I saunter from the shadows, bringing a grin to his face. At the same time, I can see Val doing the same thing with the other guard.
However, she moves faster, and her guard’s gurgles catch the attention of the one I have in my sights. He goes to turn, but I grab him around the throat and hold him to my chest as I pull the blade clean across his neck. I drop his body and step right over him as John places a hand on my back and kisses my forehead.
I clean the blade on the side of my dress and put it back away before I draw my pistols again. We move flush to the building and meet at the entrance. I have the better view from my side. I can partially see a table as I cautiously peek my head in.
The first thing I note are the two guards that come into view. The next thing that stands out to me are the pale well-manicured hands folded on the table. Lastly, the sight that makes me stifle a growl and the bitter taste in my mouth, my dear aunt Grissel.
However, it’s the voice and words that are barked inside the room that send me into a blinding rage.
Eliam Pérez
“I should kill you with my bare hands,” I snarl as my sister sits across the table with a smug grin on her face. She thinks the Krupin family will keep her safe from me.
“I did exactly what you asked me to,” she says with no remorse or inflection. “If you ask me, I tried to do her favor. If she would have married Darius, I could have done this nicer way. You wanted her to fall into enemy hands and make her way back.”
“I wanted you to use her brain to get her out of a tough situation. Not be tortured for years and forgotten,” I fume.
“All the same to me.”
I don’t know what made me trust my sister with this task. She is as cold as my father made her, exactly what I tried to instill in Cherone. The ice queen sitting before me was an ice queen way before her betrayal, I only took too long to learn this.
“Estúpido, I was so focused on trying to prepare Roni for things like this, it backfired. You meant to allow me to rot in that prison and you wanted to ruin her. I never should have trusted you and your little boyfriends. I was betrayed by my own sister. How could you do this?”
“You wanted a seat with that Alliance. I told you it would make you look weak.” She makes a disgusted face. “You want to hand over everything my father built. Over my dead body.”
“You know I can arrange that,” I seethe.
“With what army? You have no power,” Grissel says through her thick accent. “I have been running this family since I got rid of all of you. If I would’ve known you were not incinerated like I ordered, I would have come to that hell hole to kill you myself.”
“You betray everyone around you, your own daughter? The walls have ears. I know about Indigo, Grissel,” I say.
“What about her? She was a causality of war as was your brat,” she replies.
I shake my head. “I have been cold to Roni for her own good, to make her strong in this world. Love makes weakness, I couldn’t afford to show her affection. Unlike you, you are simply callous, sin corazón.”
“You think you’re better than me? Mamá told me how you treated her. Made her cry for your affection that you never gave,” she tosses back at me.
“I did what was right for her.”
“You have no balls. You should have left her to die. I would have.”
I grin like el diablo. “And now she comes for your head.” I tilt my head when she looks surprised. However, she quickly tries to hide it. “You don’t know do you? The person that set me free said I could tell you goodbye before Cherone is set free to end your sorry pequeña vida sucia.”
Grissel lifts a hand and shoulder as if she has no fear, but I see it in her eyes. “I may allow her to live. I hear that your plan for her worked out after all. She is ruthless bitch you wanted. The Russians broke her and made her savage that you set out for.”
Anger threatens to scorch the hair on my head. I sat