Page 41 of Vicious Savage

I know they’re nothing like my father. And yet… they’re killers. Just like my father. They are morally gray at best, with dubious intentions. They are part of this life that takes men and turns them into beasts.

“You didn’t stand a chance with him, Luna,” Attila tells me. “Your father had already pre-determined your destiny.”

* * *

I curlup on the sofa and lift a blanket to my chest. I’m fully dressed but I may as well be naked for all the chaos going on in my head. Everyone in this house knows more about me than I know about myself. That’s all I can keep thinking as the tears continue to come, well after I’m exhausted and I think I have nothing left to give.

I wonder what they think of me. What they think of me being Coyin’s daughter. His daughter for all intents and purposes. I lived under his roof from birth, and well into adulthood. He’s the only father I’ve ever known, even if he was a tyrant.

“I need to ask you something,” Attila says, coming to sit beside me. He lifts my legs and places them in his lap, soothing me with a hand on my feet. Telling me in that one touch, without words, that he’s here and everything’s going to be okay. He pulls the blanket to cover my feet and I look up at him, waiting. He could ask me anything and I would give him the world. The same way he gave me back my life. My freedom. He saved me from death and destruction, and I don’t know that there’d ever be any way that I could repay him.

“So ask,” I prompt him.

“Your brothers,” he starts, and almost involuntarily, I suck in a harsh breath. The mention of my brothers does painful things to my heart. “Did you see them when you were with your father? Do you know where they are?”

I shake my head. It’s unlike my brothers to not come and see me or ask about me. I know that I left them without a word and never looked back, but they’re nothing like my father. I can’t imagine that alone would be enough to keep them away from me.

“He shut me down every time I mentioned them. I never saw them. Why do you ask?”

“No one’s seen them in months. Is this usual practicein your family? I know it took us years to track down your father because he stayed under the radar. But what about your brothers?”

“My brothers were very outspoken about my father’s…” I pause, press my eyes together painfully, then backtrack. “Hispractice. They didn’t always see eye to eye.”

“So they’ve broken from your father?”

“I wouldn’t say that. They were still very much loyal to him. But I’ve been away for three years. I don’t know what’s happened in that time.”

“Do you have any idea where they might be?”

“No idea. But I know someone who might.”

42

ATTILA

Luna won’t eat. She curls up into a little ball on the sofa until she falls into a fitful sleep and I’m thankful for the pills the doctor left behind. She cried until her voice was hoarse, with no respite in sight no matter what I said to her.

Her idea that Maria might know where her brothers are proves fruitless. No one has seen nor heard from the Castillo boys in months. As if they fell off the face of the earth.

“Will she be okay?” Gabriel asks, coming to stand beside me in the doorway. She’s been asleep for hours, her soft breaths filling the room as darkness descended upon it. I glance up at him; his concern is endearing, and I’m glad she has him. Even if she doesn’t know yet who he is.

“She’ll be fine. She managed to stay alive this long in this life; I’m sure she’ll continue to do so.”

“I think I want to tell her.”

I slide my eyes toward him. They’re so different, yet there’s something about the eyes that makes their connection undeniable. I understand where he’s coming from, but I don’t agree that overwhelming her with too much in so little time is what’s best for her.

“Can you put it off a little longer?” I ask him. “She’s not in the best mental state at the moment. You can see that.”

His eyes find Luna in the darkened room, resting there momentarily before he nods, agreeing to wait until the time is right, before he turns and walks away. I don’t know how we’re going to tell her that Gabriel is her half brother, fathered by her biological father. The moment he’d found out that Coyin Castillo was his father’s killer, he had planted himself in the Castillo camp, waiting for his chance to take vengeance for his father’s murder. It was purely by chance that we found such an ally amongst Castillo’s staff, and as with Maria, Gabriel’s help had proved invaluable to us.

Luna looks so peaceful curled up on the sofa, I’m almost too afraid to approach her, so I stand watch over her, listening as her steady breaths hitch then rest as she exhales softly.

I’ll be the first to put my hand up and say I didn’t think this one through. I’ve let a woman get to me. And I may have freed her of her father’s control over her, but in doing so, I don’t know how many more enemies I have added to my list. The fact that we can’t find the Castillo boys is cause for concern; they could show up at the most inopportune time and lay claim to their sister, picking up where their father left off.

“Attila.”

Dante’s voice rasps behind me and I turn, follow his eyes to the patio door then join him outside. Caleph is waiting for us in one of the chairs around the table that serves as an outdoor dining area.

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