“I need you to come with me.” Oh the horror, she clamps her mouth shut, the flare in her amber gaze burning like fire on my words. “And, I’m not fucking kidding.”
She thrashes against my hold. I’m impressed by the strength she shows to shove me from her. It takes a minute but still I feel the pain of her palm hitting my flesh.
“Fuck you! Only when I start to move on, you show up.”
Before I can ask what the fuck she means someone greats us with their footsteps and I doubt whoever it is, they will give me a warm welcome. I go for her hands again but she steps back shaking her head. Defiance. She has learned the beauty of it very well.
“Barbie,” I warn her, already inching closer to the hidden gate I walked through. She shakes her head again, hollowing her cheeks to scream.
“Carter, over here!”
“You’re making a mistake.” She is. I know she is. But her eyes don’t show it. Instead, she’s so damn smug of her actions that I can't help wonder if I recognize her at all.
The Raine I knew was too damn naive for her own good.
I could play her like a doll and she’d let me.
But now? Now a man in blue eyes makes her sigh in relief where I have nothing I can promise her other than an escape she doesn’t want. Mierda! That rage swallows me up whole until I can't see her anymore. I can win it all back, my men, my Kingdom.
Every fucking thing.
But winning her back may be the only thing that’s hard above all...
CHAPTER 8
RAINE
FOR ONE CRUEL MOMENT, I forgot what it was like to be with him.
To look at him in the eyes and still breathe without choking in the thoughts of the past. To be fair, I should have given him a chance to speak. Maybe even leave with him to end this pain soon. But where was that trust? How could I be sure that I wasn’t just trading myself to another monster?
“Where are you going again?” Nick asks rising from the bed. After the security breach, Carter’s been called for more work while my brother got the babysitting duty. I’d say it was fun watching him uncomfortable around me all the time but even I have a limit when it comes to suffering his closeness.
“To a friend’s house.” I don’t pause, don’t give him any chance to find any deception in my words. “I met her in one of the Charity Galas I attended last time. Surprisingly, we hit it off right away.”
He holds my gaze with such intensity that I have a hard time breathing. “A friend? You want me to believe that?”
He is smart enough to suspect my inability to bond with anyone other than my broken mind and the nightmares I can’t escape from. In the end, I just have to fake it a little better. My face warms and there’s a pout forming behind my lips as if I’m surprised by his statement.
“Nick! That’s rude! I did have friends before and it’s Carolina...she understands me. After what happened here with all the uh-future husbands of mine, she is a good distraction.”
“Carolina?” If he looked wary before now he hisses, raking a hand through his hair in anger. “As in the bitch that always follows me like a creep?”
I have to bite my lips to stop the words I really wanted to say. Instead, my lips part to show him a sly smile. “She’s not that bad once you get to know her. Besides, she’s the only one I can go to talk.”
“God, Raine, I’m here! Can’t you talk to me?” If years ago he’d tell me that, I’d dance in happiness. But now it brings nothing but pain.
“It’s girly stuff, you won’t understand.”
“I won’t understand?” He grunts, shaking his head. I want to sigh in relief but the clench of his jaw tells me what I need to know. He’s still wary of my intentions, still can follow me if I don’t change his mind.
“I took permission from Papa.” I ramble on with a frown. “And, Carter will drop me off. It’s fine, Nick, I’ll be safe.”
His rigid body relaxes immediately. Papa, the only person to ever earn his trust. Would that ever change? The answer is clear when he flops down on the bed like he wasn’t just grilling me a minute ago.
I don’t know how long I stare at my little brother with a somber look before someone knocks on my door. I look at the watch glowing eight pm just in time to hear Nick’s voice call out to whoever is outside the door.
“Come in!”
Blue eyes stare back at me as I stand up from the bed, ready to leave. However, Nick has other ideas involving a really heated threatening round with Carter before we are allowed to leave. The moment I’m in the car, air rushes into my lung. God, I can breathe.
“Fuck! Has your brother always been this asshole?” Carter grins from the driver’s seat. I know he’s trying to appear calm but he’s on edge too. He’s just slightly better at hiding it than me.
I shrug. “Might be nerves. He is too hard on himself that even a single obstacle sets him off. On top of that, Papa puts too much pressure on him.”
“Might be that.” He nods, accepting my conclusion. “Still doesn’t explain why he’s being a dick to me. I saved that punk’s ass too many times to not demand respect.”
I choke down a laugh. “He’s angry that you took over his job. He was the one supposed to make a deal with the cartel.”
“Huh.” He can’t contain his laughter. “I applaud you for putting up with him. Enough of that brat, your friend is ready, right?”
“Yes.”
Carolina is someone I’m only using while it lasts. I want to feel guilty then again she doesn’t let me by the way she looks at me. As if I could conquer the world if only I took half the time of my life to become like her. Beautiful, seductive, and bratty, someone who doesn’t have to do much to look the part. She can act like my friend too, a little too much to be fake. But only when I’m not hanging around with the rich bachelors from the Bratva.
“We’re here.”
I jump from the car, letting my eyes savor the house again. I’ve only been here two times after Vick was dead. Papa held a Charity gala to Vick’s name and there she was, bored out of her mind so she picked me to share her condolences. Or maybe she knew that I was now eligible to marry any bachelor so for her, I was just a competitor. That flew out of the window when I told her about Carter.
A man I was in love with.
It didn’t take her long to pick me up as a charity case.
Today she’s on the porch waiting for me. Her long blonde hair is tightly coiled up in a braid and the closer I get to her, I start to notice the wrinkle on her nose. Shit, we are late.
“I was beginning to think you wouldn’t come. Come on, hurry!”
If I am afraid of my Papa, she’s terrified of her mama. Though unlike me, she can’t hold her tongue against that woman. I’ve met her once and I can say it without question, I have no reason to face her ever again.
“I’m so sorry.” I fumble with the bracelet, yanking it hard until it comes off. “Here, take this.”
She grabs the object, eying it like it’s a time ticking bomb. But just like me, she knows what it does and maybe that’s why she throws it in her purse before walking us through her house to a blind spot. According to her, it’s one place where there’s no CCTV for anyone to see us leave. I am just about to take another step when a hand wraps around my wrist, stopping me from going.