“Tell me anyway.” I force a light touch to my tone. One wrong word, too harsh a tone and she’ll be gone again.
“Your spies can tell you.” Her smile falls. “I heard you had to get married.”
“Don’t worry about any of that. When are you coming home?”
“Not yet.” She shakes her head a little. “I have some things to do first. But I’m okay, Kaz. I’m fine.”
“If you’re fine, then come home.”
“I just have to do something first.”
“What? What do you have to do?” I insist, hiding my fists outside the camera shot.
“Kaz.” She exhales hard and leans back away from the screen. “Alexander and Ivan…they hate me. They see me as a traitor.”
“No.” I shake my head emphatically.
She leans into the camera again. “If one of your men were found with a DeAngelo girl, had been having a relationship with her for months behind your back, what would you guys do to him?”
“You’re not one of the men.” My fists tighten. My knuckles might split.
“No. Worse. I’m blood. And I betrayed you.”
“He was using you, Elana.”
She laughs, and it’s haunting. “Yeah, that’s how stupid I was. I thought what we had was real. But he was just using me to get to the Volkov family.”
“Elana.”
“It’s fine.” She waves a hand. “I’m okay. Really. You think he’s the first guy to break my heart?”
“Then why did you run away?”
“Let’s not talk about that. I want to know about your wife. Is she horrible? I mean she’s a DeAngelo, right, so I’m guessing she is.”
My chair creaks as I lean back. “You should come home and meet her.”
“Tony never talked about a sister. Did they hide her in some tower?” She laughs, but this time it’s filled with awkwardness.
“Elana.” I warn. “She’s my wife.”
“Yeah. Because of me.” It’s soft, her voice, and full of guilt.
“No. The trouble with the DeAngelos started way before you. It had nothing to do with you. You were a pawn. Then you were a casualty.” She doesn’t know it, but I’m the one who put the bullet in Tony’s head.
I’d seen him, the disgusting sneer stuck on his face, saw the anguish in my sister’s expression, and I pulled the trigger. He was dead before he hit the ground.
Now, seeing how much she’s tormenting herself over that bastard, I wish I’d taken my time. I could have shot his arm, his leg, a few in his stomach. It takes a while to die from a stomach wound. Hurts like a bitch the entire time.
Yes, I definitely should have shot him in the stomach.
“Tell me about her, Kaz. Is she horrible?” Concern wrinkles her brow.
“She’s nothing like her brothers,” I assure her, fully realizing for the first time since I made Sienna speak those humiliating vows how innocent she was in all of this mess.
“So she’s not a complete monster, just a little one?” Elana teases.
“She’s not a monster at all.” I lean forward again, my jaw tensing. “No more than you are for having us as your brothers.”
