Page 42 of The Pretty Psycho

Adrian cleared his throat. "My father never mentioned a brother," he said, while his thumb slowly ran over my arm. "I knew we hated The Schatten, but then again, he hated most of the people in our world, so I never really questioned it. We never went after The Schatten, at least not directly, but there was always an animosity I couldn't quite understand."

"It was the same with Heinrich," I said. "He hated the Zylla Empire with a passion, but I never understood why. Granted, Gerard was definitely one of the strongest men in the underground but there was something else there, something that made him obsess over the Zylla Empire."

"And now we know what," Jax said. "So, how do we stop them?"

Silence descended on all of us as soon as those words tumbled past his lips, because we all knew there was only one way this could end.

In death.

Either theirs or ours, but we weren't backing down. We weren't going to roll onto our backs and just show them our bellies, to spare us, to use us again.

I didn't know much about Jax's and Dante's families, but I doubted that they didn't know what was happening, especially not now. Jax's dad was pretty much in Gerard's pocket and Dante's family wasn't exactly innocent in this entire thing. Yes, they were isolated in a way, but that didn't mean they weren't involved.

"My father is currently planning," Adrian said. "He's going to bring in his best soldiers, because he knows this won't go away as easily as he might have hoped for. This initial attack at the Academy was just a tactic to try and scare me into obedience,thinking I would go back home if I saw the magnitude of what he could do."

"And will you," Dante asked, "go home?"

"No." Adrian shifted us, making me sit sideways on top of him, so that he could look at the guys easier. "We're in this together, and if one of us falls, all of us will fall as well. You're my brothers. You're my best friends, and I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't both furious and terrified of what's to come. I thought we would have more time to plan, to recruit, to train, but it is what it is. I would understand if you want to back out and leave. I won't hold it against you."

Jax looked at Dante, who then looked at Dimitri and Arseniy.

"Go home?" Jax scoffed. "I don't know if you remember that night when we made a pact, but I do. I will never forget it. We're in this together. Sticks and stones, my brother." He grinned. "Sticks and motherfucking stones."

"Or," Dante added. "As you like to say." He stood up from his chair, leaning over the table. "No gods, no masters."

"No gods, no masters," whispered Arseniy, looking straight at Adrian.

"No gods, no masters, brother," added Jax, making me finally look at Adrian. His eyes shone with an emotion I couldn't place.

I slowly stood up, almost smiling at the little frown forming between his eyebrows for having to let me go. I leaned toward him as soon as I stood up, brushing my lips over his cheek. "No gods," I whispered, feeling the shudder going through his body. "No fucking masters."

He stood up fast, almost knocking me back, before wrapping his arms around me, pulling my back to his front.

"No gods," he thundered, pressing his chin to my shoulder. "No motherfucking masters."

Jax was grinning, Dante was shaking his head, and Arseniy and Dimitri kept sitting, chuckling quietly. "I guess we're ready," Jax said. "I just hope you're ready to deal with the entire Brotherhood."

"Why?" Adrian asked.

"Well, the first helicopter just landed and they're on their way."

A nervous kind of energy washed over the room, and I couldn't wait to meet all those men and women who were a part of The Brotherhood.

I couldn't wait to get revenge for all those that came before us and for all those scars The Schatten and the Zylla Empire created.

I wrapped my arm around Adrian's neck, loving the feeling of his lips on my throat. "I hope you know that the master part is only applicable for those outside of this room, baby," he murmured, his voice gravelly, making me close my eyes. "Because you own me, Bambi. You own every single inch of me. Don't you forget it."

"I won't."

"Good." He pressed one last kiss to my neck before moving back. My eyes flew open only to realize that the others weren't in the room anymore. "We gotta go." His long fingers wrapped around my hand, slowly pulling me toward the door. "Let's welcome our soldiers.”

I hadno idea what it was I expected to see when we came down the stairs and exited the main building of the Academy, but a dozen or so men and women hugging each other and laughing was not it.

Maybe it was my own upbringing and the fact that Heinrich liked us quiet. Be seen, but not heard, was one of the favorite sayings of our handlers back in the day, and it was obvious that Heinrich didn’t really care about us and our emotions.

He wanted soldiers. Killers, and if we even tried behaving like kids, they would put us in our place, where every single one of those childlike dreams would die.

But these men and women… They weren’t terrified of Adrian. They weren’t standing in neat, little rows, waiting for their master to come. They weren’t trembling from fear because they had no idea what new fuckery their organization would come up with next. No, they actually wanted to be here. They wanted to help.

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