The Pretty Psycho (St. Vasili’s Academy #2)

17. Adrian

17

ADRIAN

My heart was finally at ease, seeing Vega sitting at the table in the cabin eating the sandwich I'd made her once we got inside. Her cheeks were flushed, touched by the cold as we walked here from the building where Yolanda was staying. She finally wasn't as pale as yesterday and I was more than thankful for that small miracle.

She frowned at something as she ate the last piece of her sandwich, chewing slowly, when those eyes found mine, finally seeing me looking at her from the other end of the table.

"Is there something on my face?" she asked, brushing her fingers around her lips, trying to locate the possible crumbs.

"No," I muttered. "It's just good seeing you in this space." I wanted to tell her so much more, but she wasn't ready to hear how I almost destroyed it all when she went missing. I’d had hours to think about everything she'd told me, and while I knew now that some of it came from a place of fear, the rest was definitely true.

I didn't want to suffocate her, so we would start out slowly.

"Do you want more?" I asked when she just kept staring at me, her eyes narrowed as if she was trying to read me. But there were no secrets I wanted to keep anymore. There was nothing I wanted to hide from her. All she had to do was ask and I'd be happy to tell her everything she wanted to know.

"No," she mumbled. "I think I'm good now." The air was filled with a sense of trepidation that wasn't here before, and I wanted it gone. I didn't want her sitting on the other side of the table, but right next to me. Unfortunately, for all my caveman tendencies, she needed her space. Especially since I was about to dish out all my dirty laundry.

"I was born in Spain," I blurted out before she could say anything else. "I don't remember much about my childhood, but I do remember warm summers and my brother as he chased me around the house we were living in. I'm not sure how big my father's empire was at that point, but as a kid I had a good time. Unfortunately, all good things have to come to an end sometimes and the moment we moved from Spain to London, I saw what my father truly was." A fucking monster, but that was beside the point. "He loved creating these little competitions for Dain and me, and it took me a long time to see that he was pitting us against each other. As years went by, those competitions turned more serious, and the more we got involved with the organization, the more my father smiled every time the two of us would be at each other's necks."

"I'm sorry, Adrian," she murmured. I hated talking about my brother, but she had to hear this.

"Dain wanted more than my father was willing to give him. He was power-hungry, obsessed with his position, and he used people around him as if they were disposable. I loved my brother, but he was definitely a real piece of shit." She chuckled, crossing her legs while I continued talking. "I don't really know when it all culminated, or if it was several different events that had my father finally kicking him to the curb, but one day Dain just left the house. He came back from time to time, attended family dinners, but he was no longer a part of the organization and Father most definitely did not want him around for longer than necessary. I should've known some shit was happening, because by that point I was already immersed into the organization. I was desperate to prove myself, to get that approval from my father." I chuckled sadly. "I betrayed my brother."

Her eyes widened.

"I found out Dain had been selling our secrets to the enemy, and I reported him to my father. Little did I know that my father wouldn't take it so lightly, even if he was his son. I don't know what he did, but Dain disappeared. To this day, I do not know if he's alive or not but?—"

"But you're blaming yourself for that," she said, seeing more than what I was saying.

"Yes," I added, tapping my fingers on the table. "But I became the perfect soldier, hoping that maybe one day my father would tell me what happened to my brother. He never failed to remind me it was thanks to me that they got the mole from the organization, constantly bringing back the fact that I reported my own brother." Seconds ticked by slowly as she stared at me, her face void of any emotions, when she suddenly stood up and rounded the table, coming to sit right next to me.

Her hand landed on top of mine, squeezing lightly, urging me, without words, to continue.

"Dain had his demons, but I don't know if those demons would've quieted down with age or not. And that's the problem—I have no idea if we would even be in this situation if he was still around."

"I'm sorry, Adrian," she murmured. "It must have been hard dealing with all that on your own."

"It was okay." I shrugged. "But somewhere between begging my father to tell me what happened to Dain and now, I've realized that he had to go. The things he did, the things he had ordered us to do… They were monstrous, Bambi. He was turning into the Devil in front of my eyes, and I could do nothing to stop him."

"But now you can."

