sins, because at any minute, dawn would crack open the sky and force me to act. However, for a few more blissful moments, I could remain numb. I could stare at the changing color of the horizon and let the pain of Iryna’s loss wash over me.
When the first streaks of pink and orange chased back the navy and deep purple skyline, I stirred from my perch. The first order of business was easy: get dressed. The second was to eat solid food for breakfast, and so on. That was how I would tackle the next few days—one small, accomplishable task after another, until the routine of living and the process of hunting my ghost-like enemy would consume me. While thinking and acting on vengeance, I wouldn’t have time to think about the tragedy of my life.
“What now?” Adrian asked, voice hollow.
“We burn the Beaumont family to the ground.”
