Broken Beauty - Stella Andrews Page 0,56
appears almost irritated and snaps, “Of course you have a choice, I’m not a monster, I’m your brother—family. Why do you look at me as if I am?”
Because you are.
The words remain unspoken but I know he hears them because he nods with a resignation that takes me by surprise. Beckoning me across to a bench that sits overlooking the ocean, he says softly, “I suppose I’ve never given you reason to think otherwise. However, I thought you knew. You are my right hand, Sophia, my blood, my conscience and my responsibility. You are the only one I have left of a family that suffered the cruellest of deaths. You are everything to me and I would die to keep you safe. What I want for you most is to be happy and I doubt you have found that yet.”
“You’re wrong.”
He raises his eyes and stares at me thoughtfully. “I have found happiness, Tobias. I found it in the strangest of ways. It crept upon me when I wasn’t looking and turned what should have been my darkest hour into my brightest.”
“Then why are you here?”
A simple sentence that takes me by surprise. “Because I was sent here by the family, we fear the most. They had no further use for me and delivered me back to you. As it turns out, nothing was how it seemed and now I’m left to deal with the pain of betrayal.”
His eyes narrow. “The Romanos?”
“I’m not sure.”
He appears exasperated and sighs heavily. “Tell me the facts, Sophia and I will judge them on that.”
By the time I finish my story, he looks even angrier than before and spits, “They treated you like a fool, a pawn in their own family games. I have one question though, why did you think marrying into that family gave them access to our business, that’s what I don’t understand?”
I almost fear his reaction when I say in a whisper, “They see you as a man who wants to walk away from this life and that makes you weak—in their eyes. They believe that it’s only a matter of time before another family takes what you don’t want by whatever means possible. They saw this marriage as a means of providing you with the protection you need should that ever happen and by offering you a way out of the business. They would manage it for a cut and it would be because I was married to the head of the Romano family.”
Far from looking angry, Tobias just nods with a thoughtful expression. “I see.”
Then he says harshly, “And this man, Maverick, do you have feelings for him?”
I look down. “I do but I’m not sure he feels the same.”
“Why not?”
“Because he is much like you. He doesn’t want this life and by marrying me, he would have been dragged right back into it. He was prepared to do that for me but he would have resented it and when the shine wore off, probably regretted his decision.”
Tobias just stares at me with the cold hard look I remember so well. Then he holds out his hand and says firmly, “It is probably for the best. Families belong together and any man that turns his back on his, is not to be trusted. You deserve better, Sophia, you always did.”
As I take his hand, I can’t agree. He didn’t see the torture in Maverick’s eyes when he made his decision. He was prepared to give up everything for me and that is why Elena was right to intervene. I hope that he’s happy now, back with the Reapers where he belongs. I try not to picture Millie comforting him and expect he will soon put all of this behind him and move on with someone else. I may not be so lucky, but at least I have my memories of a time that I actually lived to keep me warm at night. Nothing can take them away from me, they are all I have left.
33
Maverick
It’s been three weeks and still no word. Sophia’s phone has been disconnected and the only intelligence we have is that she remains on her brother’s island. Coming home should have been the sweetest of homecomings, but it just felt empty because she isn’t here. Everyone expected me to pick up and carry on, business as usual but, how could I? I left the most important part of me back in Florida and I will not rest until I get it back.
“Penny for them,