A fire burns in my chest as I watch him, wondering what he’s thinking about. Her? What I’ve done with her that she hasn’t told him?
A furious exhale punches out of me as I continue roaming aimlessly around the room. I underestimated how deeply he still lived under her skin.
I thought throwing them together would tear them apart, that being around him again would remind her of the choices he made and the things that he did that broke her heart.
But that’s not what happened.
Instead, sheranto him and let him hold her. She was all over him, and it took everything in me not to tell the guards to rip her away from him sooner.
How could she love the man who killed her brother?
Jealousy carved through me, sharp and humiliating. I wasn’t just angry that she still wanted him. I was angry that she didn’t need me, that I was forgotten so soon.
Need was power. And Alina had stripped it from me without even trying.
But why should I be the only one who has to deal with this pestering unease deep in my chest as it eats away at my damn soul?
I think I owe my brother a little bit of honesty. I couldn’t hear their conversation. Even with the sound turned up they spoke too softly. But I doubt Alina felt the need to give him every piece of truth when she was with him. If not, then it’s because she felt guilty, like she did something wrong by wanting me.
If she truly hated me and thought I had manipulated her in the shower, then she would’ve told Dom and cried on his shoulder about it. She would’ve wanted to feed his rage so he would take it out on me the first chance he got.
My pulse races as I leave my office, combating the exhaustion threatening to slow down my body as I take the stairs to the prison. I feel like I could split apart at any moment, and nothing pretty would come spilling out.
Pieces of a tortured soul. Blood that has yet to be shed in this coming war. Jealousy as nauseating and stomach-churning as bile.
“I wasn’t expecting you, sir.” Simeon clears his throat and shoves his phone into his pants pocket, his spine snapping straight as he stands at the entrance of the prison.
I stride past him, not even giving him a glance or a second of my time. My focus is on the bars of Dominik’s cell, and I rake together every fragmented ounce of my sense of control to remain composed. Unbothered. Untouchable.
“Can’t sleep?” I ask once I reach the cell door. “Petrov hasn’t been catching you up on things?”
“Petrov?” Dominik stops his antsy pacing and shakes his head before slowly edging toward the door instead, eyes locking with mine through the bars. “Why did you send Alina down here just to take her away from me again?”
“Well, you can’t have her all to yourself,Bratishka,” I chide him.
Dominik’s expression stiffens. “What are you doing to her, Gavriil?”
I don’t have to ask him the same question since I’ve seen it for myself. I wanted to lash out at him just for kissing her.
The unknown must be driving him crazy. I’ll help alleviate a little of his curiosity.
He has no idea what she has freely given tome. Maybe it’s time for him to find out she’s disloyal, just as I warned him.
“Do you really want to know what Alina and I have done together?” I ask him as a sly grin tugs at my lips.
Dominik closes the distance between him and the door, his fingers gripping the bars that separate us. “I know that the Irish are attacking us, that you’ve been letting her sit in on meetings. What’s your play? How do you plan to stop them?”
I’m sure she’s told him every little detail that she’s heard too. I can’t expect discretion from her, and I wouldn’t have put her in the same room as me during those meetings if I wanted to.
“Do you want to hear about the war with the Irish or what happened in the cage just minutes before I let her come down here to you?” I question him, each word building up the tension already lingering in the air. “Choose carefully.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
There’s a waver in his voice. I can practically hear the sinking of his stomach because he knows that I’m about to tell him something that he doesn’t want to hear. That doesn’t stop me from storming down the war path that I’m already on.
“She didn’t tell you?” I ask knowing she didn’t. Wouldn’t tell him. His grip on the bars loosens. Just for a second. Enough to let me know that I’ve hit something vital. “We both needed a shower after I got done killing a traitor,” I say as I rest my forearm on the cell door above my head. “Don’t worry. I was a gentleman. I washed the blood off her first.”
Dominik’s jaw clenches so hard that I think he’s going to shatter his teeth. “You fucking didn’t.”
