Page 48 of Vulnerate

“Stay the fuck away from me,” I hiss.

Sam’s face falls, pretending to be hurt or affected by my tone. He should go talk with Val, both of them preferred another member of my family over me.

Sam doesn’t move from in front of the elevator, so I run away from my problems and take the stairs. I’m not a psycho and call the elevator on the second floor rather than run up all eighteen flights. They can both compare notes and I wish I had anything of Val’s to burn and purge my emotions. There’s no one waiting for me when I reach my floor and my traitorous heart sinks. I need to get a spray bottle and every time I react to Val, even subconsciously, I’m going to spray myself in the face to recondition my brain.

As though we’re connected and he felt it, the door to the stairwell opens as Valentin emerges. He hasn’t even broken a sweat running up the stairs, athletic prick. He fits himself at my back while I unlock my door. Goosebumps pepper my skin when his words touch my neck. “Who is he?”

I want to hurt him, make him feel how I do and have the same questions haunting his nights, so I say, “My husband.”

Pushing inside with my confident lie, he freezes at the threshold. I hope it hurts, the pain in my gut while I searched every memory trying to work out when he and Carly became a thing. The age difference makes it worse, but Vlad would have killed her if it was that sinister. They were never around each other enough for it to be significant but that doesn’t stop me feeling like shit.A sick part of me is happy knowing that she isn’t in his life, if I had to stand there watching them be a happy family I would die inside.

Smiling with feigned sweetness, I grip the edge of the door and slam it in his face. The satisfying sound of the wood hitting each other doesn’t come as the dickhead wraps his fingers around the edge and comes to life.

“You’re married?”

I freeze in place at the menacing tone, and he steps forward. I can’t think of anything to do that won’t get me caught as he keeps walking forward despite the small space between us. There’s nowhere for me to run with his huge ass blocking the exit. I should have made up a better lie, there are too many holes in Sam being my husband. Like why are none of his things here? Or the fact I ran away from him.

Val remains on my heels as I escape him and go to the kitchen. His anger thickens the air.

“You got married to some little fucking cunt?!”

Enraging him further, I look over my shoulder as I fill a glass of water. “Big dick actually.”

It’s not technically a lie. Sam is a huge dickhead. I must have a type.

My head is tugged back as he wraps my hair around his fist and the glass slips from my hand shattering in the sink. His other hand comes to my throat as he issues a warning in my ear.

“Talk or even think about someone else’s dick and see what I do, Dani mine.”

A laugh leaves me, and I have to arch my back to look up at him as he straightens to his full height.

“What are you going to do? I don’t have another sister for you to fuck.”

His entire body tenses and he lets go of me. He’s a coward and turns to walk out of my life slamming the door behind him.

EIGHTEEN

Valentin

I’m going to kill Vlad, his need to shove the deranged fucking stray that calls herself Ana on me is a punishment that’s too big for any of my crimes.

“She’s pretty,” Ana says, “think they’re fucking?”

Dani isn’t pretty, and she wouldn’t touch Dima, but my brain forms the image because of the nutcase beside me.Pretty is what people call sunsets, Dani is the fucking sun – magnificent and required for life.

I didn’t have the foresight for Tali’s insistence that she should be here. The little liar said she was married when there’s no record of it, I wasted hours of my time searching for something that isn’t true and my anger hasn’t dulled despite the calm I felt finding no evidence. She doesn’t belong here though, around criminals and violence.

But fuck me Dani is epitome of perfection. Physically. The dress, heels, and whatever shit she’s done to her hair brings out every little thing that caught my innocent eleven year old eyes. Now it’s morphed, grown up with me and turned infatuation to lust. I can’t take my eyes off her, the fight in the background is all the crowd are focused on. But my eyesonly care about one thing, she’s a stubborn fuck deep down under that pure heart she pulls everyone in with. Exactly like the sun, Daniela Carvalho lulled me in with her warmth and I ignored the fact it burnt.

Tali’s fight comes to an end and the first fucking thing he does is grab my Dani. They’re not friends, what they have is weird as fuck and labelling it a friendship is too innocent a title. You don’t sleep in the same bed as a “friend” for years. When we were kids I’d written it off, listened to Vlad’s bullshit about not questioning if they were fucking. As a grown ass man, I can’t. She’s mine, we both agreed and my forearm tingles with the reminder.I’ll go crazy if she sleeps in his bed now, not when I haven’t had my fill of her yet.

Dani’s hold on me was stronger than mine on her. The necklace could be removed like she left my life but the tattoo she gave me was on my skin permanently within twenty-four hours of it washing away. Like the woman who designed it, there’s no way for me to remove it without inflicting more pain.

My blood roars in my ears when he picks her up. She doesn’t even protest and wraps her legs around him kissing his cheek. There are too many people around for me to beat the shit out of him. This is the closest I’ve came to wanting to inflict pain on my own brother. All the guilt over the forced fights of our childhood that usually stop me from getting pissed at Tali disappears, Ana and Dima’s arguing doesn’t even reach my ears because he is still fucking holding her.

It turns red when his hand skims her ass to pull her dress down. I’ve felt it in my own hands, it’s perfect. He gently places her back on her feet and my anger doesn’t leave. Her bullshit adamance over nothing happening between them is clear for everyone to see, the entire fucking crowd just watched on as the wrong brother staked his claim. Dani was always meant to be mine, but he’s just given her our protection by letting everyone see she belongs to him. Vitali is a dumb fuck if he thinks that’s going to save her from me. If he wants her he can wait his turn until I’ve used her up and she’s begging for me.

He doesn’t let her go as he walks towards me at the mouth of the hallway leading to the changing rooms. Whatever he sees on my face has him turning alert. Tali is a dumb fuck, a little puppy that gets overexcited about everything, and gets whatever he wants, but he’s a dangerous bastard and he looks for the threat thinking it’s external. Coming backto me with a silent question, I shake my head, so he knows there’s no trouble. The tension in his shoulders doesn’t leave and as soon as there’s no other crowd in front of him he lets his wince show.

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