Page 97 of The Pretty Psycho

"Aydin," he replied. "I've been the commanding officer for the guards stationed in this area, and I have to tell you." He tooka deep breath before stepping closer to us. "I don't trust you. But I trust you more than I trust your father, especially after these last couple of months."

"I appreciate your honesty," Adrian said. "But I can assure you that I'm nothing like my father, and I've been a soldier in his army," he grumbled. "I've been on the receiving end of his tantrums and mood swings, and I know what kind of a monster he is." Aydin's eyes widened, showing that he didn't know some facts about Adrian. "I may not be perfect," Adrian continued, "and this idiotic war might have been started for all the wrong reasons—because one man could not accept that his son didn't want to work for him anymore—but I want to change things." He stepped closer to Aydin, clasping his hand on his shoulder. "This is not just some silly urge of mine to have power. I don't crave power—I crave peace. I crave knowing that me and my own could live their lives without constantly having this fear coursing through our veins. I want us all to live in a world that no longer has monsters like my father. I may not be a perfect man, but I'm not the type of monster that harms children and takes away the mother as the punishment for his sons."

"I believe you," Aydin said. "I believe you're not him, and I can see you're trying to do better. You could've killed us all because we were definitely outnumbered. But you need to understand one thing." Aydin looked up at Adrian, letting us see the terror he went through right there in his eyes. "We are all born innocent, but none of us die innocent, and every single person carries a monstrosity within themselves, letting it out once it fully grows. So you understand why I need to know."

"Why you need to know what?" I asked this time, but Aydin kept his eyes on Adrian.

"What kind of monster are you then?" Aydin asked.

Adrian chuckled, squeezing his shoulder. "I'm the kind that has other monsters running for their lives. I'm the kind ofmonster they whisper about because they know I'll come." Adrian lowered his head, and if I wasn't standing this close to them, I wouldn't have heard it. "I'm the type of monster that kills other monsters for fun, Aydin, and my father is just the type of the monster that deserves to be killed. So are you going to show me where the old man is hiding or would I need to find him all on my own?"

32

ADRIAN

Life wasnothing more but a series of circumstances and opportunities that were granted to us, based on the place of our birth, our skin color, our heritage, our looks, and the depth of our pockets. For every man and woman who would ever say that money meant nothing, I would like to ask them to live one day without the money they had.

I bet they would change their tune just how I did.

I was privileged enough to live life with so much money that I had no idea what to do with it. I was a spoiled brat, an asshole who couldn't see further than his own nose—until it all got taken away from me. Until my father—although calling him a father was a stretch—decided to take it all away, forcing me into servitude. He made it seem like this was my punishment, but in reality, he raised me to be a little shit.

He raised me to be spoiled, to think that the world revolved around me. To think that every single man and woman out there existed solely to serve me and that nothing I did would ever be considered as bad, because how could it? I was Adrian Zylla, for crying out loud. I could do no wrong.

My father manipulated me just how he manipulated my brother, whose body now lay rotting on the grounds of St.Vasili's Academy, knowing that by giving us everything only to take it all away, he'd be able to control us. He also knew how much I craved my brother's attention. How much I wanted to be just like him, and when he took him away, he pushed me into a dark abyss of self-loathing and despair because I thought I had destroyed him.

I thought I was the only villain, the only monster in this story, until I went to St. Vasili's Academy. Until I realized what a fool I was. And maybe The Brotherhood started as my own version of a fuck-you to my father, but it evolved into so much more. I had no idea at the time that by creating it I would create the family I always wanted to have.

I had no idea that The Brotherhood would be the reason why I finally found the love I would die for. The woman I would kill for, and as we walked down the dark hallways toward the room where my father supposedly hid, following Aydin, I couldn't stop myself from looking at Vega from the corner of my eye.

Her eyes were narrowed at Aydin's back and I understood that look more than she knew. It was the same look she gave me when we first met, because she couldn't figure me out. She couldn't see if I was being truthful or not. Her lower lip was plumper than the top one and looking at her from this angle gave me an opportunity to see her in a different way.

Her dark hair was pulled up into a high ponytail, and even though she kept grumbling about the length of it, I loved the fact that her hair was reaching her waist now, making it so much easier for me to pull. My hands twitched at the mere thought, but now wasn't the time or place to get lost in her.

My eyes landed on the new tattoo she got just a couple of weeks ago, hidden behind her left ear, and I couldn't help myself this time. My arm lifted of its own volition, wrapping around her shoulders and pulling her closer to me. My lips landed on top of her head as I recalled the moment I saw the anagram she hadtattooed while I was too busy trying to wrangle all the soldiers that had come to the Academy.

A Gnar Veida. I remembered how her eyes sparkled once she finally revealed it.

"It's our names, silly," she chuckled, letting me explore and touch the area around the tattoo. "It's us together, but through an anagram."

We already told each other those three little words and I already knew that she was the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, but I was still filled with insecurities up until that point because I had no idea if she wanted the same. But that tattoo… That tattoo was better than if she had proposed to me.

This tattoo was the proof I needed.

Vega wrapped her arm around my waist, squeezing me lightly. "Are you okay?" she asked, looking up at me, while a million more questions raced through those eyes. "You don't have to do this, you know? We can turn around and leave. We can disappear."

I smiled down at her, loving how protective she was of me—not just over my physical well-being, but my mental health too. Sometimes it felt as if my heart would burst from the amount of love I kept inside, reserved only for her, especially on days like these where she stood by my side, letting me do what was needed, even though it killed her to see me putting myself in danger.

"I'm good, Bambi. I'm more than good, trust me." Her lashes fluttered before she nodded her head once, letting me lead us after Aydin.

The man didn't talk much, but from the brief I got, I knew he was more than capable of handling himself and the team, and even though he worked for my father until today, I somewhat hoped he would end up working with us instead. The belly of the underworld for the criminal enterprises was quiet for now,letting us play and fight between each other, but we all knew that they wouldn't stay silent for long.

We were the new generation threatening to take over what they once thought belonged to them, and the only reason the other ones hadn’t attacked yet was because they wanted us to kill each other. They wanted me to take out my father with the hope that he would somehow kill me as well.

The Zylla Empire held more territories and more companies that were the front for our real dealings than most of the other families. Arseniy, Jax and Dante all came from different families, and while Arseniy had managed to remove his father from the equation, Jax, and Dante still waited for their turn, hoping it would come soon. Ethan, on another hand, had a completely different type of problem, but the more I tried talking to him about it, the more he locked down, refusing to utter a single word about his family.

He came from a long line of paid mercenaries, assassins for hire, and the moment he was strong enough to hold a rifle, his father got him one. He might have had a better relationship with his father than the rest of us, but that meant nothing when the demons his family passed on to him kept him awake at night.

"What the fuck?" Aydin whisper-hissed, stopping immediately.

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