Fuck. She was so good at it.
My mind is replaying all the moments I shared with her. I’m trying really hard to figure out how I missed it. How I was so easily deceived. But even now, thinking about it, it feels real.
My phone rings on the bedside table and I turn it over to see who’s calling, thinking it must be the pilot confirming that everything is in order and I’m set to go.
But it’s not.
It’s a video call fromBoris.
Every muscle in my body tenses.
My teeth grind and my jaw clenches.
Sliding the green button across the screen, I answer and the image that fills my phone also fills my heart with anger and pain.
Boris is grinning into the camera, seated in a high-backed chair that replicates a throne; his ego has no limits. Standing beside him with her hand on his shoulder, her face blank, is Tia.
My heart somersaults.
She’s staring at me with an emptiness in her eyes that churns my stomach.
It was all fake.
She’s taunting me now, standing alongside her brother with her hand reaching out to him. She’s sending a clear message regarding whose side she’s on. She’s silently telling me where her alliance lies.
The pain that stabs into me is too much to bear. And it confirms what I suspected. I fell in love with her. Love is the only thing that can hurt like this. Love is the only thing that can rip into my chest with claws that sharp.
“How are you doing on this beautiful morning, Andrei?” Boris laughs coldly.
I say nothing, because there is nothing to say to him. If I could, I would speak to Tia. I want to ask her why she did it. Iwant to beg her to tell me it was all real. She’s acting so calm and cool, brushing her hair away from her shoulder, tilting her head to the side. There is nothing in her movements or her eyes to hint that she cares in any way.
“Cat got your tongue?” Boris muses.
“I have nothing to say to you, Boris Enzo,” I snarl. The only reason I haven’t hung up already is because I’m watching her, stupidly hopeful that she’ll give me some kind of hint that she’s trapped.
He smirks, tapping his fingers on the arm of the chair. I want to punch that smug expression off his face. He doesn’t deserve to be smiling. He deserves the same kind of pain he inflicts on everyone else.
He sighs dramatically. “Listen, man, I’m sorry things didn’t work out the way you hoped. It took you what, a year? To plan this revenge, and it all backfired so quickly. You must be pretty annoyed about that, but don’t worry. The game doesn’t end here. We can keep playing. In fact, I’ve already set up a rather explosive surprise for you in celebration of my sister coming home to me. I’m sure you’re going to enjoy it.”
My mind spins. His words are far too specific.
Boris is known for planting bombs beneath the cars of his enemies—if he’s mentioning explosives now, there is a reason for it.
Realization strikes hard as I turn to run from the bedroom. The phone drops from my hand. I run for the door and skid out onto the balcony, and all I hear is Boris’s laughter before the bomb goes off.
A deafening explosion erupts around me, and heat slams into me with force that throws me over the balcony. The air ispunched from my lungs as I fly through the air, certain I am about to die, but somehow I land on forgiving white sand. My body rolls over it. It spits up into my eyes and mouth and I’m choking on smoke and sand and wondering how I’m still alive.
Rolling onto my back, I gasp for air and stare up at the remains of what was once a bedroom. Flames are licking from the open doorway, blown wider by the blast, and the glass doors are shattered off their hinges.
I groan loudly and reach up to press my hand over my heart.
Tia stood there, knowing about the bomb, knowing her brother’s plan to detonate it—and she didn’t say a fucking word.
Ice creeps into my chest, cold and deadly.
I will tear that family apart.
But first, I want to look into her eyes and hear the words from her own mouth. I want her to admit she is as cold and evil as her brother is.
