Page 69 of The Pretty Savage

"Look," I relented. "I get it, you don't trust me."

"We don't," Adrian confirmed, making me bristle. Well, I guess he didn't have to trust me to put his dick inside of me, but whatever.

"Yeah, I figured as much." I glared back. "But you know I'm the best there is at this academy. You saw what I can do, what I'm capable of."

"The question, Bambi," Adrian started approaching me, "isn't whether or not you're capable of being a part of The Brotherhood." The tips of his boots touched mine, his hand softly brushing against my own. "We all saw what you could do and how capable you are. The question is, why you would want to join something that would take you away from your father, from your home country? You are going to go back to Russia after this, yes?" There was something in the way he looked down at me, something that told me he knew more than he was letting on, but it wasn't going to derail me. If he truly knew who I was and why I was here, I would've been dead by now. "Why enter a war when you could go back to your peaceful little life?"

Peace?

He thought my life was peaceful?

I wanted to laugh at him and cry at the same time. "Don't talk to me about peace when all I have ever known is war," I bit out. "And if joining another war equals my freedom, I would gladly take it, no questions asked. But don't stand there and think you know me, because you don't."

"We've read your file," he continued, completely unaware of the eruption in my veins. "What more is there to know?"

Everything, I wanted to yell.

Not one single thing that was written there was correct, apart from the fact that my mother was no longer alive. But I had to play the long game and if I lost my cool now, I knew I would never be able to get into their inner circle.

"I guess you'll never know," I said instead, taking a step back from him. His scent was intoxicating, his presence heady, making my head spin, and instead of wanting to punch him as I should've, I shivered, wanting something softer, something that would make me feel safe. "I see this was a waste of all our time." I nodded to myself, looking down at the thin layer of snow on the ground. "I'm sorry about your face." I looked over Adrian's shoulder, directly at Dante. "I'll see you around.

"Now wait a minute!" Dante yelled out at the same time as Adrian said, "I didn't know you would give up that easily, Bambi."

I spun around in a second, walking toward him with determination in my steps. My hands fisted the collar of his shirt, feeling his freezing skin underneath my fingertips. "I'm not giving up, asshole." He grinned at that. "I just know when I'm not wanted, and one thing I've learned over the last couple of years is to never beg people to keep me in their lives or to let me participate in something."

"Are you sure about that?" he whispered, leaning down until his lips hovered above mine. "That you're not wanted, I mean?"

"I don't know," I murmured. "You tell me."

Our eyes clashed, our breathing becoming erratic, and I almost forgot about the audience we had, until Dante said, "Guys." Clearing his throat, he continued, "As much as I don't mind watching certain things, I think we still need to talk. And, Adrian, stop being an asshole. She's right," he added. "We need her, and I've made it more than clear that I want her to be a part of it."

Adrian's eyes darkened as Dante spoke, his arm wrapping around my waist, keeping me flush with him, as if he was holding himself back from blasting at his friend.

"You're right," he called out loud enough for Dante to hear, slowly stepping away from me. "But I think we need to continue this conversation in my cabin."

"Your cabin?" I frowned.

"Oh, didn't you know?" Jax laughed. "Adrian is your regular, run-of-the-mill lumberjack."

"Shut up." Adrian laughed, his face taking a completely different look as he bickered with his friend. "But we should get going. I'm freezing."

"You should've thought about that before running out of the building without your jacket," Jax admonished, earning a scowl from Adrian. "I'm just saying."

"Thanks, Sherlock," Adrian grumbled. "I have no idea where I would be without your wisdom."

"Dead?" I asked, inserting myself into the conversation, and suddenly all three of them quieted down, looking at me. "What?"

"You're something else, aren't you?" It was Adrian this time that asked this.

"You have no idea," I added in a small voice, deciding to look anywhere but at him. This was like playing with fire and if I wasn't careful, I would get burned.

25

ADRIAN

I was in awe.

If this was what infatuation felt like, then I never wanted to go back to the way I was. However, that didn't mean I trusted a single word that came out of Vega's pretty little mouth, or that I didn't have a nagging feeling in my gut telling me I shouldn't let her go.

---