Page 35 of Loathe Me (Touch of Death 1)
“Where are you going?” she calls after me.
I don’t answer her, because truthfully, I don’t know. When I reach the bottom of the stairs, I move toward the front door, but Lorenzo steps in my path. “Move, Lorenzo.”
He offers me a sad smile. “I’m sorry, Miss Adelina.” His gaze drifts past me, and I follow it to where Gabi stands behind me. “I have my orders.”
“You’re keeping me here?” I ask my sister.
“No.”
As if it were perfectly orchestrated, there’s a knock at the front door, and Lorenzo steps back, opening it. As soon as he does, I retreat a couple of shaky steps. Sasha stands in the doorway, the exterior light silhouetting his tall, muscular frame. Our eyes meet, that icy blue cutting me to my soul. He steps into the light, and I shrink back farther.
“Thank you for coming,” Gabi says.
I turn and glare at her. She digs the knife in deeper.
“Adelina.” I turn at the sound of my name spat with that Russian accent. “We need to leave.”
“Did you know?” My voice breaks, tears clogging my throat.
Sasha’s gaze holds mine, and everyone else seems to disappear as we stare at each other. Everyone I thought was close to me has betrayed me. Sasha stands silent. It suddenly feels vital, to have someone I can rely on, even if it is the cold bastard of a Russian. “Did you know my father was dead?”
“Yes,” he says, crushing that tiny spark of hope that I need.
I grip the strap of my bag so tightly my knuckles ache. Fixing my gaze on the open door, I walk past everyone in silence. I cross the threshold and step out into the darkness. The cool night air greets me, and I suck it deep into my lungs, glancing up at the night sky. A full moon bathes everything in a cold, silvery light, and the stars twinkle like glitter scattered from one horizon to the other. I hear the quiet crunch of gravel at my back and twist my head just enough to hear Sasha approach. Moving ahead of me, he goes to a black SUV and opens the passenger door. He stands silently, waiting for me to get in. I could try to fight it, but I don’t. I don’t care anymore. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’m nothing more than a pawn in a game I can never play much less win.
I get in the car, dropping my bags on the floor. Sasha closes the door and then climbs in the driver’s side to pull away. I watch in the side mirror as the brightly lit house shrinks in the distance. And standing in front of it is a lone figure that I know is my sister.
I wonder if she feels it as keenly as I do; the frayed ends of the severed thread that once bonded us so irrevocably.
The house disappears in the background, and I know I should feel a slew of emotions, but instead, there’s a void. Every time I search myself, tentatively checking my own pain, there’s just nothing. I’m numb.
I barely register the drive. The radio is a quiet background hum to our combined silence. I’m tired, but every time I close my eyes, my father’s lifeless face waits for me. I should have known that he was gone. I should have felt something, an absence in the fabric of the world.
When we get back to the villa, I go straight to my room. As soon as I lay down on the bed, it pours out of me like an ugly black ooze. Grief grips me in its clutches so hard that it’s all I can do to breathe.
My father is dead, and nothing will ever be okay again.
11
Sasha
I put down my book and check my watch. It’s nearly eight p.m. I haven’t seen Adelina since we got back in the early hours of the morning. When I realized what she’d done last night, I could barely contain my rage. What little anger I’ve experienced has always been fleeting, easily pushed away as one would swat a fly. This was…more. By the time her sister called and asked me to come and get her, I was already halfway to Mondello. I knew exactly where I’d find her. She’s predictable, a bleeding heart, unable to accept that her sister might offer herself up in her place. Selflessness is a rare trait in my world, and I admit, I almost respect her for it. Adelina’s rash and reckless, petulant and immature, and yet, she’s brave. Stupid, but brave. She stands up to me when she should back down, talks incessantly without a response…until last night. At first, I enjoyed her elusive lack of rambling, but as the hours dragged and still, she said nothing, I found myself unsettled.
