Page 62 of The Pretty Psycho

"A lot of bad decisions," Yolanda murmured, closing her eyes.

"Enough!" I thundered, feeling Vega's eyes on me. "We're in the middle of a war, people. Fucking. War!" I blasted, hating that we even had to have this conversation. "You are here because you're fucking good at your jobs, but if you're going to behave like kids, then you know where the door is."

Vin, who kept himself at the back of the room, leaning against the wall, nodded, as equally pissed off as I was. I was wrapped around Vega, sleeping properly for the first time in days, when my phone rang in the middle of the night. It didn'ttake me long to realize something was terribly wrong when I saw Dante's name on the screen, along with the clock showing three in the morning.

They had no idea where their drivers were, and they had no fucking idea where Jax and Yolanda went. Well, at first he couldn't find Jax, but it didn't take him long to realize that Yolanda wasn't with them either.

I had to wake Vin to go with me and get them because there was no way that these idiots would've been able to find their own transportation to the Academy at that time of the night. Most of the taxi drivers steered clear from this place, especially with all the stories covering the Academy.

"We're sorry," Yolanda murmured, finally looking at Vega and then at me. "It won't happen again."

"You better pray it doesn't," Vega thundered this time, possibly more pissed off than I was. She was worried about them, especially Yolanda, and I didn't miss the way she pulled her into the corner when they just came in, hissing at her while Yolanda hid her eyes from my girl.

"The training starts today," I said, ignoring their moans and pleas to move it to tomorrow. "No! You fucking knew that we were supposed to start today. You knew that the rest of the teams were coming in today and you still decided to go out and get this drunk." I turned toward Gabriela who kept that wicked little smile on her face because she knew what was about to come. "Gabs." She glared the moment that nickname slipped through my lips, but I didn't care. "You're taking over the training for the first round today." Groans erupted over the group sitting in the room, one in particular louder than the others, but Dante's feelings regarding her were the least of my concerns. We had people that weren't at the level we needed them to be to fight my father's operatives. And I wanted them to survive this. I had no doubt that my father would attackany moment now. "I'm going out to meet the rest of the teams arriving. I got a message twenty minutes ago that they were on the way here."

"Sounds good," she chirped, jumping up from her chair. Everyone glared at her until she turned around, focusing on each and every one of them individually. "Did you not hear what the man just said?" she asked, her back to me. "Or do I need to take out my guns to get you to stand the fuck up!" Her voice thundered around us, echoing, and for those in the room that had no idea why they called her Black Widow, they finally saw.

Gabriela might look like a girly girl. She might dress in the latest fashion and she might seem harmless, but there was nothing harmless in that five-foot-six body hiding a wolf behind those eyes.

"Come on!" she bellowed as she walked toward the door. "You have five seconds to follow me, or you'll be running laps around the Academy until you faint." Those that knew her well understood that she wasn't joking. They jumped up and practically ran after her, suddenly waking up enough to follow her orders.

There was a reason why not a single man in her family dared to stand against her. There was a reason her army was able to take down one of the biggest families in Italy, all thanks to her. She hid her viciousness well, but make no mistake—Gabriela Barone was one of the deadliest women on planet Earth, and I was thankful she chose to join us instead of working against us.

The room emptied out shortly, leaving only Yolanda behind, who kept sitting on the chair, looking at me.

"What are you waiting for, Yolanda?" I asked. "A formal invitation?"

"N-No… I?—"

"Get to fucking training, soldier!" I yelled out. "That's an order." This time she didn't look at Vega, as if she could saveher from Gabriela. This time she jumped up and ran out, leaving only Vega, Vin, and me inside the room.

"Now that we got that sorted," Vin started, moving away from the wall. "Let's get this fucking day started. I didn't sleep anywhere near enough last night."

"You and me both," I grumbled, wrapping my arm around Vega as we walked outside, heading toward the front of the building where the rest of the teams should be arriving.

A nervous energy filled the air as we walked down the hallways, turning left and down the stairs toward the main entrance. My fingers wrapped around Vega's hand, making her look up at me.

She looked worried, that little frown on her face a constant fixture since we woke up this morning, but when I asked her what was wrong, she simply said nothing, giving me no definitive answer. She wasn't hiding anything from me, that much I was certain of, but she was worried. Fuck, all of us were worried, some more than others.

There was a certain type of insanity woven into what we were doing, gathering all these different teams from around the world and making them work together. But The Brotherhood existed so that we could help each other. It was a tool all of us could use when needed, when this type of situation surfaced, and I'd be a fool not to use it now, when I needed it the most.

But knowing I could use it didn't make it easier on any of us. If anything, it only made it harder because all these lives were in my hands now. This was my mess, but all of them came to help, not out of the goodness of their hearts, but because we all knew we could all live better if we took out the head of the snake.

And the head was my father.

"Which teams are arriving now?" Vega asked as we passed through the door and out into the cold. She started shivering, wrapping one arm around herself, and without a secondthought, I pulled her into my embrace, enveloping my arms around her and warming her up. She wasn't wearing her jacket, something that made me glower more than necessary when I saw her inside that room where we had gathered everyone, but we didn't have time for her to go back to the cabin and get it. We were working on a tight timeline, running all over the place.

The guards were at the gates.

"There's a French team, some Canadians, Russians, and South Africans that are arriving now."

"That's a lot of people."

"It definitely is." More like fifty-six people in total, but we needed every single person. The Zylla Empire had thousands in their pocket, some on the payroll, others as mercenaries, but I had no doubt that my father would send his entire force at us, while he hid behind his tall walls, letting others do his dirty deeds.

"So that puts us at, what?" she asked, looking up at me. "More than two hundred people with them?"

"More," I murmured, pressing my lips to her cheek. "More will be coming over the next couple of days, and Ethan will be here soon."

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