Page 71 of The Pretty Psycho

"Vega!" Yolanda called after me as I sprinted down the hallway and toward the armory. "Where the fuck are you going?"

"I'm going into town," I said, taking the tactical uniform off its hanger before removing my shirt and pants. "Are you coming?"

"Uh," she stammered. "I don't know if I'll be any good for this."

"For what?" I asked, putting on the uniform. "The combat?"

"Yeah?" She was eyeing all the different weapons, knives, and uniforms laying around. "I don't want to slow you down."

"You're not going to slow me down," I said, taking the car keys from the top drawer in the massive desk taking up the midsection of the room and tossing them to her. "But I need you to drive." Yolanda caught the keys, the look on her face almost comical as I took several knives and strapped them to my thighs and into my boots, along with a few guns.

If Adrian went all by himself into town, without waiting for the rest of the guys, then he was walking straight into the trap set by his father and I had a feeling he wasn't thinking clearly. Not right now.

"Vega, what are you going to do when we get there?"

"I'll tell him the truth," I said, as we rushed through the hallways and toward the garage.

"Which is?"

"That I love him." I grinned. I should've told him sooner. I should've told him how scared I was, but I wasn't brave enough before now.

Knowing he could be walking into a trap, though, that sent real fear rocking through my body, and I didn't want to lose him. I couldn't fucking lose him.

23

ADRIAN

My father tookit too far this time.

All was fair in love and war, was the sentence he constantly repeated to Dain and me, laughing every single time because for that bastard all resources were justifiable as long as he got to win in the end.

The moment Dimitri and I walked inside the office where Jax, Dante, and Arseniy waited, there was a bloody box on top of the table. I just knew—he had kidnapped someone from the team. What I didn't know was that he didn't just take one person, he took an entire team.

The Dragomirovs were a family that readily accepted our invite when The Brotherhood was just being created, and to see the head of the youngest member of their family with his open, terrified eyes staring at me from the inside of that box was a scene I’d never wanted to see. Igor Dragomirov was barely eighteen, but already so eager to join the ranks and fight for the new world order, and to see his head… No, my father took it too fucking far.

Where was the honor? Where were the fucking rules?

We never attacked children. We never attacked those that couldn't defend themselves from us, and as I drove down theroad toward town, where I knew his goons would be waiting for me, I only had one thought on my mind—revenge.

The note he specifically left for me explained that he had the entire family in his clutches, keeping them in an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town, right next to the old train station that wasn't used anymore.

And he wanted me alone.

I knew better than anyone in that room what that meant, and I didn't want anyone else to pay for my mess.

I was hoping my father would be there as well. This was far too big for him to keep sitting at home, drinking his fucking brandy while his men did his dirty work.

But no matter how much I hoped he would be there, a part of me already knew he was still the coward I knew him to be, and he wouldn't be coming until the dust settled down, protecting his ass while people died for him.

Jax, Dante, Arseniy, and Dimitri were too busy discussing the head of a dead kid to notice me slipping away from the office. I was pretty sure they were already after me, but I just hoped that by the time I arrived at that warehouse it would be too late for them to stop me.

I stepped on the gas as I got on the main road, winding through the town and leading toward my target. The car rumbled underneath me as I pushed it to its max. One thing I loved about this place was the fact that the police were rarely on patrol. It was a small town, with a low crime rate, so there was no real need for them to be hovering around.

What would usually take me more than half an hour took only twenty minutes, and before I knew it I was driving down the old road, leading toward the abandoned warehouses. I slowed down, pulling the gun I threw on the passenger seat onto my lap, and observed the area.

Gloomy clouds hovered over Wolfhöle, the dark skies of early December taunting us with its color, announcing the winter season with every passing day. This abandoned area was once a successful industrial zone, housing several different companies and holding thousands of jobs. Now it was just a remnant of what this town used to be, before the capitalism fucked it over and the inflation destroyed all the companies that had their centers here.

Most of the people from the town were forced to relocate somewhere else in order to find a job and I had a feeling that in a couple of years this would be a ghost town, housing only a couple of families, while in the past it was one of the most sought-after places for people to raise their kids.

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