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“Shut up, Lucien,” Harry barks, his eyes darkening as he turns to me.
“You don’t have to pretend around me.” My lip curls nastily at the anger now bringing in the depths of Harry’s eyes. “I already know what a fucking pervert you are and how you hurt Stacy.”
“Harry, maybe you should wait outside? You’re just upsetting her,” Lucien suggests. “Of course Isabella’s going to believe your fucking crazy sister. That’s what sociopaths do. They weave their spell around their victims.”
“Stacy is not a sociopath!” I shout at them, but something at the back of my mind is trying to throw doubt over my convection. “She’s been abused and treated like shit by her family for years and years. Now she’s fallen under the spell of that sick fuck Lev Belov.”
“Told you!” Lucien sighs and steps up to Harry and, to my surprise, kisses him. “Let me handle this, my love.”
“Fuck!” My brows knit together in shock. “You’re gay?” Images of Harry and I in his swimming pool, him giving me my first-ever kiss, flash through my mind. “But…”
“You’re the only girl I’ve ever loved or been attracted to.” Harry gives me a sad smile. “My sister used that against me too.”
“Go put some ice on your head and get cleaned up,” Lucien orders. He takes off his shoes and kicks them after Harry. “Get these cleaned too.” He turns back toward me. “I’ll handle my cousin.”
I watch Harry walk out the door of the… My eyes rove around the room, and I take it in. It looks like a home office and library. Thick drapes cover the windows off to one side where an antique desk is. I’m sitting near the warm fireplace, tied to a wooden chair.
Lucien takes a seat in front of me in a leather armchair, and his hazel eyes, which mirror mine and my brother’s, assess me. He is a very handsome man and carries himself with confidence and authority—great, another alpha male.
“It’s nice to finally meet you, cousin.” He breaks the heavy silence that filled the room after Harry’s departure. “I’m sorry it had to be under such drastic circumstances.”
“Am I your prisoner now?”
“No.” Lucien shakes his head.
“Then why am I tied to a chair?”
“I thought it would be best considering your reaction to Harry in the alley,” Lucien replies. “Harry saw what you did to Lev.” He pulls an impressed face. “Nice moves by the way. But you should’ve just shot him in the head.”
“I’m not you!” My eyes narrow.
Lucien sighs and shakes his head. “My grandmother and Roman warned Marco and Karina about building a dollhouse around you to protect you from our world.” His brow creases. “Your mother wanted you to grow up knowing some normalcy before you were forced to marry a Belov and be plunged into this lifestyle.”
“How’s this lifestyle working out for you!“ I leave no doubt as to what I mean.
“Surprisingly well.” Lucien nods. “My grandmother, she’s old school, was more of the instigator in riling my men against me.” He gives a slow smile, his eyes darkening dangerously. “They soon realized that I may have a different sexual orientation, but it didn’t make me any less of a man.”
“I guess all you have to do in the bloody world of Bratva is split open a few heads to prove what a big man you are!”
“Oh, Isabella!” Lucien laughs. “This is your world too, my beautiful cousin. No matter how much you bitch and moan about it, this is the world you were born to.”
“Whatever!” This argument is getting tired. I just want to get whatever shit I’m supposed to get and then get the fuck as far away from these bloodthirsty pricks as possible. “What am I doing here?” I glance around. “Where is here?”
“Where your brother was supposed to bring you and Andrey,” Lucien tells me.
My brows shoot up in surprise. “You’re the messenger?”
He shakes his head. “God, no. I was thirteen when your mother died.”
“Then how do you know this is where I need to be?”
“I inherited all the family secrets when I became the Andreev Pakhan,” Lucien tells me. “One of those secrets was the plans your mother had for you and your brother to keep you safe from whoever it was she was running from.”
“Who was my mother running from?”
“That’s why we’re here,” Lucien tells me.
“Where is here?”
