Page 33 of Stone

I knock on the door and wait for him to call me in. “Enter.” His deep voice doesn’t send a chill down my spine like his father’s does, but it puts me on high alert because I know the severity of this meeting.

Stepping inside, I find Azrael staring out of the window, his back to me. Czar leans against the wall opposite the door.

Odd.

This is odd.

Why aren’t they seated? They’re always seated.

“Sit,” Azrael says, but doesn’t turn to face me, and my throat becomes dry because I want to tell him no. But of course, I won’t defy him. I’ve done that before and have the scars to prove it.

As soon as my ass hits the chair, Czar moves to lock the door, pocketing the key, and he leans against it with his head bowed,unable to give me eye contact. My heart thrums with awareness as my eyes flick between them.

“While you were away, there’s been some adjustments.” I nod even though I’ve no idea what I’m nodding at. I guess I’ve become accustomed to being obedient to their demands. Azrael clears his throat. “Sienna was married while you were gone.” His words strike me in the chest like a force of brutality so powerful it steals the energy from every cell in my body. He finally spins to face me. “Did you hear me? I said she’s married!” he grits out, and I stare back at him, unable to understand why he’s so angry when he helped orchestrate her marriage.

I drop my head into my hands as I replay his words.“While you were away, there’s been some adjustments.”

He helped orchestrate it all.

Slowly, everything falls into place.

My fight.

My absence.

Her marriage while I was gone. It was all planned, premeditated.

A betrayal.

They’ve given her to another man. Another man has touched what’s mine.

They took her from me.

The only thing I ever loved.

They took her from me.

A surge of fury unleashes inside me, and I fly up from my chair so quick he doesn’t see it coming. “Bastards!” I roar as I throw myself over his desk to get to him, but Czar launches on my back.

“Easy. Take it fucking easy,” Czar hisses in my ear while wringing his arms around my neck. He’s no feat for me, and he knows it. I shrug him off, sending him and the computercrashing to the floor, and when I rise to strike again, hate riles inside me at their betrayal.

They took her from me.

My own brothers took the only thing I ever had from me.

The cold metal of a gun hits my temple, then the safety clicks.

“Enough.” Azrael’s voice is smooth and cold. He’s in control and, as usual, I have none, not an ounce.

I’m a puppet on a string for them to control and create scenes they dictate. An emptiness wells inside me, a deep yearning for the girl and the future they stole from me. For the first time since the day I broke our father’s tooth, a tear slips from my eye, and Azrael face falls briefly as it trickles down my cheek.

“Do it,” I plead, meaning every damn word. Life without her isn’t worth living, and knowing she’s someone else’s is the worst torture I could ever endure.

Someone else gets to hold her.

Someone else gets a future with her.

A life.

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