“Yes, Kai. You’ve had an issue with Seraphina for a long time, and I’ve dismissed it because you’re my brother. Even when she told me I shouldn’t trust you, I have.”
“That bitch doesn’t deserve you,” he said, looking me straight in my eyes.
“You have one more time to call her a bitch Kai, and I won’t be responsible for what happens to you.”
“What the fuck?” Finley mumbled as he stared at his phone.
“What is it?” I asked.
He glared at Kai, and I looked between them.
“What?” I asked again, and Finley shoved the phone into my hands.
The second the video started, rage exploded inside my chest. I gripped the phone so tight I thought I might crack the screen. My pulse roared in my ears as I watched the man I called my brother, the man I’d known since I was a kid, wrap his hands around Seraphina’s throat. The woman I love gasped for air as she clawed and fought for her life, but he didn’t stop. He tried to kill her.
She should’ve died, but Dr. Vlahos came into the room. Her aim was off, and she hit his shoulder, but it was enough to break the hold he had on her. It was enough to give her a chance.
Then my heart sank to my gut as a figure stepped into the room. He was calm and calculated as he looked around, saw Seraphina crumpled on the floor unconscious and took her while my so-called brother didn’t move. Didn’t speak. Didn’t lift a goddamn finger to keep the motherfucker from walking out of the room with the woman I loved.
I shoved the phone into Finley’s chest, my body shaking with fury, then turned on the man I once trusted with my life.
“Sergio…”
That was all he said before my fist connected with his jaw. He staggered back, crashing into the wall. Blood bloomed at the corner of his mouth. His eyes were wide with fear and anger. No longer was the man standing in front of me my brother. He was the enemy.
“You tried to kill her,” I snarled, my voice shaking from all the anger swirling inside me. “You let him take her.”
He tried to speak, but I was already stepping forward, fists clenched, and my heart breaking with every step I took toward him.
“I love you!” Kai shouted, his arms raised like that would stop me. “She doesn’t deserve you! I wanted us to be together, but that would never happen if she was in the picture.”
The words hit harder than a punch to the gut. Then it clicked. All the times he talked shit about her. The looks of hate aimed her way. It was because he was jealous. And the knowledge made me both angry and sad for him. I loved Kai, but it would never be in that way.
“I will never love you like that,” I said, anger still pulsing through my veins.
Heartache blanketed his face. “But…”
“There would have never been anything between us other than friendship and brotherhood. I can’t believe you did this to her.”
His face was no longer marked by sorrow but filled with pure rage. “But she doesn’t love you, Sergio. She married someone else! And you chased her like a damn dog in heat!”
“I don’t give a fuck who she married,” I growled. “What we share no one can come between, not even you.”
“Sergio, we got to go,” Finley said from behind me, his voice somber because he knew how this would end.
I can’t trust Kai anymore. I should have never trusted him.
I pulled my gun from inside the waistband of my slacks and aimed it at one of the closest friends I’d ever had. I thought one day our kids would grow up together just like we had. We’d be best men at each other’s weddings. What a fucking idiot I’d been. He played me for a damn fool.
“Finley man, you can’t let him do this,” Kai pleaded. “We’re brothers!”
Finley just shook his head and walked out of the room. This was going to hit him hard too, but this needed to be done. Kai had crossed the line by trying to kill the only woman I’d ever loved.
“I once told you don’t make me choose between you and her, Kai.”
My heart broke for the years of friendship and brotherhood that would end like this.
“Sergio…please,” he begged, tears filled in his eyes and for a moment I wavered in my decision. “Please don’t do this.”
