Page 54 of The Pretty Psycho

ADRIAN

My heart was finallyat ease, seeing Vega sitting at the table in the cabin eating the sandwich I'd made her once we got inside. Her cheeks were flushed, touched by the cold as we walked here from the building where Yolanda was staying. She finally wasn't as pale as yesterday and I was more than thankful for that small miracle.

She frowned at something as she ate the last piece of her sandwich, chewing slowly, when those eyes found mine, finally seeing me looking at her from the other end of the table.

"Is there something on my face?" she asked, brushing her fingers around her lips, trying to locate the possible crumbs.

"No," I muttered. "It's just good seeing you in this space." I wanted to tell her so much more, but she wasn't ready to hear how I almost destroyed it all when she went missing. I’d had hours to think about everything she'd told me, and while I knew now that some of it came from a place of fear, the rest was definitely true.

I didn't want to suffocate her, so we would start out slowly.

"Do you want more?" I asked when she just kept staring at me, her eyes narrowed as if she was trying to read me. But there were no secrets I wanted to keep anymore. There was nothing Iwanted to hide from her. All she had to do was ask and I'd be happy to tell her everything she wanted to know.

"No," she mumbled. "I think I'm good now." The air was filled with a sense of trepidation that wasn't here before, and I wanted it gone. I didn't want her sitting on the other side of the table, but right next to me. Unfortunately, for all my caveman tendencies, she needed her space. Especially since I was about to dish out all my dirty laundry.

"I was born in Spain," I blurted out before she could say anything else. "I don't remember much about my childhood, but I do remember warm summers and my brother as he chased me around the house we were living in. I'm not sure how big my father's empire was at that point, but as a kid I had a good time. Unfortunately, all good things have to come to an end sometimes and the moment we moved from Spain to London, I saw what my father truly was." A fucking monster, but that was beside the point. "He loved creating these little competitions for Dain and me, and it took me a long time to see that he was pitting us against each other. As years went by, those competitions turned more serious, and the more we got involved with the organization, the more my father smiled every time the two of us would be at each other's necks."

"I'm sorry, Adrian," she murmured. I hated talking about my brother, but she had to hear this.

"Dain wanted more than my father was willing to give him. He was power-hungry, obsessed with his position, and he used people around him as if they were disposable. I loved my brother, but he was definitely a real piece of shit." She chuckled, crossing her legs while I continued talking. "I don't really know when it all culminated, or if it was several different events that had my father finally kicking him to the curb, but one day Dain just left the house. He came back from time to time, attended family dinners, but he was no longer a part ofthe organization and Father most definitely did not want him around for longer than necessary. I should've known some shit was happening, because by that point I was already immersed into the organization. I was desperate to prove myself, to get that approval from my father." I chuckled sadly. "I betrayed my brother."

Her eyes widened.

"I found out Dain had been selling our secrets to the enemy, and I reported him to my father. Little did I know that my father wouldn't take it so lightly, even if he was his son. I don't know what he did, but Dain disappeared. To this day, I do not know if he's alive or not but?—"

"But you're blaming yourself for that," she said, seeing more than what I was saying.

"Yes," I added, tapping my fingers on the table. "But I became the perfect soldier, hoping that maybe one day my father would tell me what happened to my brother. He never failed to remind me it was thanks to me that they got the mole from the organization, constantly bringing back the fact that I reported my own brother." Seconds ticked by slowly as she stared at me, her face void of any emotions, when she suddenly stood up and rounded the table, coming to sit right next to me.

Her hand landed on top of mine, squeezing lightly, urging me, without words, to continue.

"Dain had his demons, but I don't know if those demons would've quieted down with age or not. And that's the problem—I have no idea if we would even be in this situation if he was still around."

"I'm sorry, Adrian," she murmured. "It must have been hard dealing with all that on your own."

"It was okay." I shrugged. "But somewhere between begging my father to tell me what happened to Dain and now, I've realized that he had to go. The things he did, the things he hadordered us to do… They were monstrous, Bambi. He was turning into the Devil in front of my eyes, and I could do nothing to stop him."

"But now you can."

"Yes." I smiled at her, placing my other hand on top of hers. "Now I definitely can. That's why The Brotherhood was created and why we have worked for the past couple of years to get as many people as possible to join our cause. We'd created a myth here at the Academy that it was a secret society, hiding in plain sight, while making sure that Andries and my father's goons would never find out. Unfortunately, they obviously still did, so here we are."

Her hair fell out of the makeshift bun she had made the moment we came into the cabin, making me want to touch her, bring her in, show her how much her being here meant to me.

"When you came to the Academy, I wanted to hate you." I laughed. "But I think deep down I knew it was already too late. You stole my heart back on that train and I should've known it would be impossible to get it back." Her eyes betrayed the emotions she was trying to hold back, and without even thinking, I lifted her off her chair and placed her on top of my lap. "I was so angry at you, at me, at the entire world for putting you here. When I saw you in that ring, I wanted to wring your pretty little neck because you were allowing yourself to get hurt, by taking Yolanda's place."

"I had to."

"I know you did. Just know that I hated it. I wanted you gone so I could go back into my dark little cave and hide from the rest of the world. You see, I've been dealing with insomnia for quite some time now, and having you there only pushed me deeper into the abyss my lack of sleep was creating for me. Then came the fact that none of your documents were real and weunderstood that you weren't the girl from some Russian family." She smiled at this, dragging her fingers through my hair.

"The Schatten didn't really try to cover their tracks. I mean, they obviously wanted me gone and they must have known that if one of you just dared to look deeper into those records, you would find the truth."

"We did." I nodded. "But I had no idea who you truly were up until later. Then those murders started happening and I recognized the way they were done as the style that a lot of The Schatten operatives use. With you here at the Academy and with all those little lies you were weaving, I placed my bets on you being part of The Schatten."

"Well, you weren't wrong."

"No, I wasn't. But you weren't the one killing all those girls. Regardless," I pressed her closer to me. "I went to see my father, which was when he gave me your file. I was shocked at first, but I should have known. You and Arseniy look so much alike, it's almost uncanny. My father was maybe banking on me following his orders and killing you as it was requested by him, but now I cannot help myself and think that he already knew about The Brotherhood at that point. Actually, I'm pretty sure he already knew, because there was no other reason for him to work with Heinrich other than to bring both of us down."

"But then we kinda fucked them over." She laughed. "Why didn't you tell me all of this?"

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