Chapter 14 Tristan #2
I am not about to explain why I disregarded every principle to have her. Certain things you experience can’t be described. If they haven’t fallen yet, they will. It’s a fact. One I’ve learned by almost going insane trying to stop the impossible.
Love realigns your life priorities, shifting everything in place to suit its reign. You cease to be a king. You bend the knee. After you fall, you offer her your heart, lay your life at your woman’s feet—a devoted servant, a loyal soldier, a true worshipper.
In the living room, I stare out the floor-to-ceiling glass. Soon, her presence will permeate each atom of this space. Nothing will be the same, but I don’t need her love. I just need her anyway I can get—to function, to breathe, to fucking do more than exist and work till exhaustion.
She’s my peace. She’s my chaos. Salvation wrapped in sweet surrender.
But if she stops loving me, that might as well be my fucking ruin.
Needing to hear her melodious voice to ease my troubled mind, I call her.
Viviana picks up after five rings, sounding out of breath.
“I’m in the bathroom,” she says, risking everything for me.
She won’t have to hide that for long. A truth, as sure as this overpowering need for her.
“Wanted to hear your voice,” I say, unbothered to express my feelings. It’s my way of making sure she never doubts me.
She giggles; those precious sounds wrap around my chest, warming me from inside.
“How do you manage without me?” she asks, voice ending on a flirtatious rasp.
“I don’t, but I played poker with the guys tonight. Tomorrow I’m visiting Evie.”
“Good, you need to spend more time together.”
It’s not that I don’t wish that, but every time I see my sister, a truckload of guilt rolls over me. I can’t change the past. I can’t make it better.
“Did you win?”
I chuckle. “What do you think?”
“I think you can’t lose.”
I burst into laughter, overwhelmed by the surge of glee this woman unfurls in me.
“Tell me,” I say, urgency clamoring in my voice.
I yearn to hear her say those three words on repeat, so I’ll never forget them, and she will always remember the truth as well.
“I love you, Tristan.”
“I love you, Viviana. Don’t forget it.”
“I won’t,” she says breathlessly, adding, “Have to go. Sorry.”
She doesn’t have to worry about us getting caught for much longer. Short of six months before nothing will separate us again.
“Think about me,” I demand, my voice harsh.
I can’t believe I am jealous of anyone she’s spending time with.
“Always,” she says in that sweet voice of hers and disconnects the call.
I don’t want our love to end in destruction, but that’s exactly where we’re heading.
Knowing I won’t be able to sleep, I lock myself in my office and go through various construction plans and new properties to buy. While real estate is my principal business, my varied portfolio includes hedge funds and startup funding.
I discover off-market properties before others. My people infiltrated every agency possible, and running in the circles I do, I am always at the top of the game. Long before the competition finds out about the offer, I will already have claimed it.
It’s four a.m. by the time I head to bed, and I am up by six, getting ready to meet my sister.
No one knows about Evie. It’s not about trust or distrust, but about offering her the life I never had—free of the shackles of the underworld, unbothered from having bloody hands and a tainted soul.
Or maybe I did it for myself. Keeping her away assured me I could risk it all without anyone holding leverage over me.
I have fought my way up for years, defeating enemies, slaughtering threats, and killing without a single feeling of remorse, my father and uncle included. Demyan is perhaps the only exception, but the fucker gives as good as he takes, our constant battle is in a stalemate.
The power I secured ensures the women in my life are safe, both Viviana and my sister. And as I am determined to make every one of her wishes come true, the world will find out I have a sister.
Evie waits for me at the beach house, waving at me from the edge of the surf, snowflakes stuck in her copper strands, slapping at the wind. She smiles with her entire face as if she’s always happy to see me, digging the knife deeper into that wound that will never heal.
Reaching her, she hugs my side and instantly is on a roll, telling me all about her classes as we stride by the ocean. The crisp air causes an instant chill, and I lift my collar to protect my neck from the biting cold.
But then, as if she remembers, she frowns and pushes at me, but lacks the force to move me.
“Evie, what the fuck?”
“My best friend,” she shrieks. “I swear if you hurt her…”
My jaw sets in a hard line, and I say through the lump lodged in my throat. “I won’t.”
She props her hand on her waist, glaring. “Does she have any idea who you are?”
I purse my lips.
“I figured as much,” she mumbles.
“I’m going to marry her.”
She whips her head toward me, blinking as if processing my words, but they don’t quite stick.
“Marry her?” she asks as if to make sure she heard me right.
I nod, and she opens and closes her mouth a few times, at a loss for words. That’s new.
“You’re going to lose her. Why do you always have to play games, Tristan?” she sighs. “You’re the king of deception, and everyone around you is bound to get hurt. It’s not your intention, but you’re so fucked up that you don’t even realize what’s happening.”
“Done fucking psychoanalyzing me?” I grit out, her words causing a riot inside me.
“Yes. I don’t want to ruin our weekend together.” It’s not an accusation, it’s sympathy I detect in her voice.
“Good,” I grumble.
A few seconds of silence ensue before she starts again. Not surprising at all. My sister is undeterred, her vivacious presence matches her fiery temperament.
“I want to move back to New York. She’ll need someone she can trust. I am done hiding,” she says, looking toward the house. “It’s time to repent, brother. When you deceive, there’s always a price to pay.”
I snort. As if she could ever deceive someone.
“I’ve heard she’s better at horseback riding,” she says, changing the subject. “You love her, and that’s why I can’t be mad at you.”
“I know what I’m doing.”
She puffs out her chest, scowling. “Don’t make me insult you.”
My sister is a bold beam of light. I hope New York won’t dim that. The city has a way of dimming yours to shine brighter, a narcissistic asshole refusing to share the spotlight.
Once we reach the house, she calls after me. “Loser prepares dinner.”
I shake my head at her. I am always preparing dinner when we meet. It’s something I have done since she wouldn’t eat a thing.
That’s why I had this beach house built. I wanted us to have a place where we could be normal, where I am not Tristan Kinkaid and she’s not the girl who witnessed her mother’s death and her brother killing their father.
There are only three people who know about this place, finding solace between its walls.