Page 89 of The Pretty Savage

He came shortly after Vega left, witnessing my rage and the destruction of my cabin that followed. The only place that remained untouched was the bed where both of us slept, only because I couldn't bring myself to destroy it, to erase her scent from my pillows.

But everything else—shattered, destroyed, much how I was feeling.

I fought against Dante as he tried to calm me down. I wept like a little baby, explaining what had happened, and like the good man he was, he listened without any judgment, not once telling me what a fuckup I was, and we both knew I screwed this up in more ways than one.

First, I should have called Arseniy the moment I figured out who Vega was. I should've told him we had found his sister and to get his ass to the Academy.

Second, I should've told Dante and Jax what was going on, what my father wanted me to do, but I was so caught up in her and the need to protect her and guard her from the rest of the world, I forgot I wasn't alone in this game.

Third, I should've spoken to her and told her everything. Then we wouldn't have gotten into this situation and my heart wouldn't feel like rotten fruit, slowly decaying in my chest. But after three rounds of tequila shots from a bottle Dante retrieved from one of the unharmed cupboards made me think clearer, and I knew I couldn't keep hiding here, giving Vega space until I ran toward her.

It took everything in me to stay in the cabin and give her that space. It took everything to let her leave when all I wanted was to wrap her in my arms and never let her go. She needed time and I needed to figure out a way to get her to trust me again.

"Adrian?"

"Fuck off, Dante," I grumbled. "I'll call him."

"I know you will, but you might want to do it before next year. I mean?—"

"Dante," I growled. "I'm too tired to deal with you right now."

"And I'm too tired to see you looking like a pathetic sack of shit," he spat back, obviously not in the mood to deal with my mood. "Either you call him or I will, and we both know he won't like me telling him that you fucked his little sister, bullied her, and made her think we had some secret agenda to kill her." He had a point, but I was too tired to deal with a silent disapproval from Arseniy.

Jesus, he was going to kill me for the way I treated her. Granted, I had no idea who she was at the very beginning, but that didn't mean I had to behave like a motherfucker toward her. On the other hand, he was going to kill me for keeping this a secret for over a week, when he had spent the better part of his life trying to find her.

My fingers wrapped around my phone, illuminating the screen again, only to see that it was already eleven at night. Arseniy would be awake, that much I was sure of. He was in the States at the moment, dealing with some shit, but I knew he would drop it all in a heartbeat to be here.

Especially once I told him that Vega might run, which would definitely earn me a punch in the face.

Dante opened his mouth, probably about to reprimand me again, but I didn't want to hear it anymore. I unlocked the screen and found Arseniy's number, pressing on it before putting the phone in front of my face. It just started ringing, when his sharp, familiar face became visible on the screen, along with Dimitri, a man that followed him wherever he went.

Arseniy’s eyebrow lifted in a simple greeting, while Dimitri answered with a simple, “Yes?”

"How fast can you get to Germany?" I asked, wincing when Dante rolled his eyes, smirking as I sweated profusely while talking to our friend.

Arseniy looked at Dimitri and typed something on Dimitri’s phone, showing it to him. "You found her?" Dimitri asked after a beat too long, reading over the words Arseniy wrote. One of my longest friends looked dead tired and the more I kept looking at him, the more I saw Vega. "Adrian?" Dimitri murmured again when I kept my mouth shut.

"Yeah, I found her. But I need to tell you something, and, well, I'm not sure if you're going to want to kill me or?—"

"What did you do?" Dimitri asked just as Arseniy frowned.

Dimitri and Arseniy knew each other since they were kids, and when the time came, Dimitri took over as his assistant, following him around and pretty much being able to read his mind.

"Adrian, what did you do to Arseniy’s sister?" Dimitri hit me straight in the chest with those words, while my friend simply grunted, his facial expression telling me everything I needed to know. He wasn’t happy. Not even a little bit, because even from thousands of miles away, Arseniy knew I fucked up. He could hear it in my voice and see it on my face.

"I fucked up," I admitted. "I fucked up massively, and?—"

"We will be there soon," was the only thing Dimitri said before they dropped the call, leaving me sitting there staring at the phone and Dante wincing.

"Well," Dante started. "That could’ve gone worse."

"He's going to kill me," I muttered, pocketing my phone again and closing my eyes. "And with good fucking reason."

"He's not going to kill you," Dante chuckled. "He's definitely going to punch you, and he's gonna be pissed, but he's not going to kill you."

"I honestly would let him," I admitted. The alcohol was supposed to help me forget her face for even just a couple of hours, but there was no forgetting the devastation lining every single part of her features or the pain shining in those eyes. She thought I used her.

She thought I wanted to kill her, and I did nothing to make her believe otherwise.

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