Page 94 of Surrender (Angels Halo MC Next Gen)

He breathed in deeply, and he reluctantly turned his head to face me once again. “Their plan was to always destroy Anya. Make her sweat. Slowly pick away at her psyche. The key was you. And then I found out about Cristiano’s illness. She was starting to break a little more every day. When I shot you—”

I bared my teeth at him. He would pay for that, I promised myself. No matter what else happened, I would make him regret shooting me.

“—she lost her mind. It was beautiful the way she drained that bastard of blood. I used to visit Cristiano all the time. It was easy to make him think that Ryan was an impostor. He wanted to believe that Christian survived. He needed to believe it.”

Remembering how Papa had cried on his knees, begging for me—for Mom—to forgive him for not being there when their son died, I believed Vaughn. I was surprised to realize I believed him about everything. My gut told me he was speaking the truth.

“But I didn’t rile him up about Kovak. That was…them.”

My hands balled into fists. “Then who did?”

“You don’t know them,” he brushed off. “And they won’t matter when I’m through.”

“No,” I snapped. “You want me to trust anything you say, you will tell me who, Vaughn.”

How he glared at me reminded me so much of Ryan I nearly laughed. “Fine, I’ll give you the condensed version. They were at the academy with Anya when they were girls. Polina and Daria. The three of them were…friends.”

Ugh. The academy. I couldn’t keep from making a face. That fucking place had warped my mom. Given her skills no one would ever suspect the small, beautiful woman capable of. And she had then passed those skills on to me. To Nova. And, I suspected, to Wren.

It would end there, however. I wouldn’t risk having children of my own—especially a daughter—becoming part of that toxic cycle. Because I knew in my gut that if I did have a daughter, I would be tempted to teach her all of those same things. I wouldn’t be able to stop myself because I knew the dangers and the evils of the world.

“Or pretended to be friends,” Vaughn went on. “Polina was always a little in love with Anya, and Daria hated her for it, because she was in love with Polina. She was, and still is, insane with jealousy. Polina took a bullet to the spine when she was in Bolivia with Anya not long after they were first out of the academy. She will never walk again. Daria took care of her afterward. And then she twisted the story, manipulated the narrative to make Polina think that it was Anya’s fault. It wasn’t, but I didn’t know that until recently.”

“So, what?” I predicted. “Polina and Daria found out about Mom’s pregnancy and put all of this in motion?”

He shrugged. “Yes. They raised me to hate Anya as much as they do. Twisted me until all I could see was the end goal of making Anya suffer.”

“But what does any of that have to do with why you kidnapped me from the hospital?” I griped.

“They know I’ve defected from their plan,” he explained solemnly. “Now, they’re coming for everyone I care about. Abi. You. Cristiano. I have to get the three of you somewhere safe.”

CHAPTERFORTY-EIGHT

samara

A laugh burstout of me.

My newfound brother cared about me.

It was probably more than I would ever get out of Ryan. He only ever told Nova and their kids he loved them. Sometimes Mom. Ciana had been bestowed a few. On a couple rare occasions, I’d gotten one, but it always seemed forced. I understood, though. His biological mother had fucked with his head. He was only a real person when Nova was around.

Vaughn didn’t seem reluctant about admitting he cared, though. I’d known him all of twenty minutes. He’d shot me. Drugged me. Kidnapped me. Cuffed me to a fucking airplane seat.

But hecaredabout me.

Enough that he felt the need to protect me, Papa, and, above all else, Abi. Really, as long as she was safe and Papa was out of danger, then nothing else mattered.

But couldn’t he have done this shit when I didn’t have the headache from hell and I didn’t see two of everything every other time I blinked?

“She’s laughing,” Abi whispered beside Vaughn. “That’s a good sign, right?”

He kissed the top of her head. “I would call it a win, wildfire.”

The side-eye he gave me, however, said he didn’t believe that for a moment.

“What’s the plan?” I asked, sticking to Russian as I switched off everything inside me so I could focus on what needed to be done.

“We pick up Cristiano, and I get the three of you somewhere safe. You’ll stay there for a few days until I take care of Polina and Daria. It shouldn’t be more than a week, two tops.”

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