Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Stone
I’ve not eaten for two days, and as the car winds up the driveway toward Casa Forte, I feel every turn in the pit of my stomach, and sickness wells inside me.
I’ve been summoned.
My punishment for my decision is about to be unleashed, and dread consumes me.
What’s the worst that could happen? I’ve endured so much already, and I’m still here. I’m still standing.
Knowing Sienna will be there waiting for me at the end of my punishment makes it more bearable. Her eyes being on me when I wake from my hell is my saving grace. Her finger trailing over the ridges in my palm will stir me from unconsciousness, allowing me to dream of a future we can never have. Her presence will be my strength.
The car comes to a standstill, and my body trembles, so I breathe through my nostrils to control the raging storm inside me.
It’s going to be bad; I can feel it in my bones and in my soul too.
The driver opens my door, and I force myself to tamp down the need to run. Where the hell would I go when she’s my home.
Stepping out of the SUV, my eyes take in the foreboding mansion. The shadows that cover me are like demons pulling at my soul, tearing me apart bit by bit before the torture has even started.
Taking a deep breath, I straighten and swallow back the nervous ball lodged in my throat, then I head inside.
Vector steps forward immediately, and his taunting eyes drill through me as if he’s eager to tear me apart. The hunger in them is sickening, and I’m forced to stuff my fists into my pant pockets to stop myself from lashing out and making the situation worse. A calculated smirk plays on his lips as he opens his mouth. “Azrael wants you to join him and Czar in his office before you meet with your father.” I nod at his words and walk down the corridor toward his office, a room I’ve taken many a beating in before now and looks to be where I will take another.
I knock on the door and wait for him to call me in. “Enter.” His deep voice doesn’t send a chill down my spine like his father’s does, but it puts me on high alert because I know the severity of this meeting.
Stepping inside, I find Azrael staring out of the window, his back to me. Czar leans against the wall opposite the door.
Odd.
This is odd.
Why aren’t they seated? They’re always seated.
“Sit,” Azrael says, but doesn’t turn to face me, and my throat becomes dry because I want to tell him no. But of course, I won’t defy him. I’ve done that before and have the scars to prove it.
As soon as my ass hits the chair, Czar moves to lock the door, pocketing the key, and he leans against it with his head bowed, unable to give me eye contact. My heart thrums with awareness as my eyes flick between them.
“While you were away, there’s been some adjustments.” I nod even though I’ve no idea what I’m nodding at. I guess I’ve become accustomed to being obedient to their demands. Azrael clears his throat. “Sienna was married while you were gone.” His words strike me in the chest like a force of brutality so powerful it steals the energy from every cell in my body. He finally spins to face me. “Did you hear me? I said she’s married!” he grits out, and I stare back at him, unable to understand why he’s so angry when he helped orchestrate her marriage.
I drop my head into my hands as I replay his words. “While you were away, there’s been some adjustments.”
He helped orchestrate it all.
Slowly, everything falls into place.
My fight.
My absence.
Her marriage while I was gone. It was all planned, premeditated.
A betrayal.
They’ve given her to another man. Another man has touched what’s mine.
They took her from me.
The only thing I ever loved.
They took her from me.
A surge of fury unleashes inside me, and I fly up from my chair so quick he doesn’t see it coming. “Bastards!” I roar as I throw myself over his desk to get to him, but Czar launches on my back.
“Easy. Take it fucking easy,” Czar hisses in my ear while wringing his arms around my neck. He’s no feat for me, and he knows it. I shrug him off, sending him and the computer crashing to the floor, and when I rise to strike again, hate riles inside me at their betrayal.
They took her from me.
My own brothers took the only thing I ever had from me.
The cold metal of a gun hits my temple, then the safety clicks.
“Enough.” Azrael’s voice is smooth and cold. He’s in control and, as usual, I have none, not an ounce.
I’m a puppet on a string for them to control and create scenes they dictate. An emptiness wells inside me, a deep yearning for the girl and the future they stole from me. For the first time since the day I broke our father’s tooth, a tear slips from my eye, and Azrael face falls briefly as it trickles down my cheek.
“Do it,” I plead, meaning every damn word. Life without her isn’t worth living, and knowing she’s someone else’s is the worst torture I could ever endure.
Someone else gets to hold her.
Someone else gets a future with her.
A life.
And now I have none.
I have nothing.
“Do it!” I repeat, louder this time, and tears fall freely down my face, uncaring of how much of a pussy I may appear.
I’m truly nothing without her.
I don’t want to live another moment without her in my life.
She was my reason for living, and without her, I have none.
My shoulders shake as a violent sob takes over me, and I stare back at my brother, begging him to put me out of my misery. Begging him to end my life once and for all.
“Please. Please do it.”
The gun wobbles as Azrael’s dark eyes burn into mine, and I see the guilt swimming in them, but he doesn’t waver in his stance. “I can’t,” he whispers, almost as broken as me, and I squeeze my eyes closed because he refuses to take away my pain, making my torture all the crueler.
“My life isn’t worth living without her.” I sniffle.
Azrael darts his eyes above my head. “Do it.” A sharp sting hits my neck, and I know the bastard’s injected me with something, the sting familiar. “Not too much. It can’t be obvious,” he says as my taut muscles loosen and my mind becomes fuzzy.
Azrael tucks the gun into his waistband, and my body relaxes with whatever they injected me with. Then he snaps his fingers in front of me. “Listen to me.” His stern voice pulls my attention. Czar maneuvers my heavy arms behind my back, then my head whirls from the drug, and I struggle to stay upright. Azrael takes my chin roughly between his fingers. “Listen to me carefully. Our father is going to tell you about the marriage. You can’t act out like you just did in here. Do you hear me?”
My vision clouds, but I somehow nod.
He clenches his jaw. “You remain your normal, obedient self. You give nothing away; do you understand me?” Again, I nod like the puppet they created.
My tongue feels thick as I speak. “Punishment?”
Azrael licks his lips, and his eyes dart away from me, telling me he knows something. It’s a trait of his, a weak one. “I don’t know yet.” He lies with ease, like the viper I know him to be.
I slump back in the chair, and a bottle of water is thrust into my hand.
“Drink,” Czar demands, and, like a robot, I perform.
“I know you hate us, and while I don’t blame you, there’s a lot I can’t tell you, Stone. For your protection, as well as our own.”
Our own , he said. His words, not mine. Them against me, as always.
I nod like he expects, but inside, among the floaty feeling, is an inferno ready to erupt, a promise of devastation to follow, but I need a plan. One that will not see me get maimed any further. A plan that brings her back where she belongs and destroys them in the process.