Page 86 of The Pretty Psycho

Knowing my father and his generals, they would've deployed everyone to take us down. Unless they really thought we would still be on the other side of the town.

It all felt too rushed, too unplanned, at least for what I was familiar with. Gerard Zylla always planned—always. Sometimes even too much, but none of our missions were this scarcely manned.

I expected more from them, unless?—

"Adrian," Raffaela mumbled, pointing at something not far from us.

We slowly rounded the building, walking toward the back end, where the cliff ended, where not so long ago I had Vega pinned to the wall, too angry with myself and this attraction I felt toward her. But I wished we were back at that place, instead of here, with her on her knees in front of me and my brother behind her, holding a gun to her head.

"Hello, Adrian." The motherfucker grinned, the blood on his face making him look even more sinister.

My blood turned to ice seeing her on the ground like this, at his feet.

"Dain," I bit out, coming closer to them.

"Na-uh." He chuckled. "Stay right where you are." He pressed the barrel of his gun harder against Vega's head, smiling like a lunatic the entire time.

"Let her go, Dain," I said, unable to look away from the scene in front of me.

Vega looked… She looked fucking pissed. Her eyes held the same anger I felt when I saw my brother with her here, but something else was there too, something I couldn't quite understand. She was pissed at more than just the fact that Dain held her at gunpoint.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," the fucker said, dragging his hand over her cheek. "You see." He looked down at her. "Vega was a very bad girl, and you know what bad girls get?" he asked, looking up at me. "They get punished."

I gritted out, "Let. Her. Go."

The longer we stood here, the more I realized I no longer saw the boy I grew up with. Yeah, we fought just like all brothers do. Yeah, we had our fucked-up situations, but the man in front of me was insane.

I could see it in his eyes, in the way his hands twitched, in the way he kept looking down at Vega and then up at me.

"She let you touch her," he said calmly, almost too calmly. "She's mine!" I could no longer listen to him. I could no longer create excuses for his shitty behavior, and without waiting, I lifted my rifle up, aiming it at him.

"Ah, Adrian." The lunatic laughed. "When will you learn? You think you can take me?"

"I know I can."

"Think again, little brother. Or did you forget that I was always two steps ahead of you in every single one of our games." He nodded at something, and before I could decipher the meaning, the sound of a gun cocking came from my back and my left side—right where Donato and Raffaela stood.

I could feel my blood pressure skyrocketing, my eyes widening as I turned around, looking at the two of them.

Alejandro stood there, stupefied, his rifle up in the air.

"Drop down the weapon, Ale," Raffaela said, aiming at him. "Now!" He looked at me, then at her, and before I could say anything, he aimed straight at Raffaela. But before he could even pull the trigger, she shot him, point-blank, in the middle of his forehead.

Alejandro dropped down on the ground, his eyes wide open, slowly getting covered with his own blood.

"Why?" I asked, looking at the two people who were supposed to be on our side. "Why would you do this?"

Raffaela shrugged, while Donato smirked. "He pays better," Donato said. "Besides, neither one of us liked Gabriela all that much."

"They're not the only ones," Vega murmured, and as I turned around I saw her looking at me. "This piece of shit," she pointed at the man lying on the ground now in a pool of his own blood. "He tried to kill me." It was the same man who started pulling her back.

"And you fought so magnificently," Dain croaked, now dragging his gun over her cheek. "Like a true angel of death, just how we taught you."

"You didn't teach me shit, you motherfucker. I swear, I would—" Dain slapped her, making her head turn to the side from the force of his hit.

"No!"

"Na-uh, Adrian." Raffaela stopped me when I tried moving toward them. "On the ground, pretty boy." She pressed the barrel of her gun between my shoulder blades, and when I didn't budge, she pushed me down, making me fall on my knees with a huff.

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