Page 44 of Embracing the Dark Side

‘I don’t want your drug money.’

‘I’m sure a kindergarten teacher living in the city could use some help.’

‘How the heck do you know that?’

‘I know more than you wish. Where are your contacts? Glasses aren’t the best for your small nose.’

From the beginning, Jolie’s distaste for his lifestyle was too strong. She didn’t want to be a part of his life. She had turned him down when he invited her to live at the house. So maybe she hadn’t been an informant from the start. Maybe she turned into one afterward.

Did that make it better?

Not at all.

But it would mean his instincts weren’t entirely screwed by her.

Adrik took out his phone and held it in a clenched fist. Did he want to hear her excuses? Alexei seemed to think she was owed. Maybe she was. But after learning of how he felt about betrayal, she should have said something.

Maybe she was afraid of me.

Adrik flipped open his phone and dialed her number. He had memorized it weeks ago. He called it every day since he got the phone, but it’s never gone through. And though he tried again, he had no hope anyone would answer. After it once more went to voicemail, he texted,‘Were you working with the FBI?’

Out of all the things he wanted to say to her, none of it mattered if she had betrayed him. Weeks without hearing her voice, without knowing if she was okay, trapped in the house with the man who killed his father—the negative thoughts were filtering in like poison. Why wasn’t she answering the phone?

He dropped it and covered his eyes. Adrik lay there and panted heavily through his nose. The rage was sometimes so intense, his body felt like it was racing. His heart pounded, and his blood boiled.

To calm the panic, Adrik turned his attention to the physical. He pictured Jolie naked. The image that he wanted to save as a mural. She lay on the bed, her wet hair draped behind her, her legs spread out, exposing her beautiful pussy while she recovered from him eating her out. The taste of her lingered on his tongue, yearning for more. She was perfection. Everything in her was there with him. She couldn’t act that. He’d been with women before that performed, and fucking was their job. There was always a wall, armor around their emotions so they wouldn’t get sucked in. Fucking could be misconstrued for caring, but all those women knew better.

Jolie had no walls in place. She exposed everything she was and held nothing back. There was no lie there.

I saw what I wanted to see.

It was a bad night of sleep, and he was in a terrible mood the following morning. Alexei yammered on about the different cliques in the jail cell. Ever since Bony took them in his care, Alexei didn’t have to fight anymore, but the anger was still there. He picked fights for no reason. And if anyone even looked at Adrik the wrong way, Alexei ensured they didn’t do it again.

“Can you calm down?”Adrik bit in Russian.“You’re gonna get yourself killed, and then what? I’ll have to burn this fucking place to the ground.”Alexei was trying to make up for being in love with his girlfriend. The rift between them was wide, but silent. It was a stress he didn’t need added to an already screwed-up situation.

Alexei sat down, glaring at the guys who were glancing in their direction. He cursed under his breath, and then admitted, “It’s the fucking coke, man. I can’t stop.”

The confession was terrifying to hear. All their lives, they were around drugs, and their father constantlyhounded them, keeping control of their intake so it never became a habit. Addiction was something that they saw destroy too many lives.

Adrik watched him, noticing his little twitches now. “Fuck, Alexei.” Adrik rubbed his eyes. “You’re gonna stop, you hear me?”

“I want to stop, but what the fuck else am I gonna do?” Alexei rubbed his face, jittering, never still. “You don’t know this, but—um…” Alexei licked his lips, constantly thirsty. “But last time I was hooked—”

“Last time?”

Alexei held up his hand. “Gil took me on a cruise.”

Adrik knew about that cruise. He was pissed they went without him. “You were hooked on fucking coke four years ago, and you never told me?”

Alexei shrugged. “Five days of fucking women, and I was good. You see any women around here?”

Alexei didn’t screw women for fun. To learn he did something so unlike him to kick the habit bothered Adrik. How could he help his brother now?

“How long?”

“Just a week.”

Since their argument. At least Adrik knew it affected Alexei just as much as it affected him to be at odds with each other.

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