Page 12 of Promise to Break

I walk away, trying not to hear or see Raven helping her up.

I don't want Maricela up.

I want her kneeling, crawling, wanting, screaming, just for me.

Chapter six

Killian

"Mate, that was just–"

"Shut up, Liam. We have shit to do, and I don't have all day." His chuckle follows me to the soccer field.

I wanted to play football, but the two idiots I have for friends didn't get the difference between the two games and signed me up for soccer instead.

"Mate, it is football. We go after a ball and try to put it in between the goalkeeper's legs, just like you do when having sex. We work with our feet with an actual ball. American football should be called the fight of the brutes." The fucker sounded more English than ever when he said that, and The Mute agreed. Apparently, in Russia, football is the same as in England. So, soccer it is. I really don't mind much.

Taking part in sports together is just one more demand of our fathers. According to them, we need to bond to keep the peace between the families. I don't think they took into account the havoc people like us could cause.

The true power lies with me among the three of us, and it's not due to our family dynamics. No, it's because these two morons believe I'm the most sensible of us.

Liam is the clown, the crazy joker. If I didn't stop his antics, he'd end up killing all our men just because they didn't look at him nicely.

Kai is too cold and too aloof. He doesn't show his cards to anyone, not even to us two. There's a reason he's called The Mute. He likes to plan everything to the nth degree, and the problem with that is it takes him too much time to act.

I'm in between the two. I enjoy full control of my actions. Witnessing my victims' gradual downfall brings me great pleasure, and just when they believe they can start anew, I resurface from the shadows.

The reason I'm the one bonding with the next heirs of the alliance is that even if my brother is the heir to the capo role, he's too weak to be one. My father knows this. His men know it. The entire world knows it. My father wants me in there to protect the asshole I have for a brother.

Even now, for example, Santino is obsessed with his wife. All he thinks about and talks about is Serena. Serena here and Serena there. It's fucking frustrating.

My father demanded an heir from him, so he got his wife pregnant the second he could. Shit luck for him because she's having a girl. So, he'll have to keep trying until he gets a boy to keep the line of this fucked up family of ours going.

I know Santino. He isn't good in the sharing department, and he won't be a good father. But at least Serena looked happy the last time I saw her. Either way, I don't give a shit.

I know her sister speaks to Maricela every day. Additionally, I am aware that my brother also communicates with Maricela, and I am aware that she possesses a credit card from Santino that she declines to utilize. I also know that in her free time, Maricela goes to the orphanage she used to live in along with her two friends, my cousin Raven and the son of our cook, Julian, who everyone thinks is the next progeny of the NFL.

At first, I thought Maricela was going there to see her boyfriend, but no, she goes there to meet up with two elderly women she apparently loves.

Maricela isn't anything like her sister. Serena erased her past in the blink of an eye. She does like to be involved with charities along with my mother, but she doesn't look back at the past. Maricela, on the other hand, loves to go back to where she came from, and she always goes with food the school is about to throw away.

"Fierro, Karalov, Bourne. Took you long enough. On the field, now. We have a game tomorrow," Coach Manson orders in his no-nonsense tone of voice.

Coach Manson is a fifty-five-year-old man who played in the big leagues. He came to this school to find the best players in the country. Unfortunately for him, this place is all about money, and even though soccer players can make a lot of money, it's peanuts for people like us. I doubt he'll find the next best thing in this place, although maybe some of the children of the big players, like Mazzini's son, might make it. He's playing with us, but he isn't good enough for the pros, really. Everyone can see it, even the coach.

"Killian was very benevolent today, coach," Liam says as an explanation for our tardiness. The man looks at me as if some doppelgänger replaced me. He knows I'm anything but benevolent. And I know he'll eventually hear about what took place in the cafeteria. I also know he'll do absolutely nothing about it because the school staff here doesn't fucking care.

No one does.

"I don't need to know," Coach says. "You three have obligations to uphold. And you, Fierro, you finished your law studies, and you should focus on your sports as well. It's important to your name. Go stretch."

I did finish my law studies. My father was lucky enough to have a highly gifted and intelligent son. An unfeeling bastard with too many working neurons in his brain.

My mother proclaims I'm her best son, but that's only because I protect her from his bullshit. From what I know about love, it can't come without conditions. Raven loves me because of what I did for her. My mother loves me because I protect her from my father's brand of violence as much as I can. My friends like me because we have a mutual goal. And Maddox. I shake my head, refusing to think about him.

"He has business classes to attend," Liam speaks for me as he stretches on the grass. Liam is the talkative one between us three. I speak when needed, not unlike Kai, who even I barely hear say a word.

"I don't really care," Coach replies. "Your parents want me to make pros out of you, even though you'll never become one for real. So move your butts and play. The team has been waiting for you three."

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