Pretty in the Dark (Dark and Wild #2)

Chapter 14

14

KAGE

I waited, willing my body to stay still. To not show all my cards. My sister was even more beautiful than I'd remembered from her interview all those years ago when she'd stood in my club and asked me to give her a job, no questions asked. The man I was five years ago might have blown this opportunity and forced her to my side out of ego and spite.

But not now. Now I am a patient man. I'd waited this long, I could wait longer still, for compliance. And she would comply. The carrot I'd dangled in front of her was too much to resist. I could already see the gleam in her eye as she considered my words. The hunger for truth and knowledge, and the inner-war she waged within herself as she thought about her little brother and what this meant for him.

I knew what her answer would be before she even tipped her chin up, so defiant, so very much like our father, that it almost made me smile. She would come to my side. She might look like Blaire DeClare returned from the dead, but she was a Diovolo through and through. Now that I was sitting across from her like this, I felt like a complete idiot for not seeing it sooner. I was looking for someone who looked like me, assuming that the genes that dominated my family line would also be dominant in her. But apparently the universe had a sense of humor, and the very creature destined to bring about the destruction of her entire family, would no doubt be the spitting image of the woman who had been the ruin of mine.

Juniper shifted, her face so openly readable it was almost painful. She would have to learn to mask those emotions better if she was going to survive what was coming. They would eat her alive, otherwise.

"I'm not running." Her silky voice was quiet, but firm. I could see why Cade had fallen for her. A complication that would force me to tread carefully. Cade was notoriously protective of those he cared about, to include myself. Something I'd exploited time and time again. Would he turn on me against his better judgment if he thought I was a threat to Juniper? My eyes slid to the man in question, as I observed the way he pressed against her. His thigh nearly dwarfed hers, crowding her space and yet, she didn’t draw away from it, instead keeping hers pressed firmly against him. Almost as if she was lending some of her strength to him.

To be honest, I still hadn't decided if I was a threat to my new found sister or not. Diovolo's were notoriously loyal and ruthless at the same time. My grandfather's treatment of my father, for example. The night he was murdered, my grandfather had suddenly appeared at my father's penthouse, looked down at me and said, "Your father was dead to me. Outcast. But now he is murdered. My only son, my Niko. You will come with me, boy, and you will avenge his death one day. And pray that I never cast you out like I did him."

From that moment on, I knew only two things. My father was gone, and I would be my grandfather's revenge. I wasn't allowed to call him grandfather. He was my Papa now. As if by adopting me, he had erased my father from ever existing. Nikolai Diovolo was a name never uttered, except to fuel the desire to avenge his death. I was brought up solely by the old man and raised to take over as the head of the family, once I'd wrestled control from his cold, dead hands.

Yes. My father was murdered. And in turn, I'd killed the man who I held truly responsible for his death. At the end of the day, it was my grandfather who'd driven my father away. And no amount of beatings could erase that memory from my mind.

But there were others who were responsible as well. The person who'd truly killed him that fateful night, for one. And Blaire DeClare, the woman he'd risked everything for, who'd drawn him away from his family, his son, to be there with her.

I didn't blame Juniper at all. She was innocent in it. But that didn't mean that I wouldn't use her as a means to an end. Sister or not.

"No one said anything about running, Juniper. This is an offer I won't extend again. Rip up that invitation and go back to your old life. Live in peace and pretend this never happened." My fingers tapped on my knee, drumming a rhythm only I knew and could hear. Tap-tap, tap-tap. Slow your heartbeat, control your breathing, give nothing away.

She leaned forward, withdrawing her hand from Cade's and the sweet thrill of victory rushed through me. I had her. But it was the viciousness in her voice that made my perspective of her shift, just slightly. "You clearly didn't hear me, brother. I said, I'm not running. And that's exactly what you're asking me to do. You think Edmund Wild cares if I decide I'm done playing his game? He doesn't. He never did. And I don't know what the big, bad Kage Diovolo is capable of..." Her hand waved dismissively in the air and I had to hold back a laugh. Oh, little sister had a bark. But did she bite? "... but I'm almost certain that if you could have found Edmund by now, you would have. So, thank you, but I don't think I trust your promise of protection or that you'll be out of my life forever if I take your offer. I think you very much want to be involved in my life whether I want it or not. Isn't that what you said? 'I've been looking for you for a long time, little sister.'" She mockingly quoted my earlier words. Then she sat back giving me a pointed stare, and I had to suck in a breath for how much she looked like our father at that moment. "Now, big brother, are you going to quit with the cryptic bullshit and tell me what I want to know? Or are we done here?"

I couldn't recall the last time I'd felt so exposed in this way. What did she know? What had she learned in the time since she'd discovered I existed? I cast a glance at Cade, but all he did was give me a pointed look that said, "You have no clue what you've gotten yourself into, bro. Good luck."

Clearing my throat, I sat back. "Well, okay then. I'm glad to see you don't run from a fight." She didn't blink at my compliment, just continued to stare at me in the same way that I was sure she'd stared down unruly bikers at The Pit. Now I understood why most of my crew had taken to frequenting the bar over the years. This spitfire of a woman, my long, lost little sister had kept them all in line and coming back for more. I was almost glad I hadn't realized who she was then, because I was sure I'd have murdered over half of my club over her. "So, what is your first question?"

"No. I won't run from a fight ever again." There was something there in her voice that I would have to explore later. She took a deep breath, exhaling it slowly as if shaking off the weight of her thoughts, re-centering herself and then asked the question I'd been waiting to answer.

"Who murdered our father?"

"Haven’t you figured it out yet, little sis?" My lips curved into a wicked smile as my words dripped with venom. "The same man who murdered your mother. Edmund Wild."

I watched the color drain from her face.

And suddenly I didn't feel as victorious as I had moments earlier.