Page 96 of The Pretty Psycho

"I know." The fucker grinned. "But I think it's time for them to get their heads out of their asses." Yeah, as if that was so easy.

"Drop your weapons!" someone shouted, and it took me a second to realize that we were now standing inside the circle, surrounded by The Brotherhood soldiers, facing off with the remaining guards. In the midst of seeing Dante, I completely missed them coming out and protecting us from the crowd that gathered.

The guards surrounding us were faltering, that much was obvious, but they didn't want to go against their orders, and if Gerard was here, they knew it was better dying than being seen as someone who had betrayed their great leader.

Adrian hugged me to him, pressing his lips to the crown of my head, before stepping away, slowly heading toward the line of our soldiers. He pushed through them, stepping outside of the circle, while my heart thundered inside my chest. He was unprotected like that and if one of those guards decided to kill him on the spot, there would be nothing we could do.

But I couldn't stop him because this was the plan all along.

Adrian didn't want these people to die. He didn't want them to suffer unnecessarily, and he knew his father's power was weakening. Gerard Zylla was losing a grasp on reality and with that, he was losing his grip on his soldiers. The Zylla Empire was crumbling, and Gerard was the one that doomed them.

Their corporations still stood, still worked, but it was only a matter of time before they crumbled as well, and that was one thing Adrian wanted to avoid.

The Brotherhood was created as a means to an end. As an option to take down the monster who'd been torturing him his entire life. A monster who managed to push his mother to anearly grave, who made him believe he was only as good as a soldier and nothing more.

But Adrian still wanted to save the companies his mother had started. After Jax came out of the hospital, Adrian finally shared why he did all of this.

It wasn't about power, although he didn't mind having it. It was about legacy—his mother's legacy—and the fact that his father was destroying everything she left for him and his brother. Everyone, including me, thought that Gerard Zylla created this massive empire all on his own, but the reality was completely different from the concocted story he had made.

The reality was that the family of Adrian's mother had these companies for decades, and once Gerard decided to pursue her, he took her last name as well, completely separating himself from The Schatten.

"I know why you might want to kill me," Adrian's voice boomed around us as he addressed the guards. "I also know there are those of you who would want to kill me even without an actual order. But I'm not here to fight you. I'm not here to take more lives over something that does not concern you. Not really."

"Then why are you here?" one of the guards asked, holding his rifle and aiming it at Adrian. I was trying to calm my racing heart, but I couldn't. I could only stand here, feeling the bite of my nails against my palms as I waited for either one of the outcomes—they would either listen to him and lead us straight to Gerard, or we would have another bloodbath.

"I'm here because I want to get to my father. I'm here because," he took a step forward, "this fight was always supposed to be held just between the two of us, without getting the rest of you involved. I'm here to tell you that I'm not my father, but I do intend to take everything he has from him. The Zylla Empire will be mine, whether you like it or not, and youcan either stand with me or die." He smiled, as if he was talking about weekly grocery shopping and not life-or-death matters. "So, what's it going to be?" he asked as his eyes flickered over the guards surrounding us. "Will you stand with me, or will you keep protecting the man who would do nothing to protect your lives, even if he had an opportunity to do so?"

The silence that greeted us was not what we expected, but as the guards looked at each other and started slowly lowering their weapons, I realized that the situation here was graver than what we initially thought it was. I started walking toward Adrian who was still standing in front of our circle, when one of the guards came closer to him, talking in hushed tones.

I had no idea what was being said, but a minute later, all of them dropped their rifles to the ground, and one by one, they moved toward the wall of the building, holding their arms in the air in the universal surrender sign.

My body flooded with relief so profound that I didn't even realize I was running until I was halfway through our protective circle, pushing to get to Adrian. They let me through and as he turned around, catching me halfway and hugging me to him, I almost missed the "What the fuck are you doing here?" said in an extremely angry tone, coming directly from Gabriela.

The Brotherhood soldiers slowly dispersed, picking up the rifles from the ground, while Alana, one of our commanders, started ushering the guards that had surrendered toward the trucks. Gabriela stood next to her bike, clutching her helmet to her stomach with both hands, and unless you looked too closely, she didn't seem all too pissed off, but her emotions this time were as clear as day if you knew what to look for.

If you knew that her hands never trembled, or if you knew that her eyes never watered like that, because Gabriela had no known allergies or reasons why she would start sniffing all of a sudden.

"I'm here because?—"

"Actually." She chuckled darkly, cutting off whatever Dante was about to say and started shaking her head. "I actually don't want to know why you're here. As long as you stay far away from me, we're gonna be perfect."

"Gaby," he stepped forward, "please. I know I?—"

"Na-uh," Gabriela stopped him. "It's too late for your words, Dante. Just too fucking late."

I hated the tremble in her voice, or the fact that she simply put on her helmet and jumped on her bike without looking at any of us. I hated that she didn't stay back and ran away, but I knew she needed it.

Dante stood in the same spot he was in just seconds before she had left, looking down at the ground as if that could give him the answers he needed. I wanted to help them, but I understood that they needed to work on their issues at their own pace and I shouldn't interfere.

"Leave it be, Bambi," Adrian murmured. "We talked about this."

"I know," I said. "I just hate seeing them like this. I hate seeing our friends in pain, you know that."

"I know, but there's nothing we can do except offer ourselves once they're ready to talk about it. Besides…" He looked at the guard standing in front of us. "We have other things to worry about right now."

I wanted things to go easily, but I didn't expect them to go this easy. I didn't expect the guards to surrender like this, but I was glad they did. The last thing any of us wanted was one more bloodshed.

"What's your name, soldier?" Adrian asked as the man in front of us removed his balaclava, letting us see his face.

---