Chapter 26 #2
I didn’t care. I stopped listening to men talk long ago.
I didn’t even need my earbuds anymore to know it was all nonsense anyway.
I saw it in Bane’s relaxed shoulders but his burning gaze, in the way his hand didn’t flex but his forearm veins were showing.
His jaw wasn’t clenched but his mouth was slightly open, like he was controlling his breathing so he could be poised and ready.
It didn’t matter what any of them said at the table. That man Bane stared at was about to die.
And maybe he deserved it. I didn’t know. Like I said, I wasn’t listening at all. Not until Bane repeated, “Bianca, what do you think?”
“Think? About what?”
“What do you think about the Oracle app Yuri owned before I took over.”
“Oh.” I smiled slow before I answered him, “Maybe it was a little like dating Yuri. He told me what I wanted to hear.”
Yuri didn’t hide how he looked down my dress, shameless even while he was on his date. “I could do that again for a night or two while Rafe takes my fiancée, no?”
So easily these men would swap wives then? Is that what I would be in the future?
Bane didn’t let his brother respond. Instead, he continued asking questions. “And, Bianca, do you remember what I told you about men coming on to you when you’re going to marry my brother?”
The rage I felt from him now was almost palpable. And I was feeding it rather than settling it down. “Something along the lines of you’d kill them. But poor Vinny. You didn’t kill him for me, did you?”
“He’s the smallest skull in my office,” he said before he pulled the gun and aimed it at Yuri’s chest.
“What the fuck?” Yuri bellowed and ten more men pulled their guns.
They were much too late though. Bane had already emptied a round into Yuri’s chest. The blood spread beautifully over his white shirt as he gasped and teetered to the floor, choking on his own blood.
A few people gasped, others stared, no one screamed. Not even his date. She only jumped back instead of forward to try to help him. She was no Jackie Kennedy, that’s for sure.
“Veil,” Bane’s father grumbled and men in black suits filed in around the body so that we didn’t have to look any further.
“Bane, I appreciate that you put three bullets in his chest, but at the dinner table?” His father questioned without so much as a look back at the man being cleaned up by waiters.
Yuri was being dragged out when a cartel leader hurried to our table to lean over and whisper something in Mr. Black’s ear.
He nodded and sighed. “Not tonight. Don’t ruin the meal. ”
As if Bane hadn’t already done that.
Yet they were already mopping the blood from the floor quickly.
Bane stood. “A lesson for those who think the Oracles can be duplicated or recreated without repercussions.” Then he sat down and looked around our table. “Pink, no more online boyfriends except the Oracles now, huh?”
That got a chuckle from our table, but I wasn’t laughing. Heat had erupted through my body. I licked my lips as I held Bane’s gaze, but my attention flew to the hand Sabine laid on his after his comment.
He didn’t remove it. He didn’t flinch. He didn’t even slide a millimeter away from her. Instead, he leaned in when she whispered in his ear, but I heard her comment, “I hope you know I’ll never look at another man when that time comes for us.”
He nodded.
Nodded.
He didn’t ask what time. He didn’t even make an effort to correct her. So, I did it myself. “What time, exactly, is coming for you and Bane?”
Sabine’s smile was saccharine as she dropped her head on his shoulder and met my gaze with a flutter of her eyelashes. “Well, just like you’re engaged to Rafe, I hope I’ll be engaged to Bane at one point too.” She winked at me as if this was some elaborate plan we were both a part of.
“What?” I whispered at her in shock, and then my eyes shot to Bane’s.
His father answered for him. “That’d be a perfect fit, Sabine. Your parents and I have known one another for years. We’d love to see you two married.”
“Bane?” I wheezed, almost choked on his name. I wanted him to stop this, to put an end to the conversation the way he’d put an end to Yuri’s life. “Do you agree?”
“Agree with what, Bianca?”
I felt my skin heating, felt the embarrassment of the moment taking over as I watched him not react at all. How could he sit there without any emotion when I was about to break under the weight of mine? “Do you agree that Sabine would be perfect for you?”
“Of course I would.” She patted his hand and then moved to wipe a speck of blood that had shot across the table when Bane had killed Yuri.
He watched her do it like he was considering how well she’d fit by his side, how perfectly she did.
I’d never considered Sabine a threat. She’d allowed us to touch her in the Vault, she gave Bane access to her any time he pleased, and she begged for more every time.
But his interest always seemed focused on me, on us, on our time in the Vault together … though now I wondered.
She was poised, had to have connections if she was in the Vault with us half the time, and now she was seated next to him like she’d been a part of his circle for a long time. She even cleaned up the blood when he murdered someone.
“She’s a complete package, Bianca. Most men would think she’s perfect for them,” Bane said in a measured tone.
“Like I’m perfect for Rafe?” I couldn’t help but fill in all the blanks.
“I’d say you are. It’s a matter of when my son decides it’s time for the wedding.” His father chuckled and nudged Rafe and then my father too. I looked at my parents.
Neither of them said a damn thing to stand up for me. My father actually laughed with Mr. Black, like this was the way. Neither of them even looked at me. I wondered if my mother wanted to, if deep down in her soul somewhere she knew there was a girl that felt exactly like I did.
She had to feel that way once, right? There had to be a hope there that desperately wanted something different even if she buried it down deep.
And I considered if I would do the same with Rafe. Would he force me to have a kid and then raise her to give in time and time again?
“Pink.” Bane’s voice broke through all the talk between my father and his. “Now’s not the time for—”
“A fit?” I finished for him.
“If you’re mad, you can stab me later,” he told me, like he could lighten the mood, like he read how my mind was racing, but there was no way he could slow it down now.
“She’s perfect for you, truly, Bane. I think we both know Sabine belongs by your side, and I belong by Rafe’s. Right, Rafe?”
My chair scraped back faster than lightning as I stood up abruptly. I grabbed Rafe’s arm and yanked him with me. “I need to talk with you.”
“Damn it. Really?” He looked put out as he stood. I didn’t care. I grabbed his hand and started pulling him through the crowd. I didn’t stop walking as we left the ballroom and went to the elevators. I pressed the Vault level and moved his watch to the pad to swipe for access.
He lit up green and I scoffed, “Of course you have access.”
And then we moved quickly through the double doors into the club where I immediately told the host we were going to the dark room. Normally they would have told me no, but I saw how their eyes ping-ponged to Rafe who just nodded as if he was bored. I didn’t care.
I pulled him in and then I closed my eyes tight, trying not to think of the man who’d taken advantage of me all those years ago as I grabbed his face and kissed him.
I tried instead to remind myself that he would be the one I’d spend the rest of my life with, he’d be the one I had to build a future with.
Him.
Not his brother.
Not anyone else.
Still, the kiss was forced and stilted before he gripped my arms and pushed me back. “Bianca, what in the hell are you doing?”
“What do you mean?” I shoved at his chest in frustration, tears pricking the corners of my eyes. “You’re here for me tonight, aren’t you? You asked for me to be by your side. I’m doing what I’m supposed to. What I intended to do.”
“Let’s be real. You didn’t intend to do a damn thing with me tonight, and you know how I know that?”
“How?” I put a hand on my hip.
“Because I didn’t intend to do anything with you either.”
My mouth dropped open as I shoved him. “What? Why the hell not?”
“Yes, why not, brother?” Bane said in the doorway, his shadow and presence as dark as ever. He’d left the woman by his side tonight to follow us in here.
I hated that it brought me a rush of satisfaction, that I saw the jealousy in his gaze, eating at him the way it had me.