Page 33 of Midnight Wedding

The old wounds don’t hurt.

I have no doubts plaguing me.

Even if I know I’m about to ruin everything.

Tigran doesn’t answer his phone. It’s a little past one in the morning and I’m sure he’s with a woman. My younger brother’s a man of big appetites, though I think he uses them to mask what he really wants. I knock on his door and ring the bell over and over until he finally appears wearing only a pair of boxer briefs, holding a shotgun, and looking pissed.

“What are you doing here?” he says.

“Send the whore home. We need to talk.”

“Who says I’ve got a hooker in there?”

“You always do. Send her home.”

He glares at me but curses and storms inside. I head into his kitchen and make myself a whiskey as a pretty little redhead waltzes her way through the living room. She winks when she catches me looking at her and I raise my glass in a salute.

“I liked her,” Tigran grumbles. He takes my glass from me and throws it back once the girl’s gone.

“We have bigger problems than your dick.”

“Speak for yourself. My dick’s plenty big.”

“And has plenty of fucking problems too, considering how many different places it’s been.”

He laughs as I pour myself another drink. “What’s going on?”

“I fucked up.” The whiskey feels good as it warms my throat and belly. “And I’m going to fuck up even worse.”

He stares at me. Tigran’s confident smile fades. “I don’t like that. What happened?”

I tell him about Lena. About meeting her for the first time and sleeping together. Usually, he’d make some joke but it must be pretty obvious where this is going. “She took two pregnancy tests earlier tonight.”

“Ah, fuck,” he says and leans back against the counter. He shakes his head and sips his drink. “I guess you’re too good for condoms?”

“Obviously, I wasn’t thinking.”

“Couldn’t have asked about birth control? Maybe just pulled out and finished in her mouth or on her tits or something?”

“Tigran. This isn’t a joke?”

“I’m aware,” he says, glaring at me. “You know how many girls I’ve knocked up? My pull-out game is immaculate.”

“I don’t want to hear about my brother’s pull-out game.”

“Then you shouldn’t have knocked up some random girl. Who the hell is she, anyway?”

“Just a girl.” I grimace slightly and look away. “Actually, you met her the night we killed Saro.”

“I don’t think I met any—” Then it clicks for him and his jaw drops. “What the fuck?”

“I know. It’s bad.”

“Youfuckedher? You were supposed to kill her.”

“We slept together before she saw the hit. When I realized it was her?—”

“You were supposed to take care of her.” The hurt and betrayal stings a little bit, and I can’t even blame him. But this is going to get so much worse, and I have to steel myself.

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