Page 153 of Sins of the Orchid
Regret tasted bitter.
I watched her walk away from me with her head held high. She didn’t wear a crown, but she might as well have. The princess grew into a queen. Her words were clear; she would have given it all up for us to remain together.
Just the thought of giving her up killed pieces of me on the inside. But I refused to give her up. The heiress had become a permanent resident in my heart.
* * *
“What the fuck, Adriano?” I slammed my brother’s body against the wall, rattling the bookshelves. He was still staying at Pà’s place, so it was easy to swing by there. We were living close enough.
The fucker asked me to meet him at the house. I just came back from a visit to an underground drug club led by the Anderson Venezuelans. After Ulrich was killed, oddly enough, nobody disbursed. It was like he was still alive, guiding them. Or there was another goddamn Anderson brother that I had to find.
I had blood stains on my clothes when I arrived there and needed a shower. Imagine my surprise when Amore showed up in the middle of it all.
“What’s your problem, brother?” Adriano smirked. “I thought you’d be thanking me.”
I narrowed my eyes on him in annoyance. It has been too easy to annoy me lately. “You are my problem.”
“Can you be more specific?” he drawled, grating on my nerves. “Does the idea of me fucking Amore bother you? Or the fact she will be my wife? Or that she would suck my dick?”
“What?” My voice was dangerously low. The anger burned my throat, right down to my chest, and marred my vision with a red haze. My blood iced over, trying to overcome the boiling rage. It wouldn’t bode well for me to kill my own brother.
“I think she’ll like getting on her knees for me,” Adriano deadpanned. “She’s always been so eager to please and—”
My fist connected with his mouth before he could finish the sentence. I hauled Adriano up by his collar and punched him with my other hand, straight on his nose. His eyes watered from the impact and blood instantly trickled down from his nose. I didn’t stop. I landed another blow to his gut, then another to the jaw. The fire washed over me, all the tension of the last two months from denying myself what I wanted most of all in the world catching up.
A film of red tainted my vision, and my knuckles were bruised from the force of my blows, burning with each punch when his words penetrated through the red mist.
“She loves you,” Adriano said, spitting blood onto the floor.
He grinned, blood on his face and his teeth. He wasn’t fighting back, and my fist paused midair. Maybe my brother had lost his damn mind. Would that warrant cancellation of the marriage contract?
Jesus!It was unreal how much that single thought consumed my mind. I wanted that woman with emerald eyes and red hair. Just her. It was driving me wild. Maybe I’d be the one to finally lose my damn mind.
“She lovesyou, Santi,” he repeated.
Those words pierced a hole through my chest. “She told you?”
“She didn’t need to. I’ve known her long enough to see it written all over her face. It was the reason I asked you both to be there. Thought you two could work it out. Apparently not, so you need my help.”
I thought about his words. Neither Amore nor I mentioned the words. Didn’t she tell me only a few hours earlier it was just sex?
I sat down on the ground next to my brother, both of us breathing hard. All this had become a clusterfuck.
“Do you love her, Adriano?” I didn’t want to know the answer, but there had to be a small shred of decency still left in me to care about my brother and his feelings. Those two had been joined at the hip since she entered our lives. I owed him that much.
Though I still planned on blackmailing, kidnapping, and marrying her before she had a chance to marry my brother. Her father could make all the fucking plans he wanted, but she would be mine. I’d give him war if he wanted it. Fuck, I’d give him all my territory if it would appease him. But she would be my wife.
“I do love her.” Adriano’s answer shook something inside me. “But I’m thinking it is not as intense as this shit you have going on.” Fuck, was it that obvious? “And more importantly, Amore has made it clear she only loves me as a friend.”
Peace settled between us, and for the first time in a while, it felt like my brother and I finally saw eye to eye.
“Do you have a plan?” Adriano asked. I turned my face to him, then nodded. Pà would have pulled both of our ears if he saw the state of us right now. The Russo Don fighting his younger brother over a girl. He’d either kick us in the ribs or get a kick out of this situation. Bet he was laughing from up there or down there… wherever he was.
“Good,” he muttered. “Because I have some information that could help you.”
CHAPTER57
Amore