"Yes." I smiled at her, placing my other hand on top of hers. "Now I definitely can. That's why The Brotherhood was created and why we have worked for the past couple of years to get as many people as possible to join our cause. We'd created a myth here at the Academy that it was a secret society, hiding in plain sight, while making sure that Andries and my father's goons would never find out. Unfortunately, they obviously still did, so here we are."

Her hair fell out of the makeshift bun she had made the moment we came into the cabin, making me want to touch her, bring her in, show her how much her being here meant to me.

"When you came to the Academy, I wanted to hate you." I laughed. "But I think deep down I knew it was already too late. You stole my heart back on that train and I should've known it would be impossible to get it back." Her eyes betrayed the emotions she was trying to hold back, and without even thinking, I lifted her off her chair and placed her on top of my lap. "I was so angry at you, at me, at the entire world for putting you here. When I saw you in that ring, I wanted to wring your pretty little neck because you were allowing yourself to get hurt, by taking Yolanda's place."

"I had to."

"I know you did. Just know that I hated it. I wanted you gone so I could go back into my dark little cave and hide from the rest of the world. You see, I've been dealing with insomnia for quite some time now, and having you there only pushed me deeper into the abyss my lack of sleep was creating for me. Then came the fact that none of your documents were real and we understood that you weren't the girl from some Russian family." She smiled at this, dragging her fingers through my hair.

"The Schatten didn't really try to cover their tracks. I mean, they obviously wanted me gone and they must have known that if one of you just dared to look deeper into those records, you would find the truth."

"We did." I nodded. "But I had no idea who you truly were up until later. Then those murders started happening and I recognized the way they were done as the style that a lot of The Schatten operatives use. With you here at the Academy and with all those little lies you were weaving, I placed my bets on you being part of The Schatten."

"Well, you weren't wrong."

"No, I wasn't. But you weren't the one killing all those girls. Regardless," I pressed her closer to me. "I went to see my father, which was when he gave me your file. I was shocked at first, but I should have known. You and Arseniy look so much alike, it's almost uncanny. My father was maybe banking on me following his orders and killing you as it was requested by him, but now I cannot help myself and think that he already knew about The Brotherhood at that point. Actually, I'm pretty sure he already knew, because there was no other reason for him to work with Heinrich other than to bring both of us down."

"But then we kinda fucked them over." She laughed. "Why didn't you tell me all of this?"

"I wanted to," I sighed. "I wanted to so badly, but there never was enough time to talk about these things. There was a lunatic obviously obsessed with you and instead of telling you what was happening, I tried waiting for the perfect moment. But then you were attacked," I murmured. "And I forgot all about those files until I saw your face that day."

"And then I ran," she murmured, finally voicing what had happened. "It was wrong of me to run away from you like that, but… I was just so hurt and so confused."

"I know. I'm pretty sure that anyone in your situation would've done the same thing, but I want you to know that I didn't hide all that information because I had sinister intentions. I was waiting for the right time to share that with you."

"Now I know." She smiled. "Thank you for telling me."

I could stay here forever, wrapped up in her, ignoring the rest of the world, but we couldn't hide from our responsibilities indefinitely and she had to know what was coming.

"We still don't know who or where Tyler is, Vega," I said slowly, gauging her reaction. She flinched, obviously hating even thinking about him, but she had to know what was discussed. "After you left with Yolanda, we had a meeting with the generals of The Brotherhood."

"The generals?" She frowned.

"Yeah, the generals. We have people spread around the world who are in charge of recruiting other individuals we could have in the organization. Anyway," I cleared my throat, "their troops are arriving soon, but one of the questions we've been discussing was Tyler. None of us have ever met him and we have no idea who this person is and why he has a vendetta against me."

She huffed, closing her eyes. "I don't know, Adrian. He was definitely mentioning your name, hating that the two of us were together."

I tightened my hold on her, hating that she had to discuss that piece of shit, but there was no other option.

"I've combed through my memories, but the person you kind of described to me is not someone I know. We have sealed shut that entrance into the underground tunnels, since it would seem that he knew his way around. There's no Tyler in any of the records at the Academy, and trust me, I've checked it myself."

"He's a fucking ghost," she bit out. "I just… I have a feeling that The Schatten would know more about him. Maybe he was using a fake name or something like that. I don't know. I just don't fucking know what to feel, what to say. I don't understand how I could’ve been so blind. I don’t understand why they would fake this."

"You were just a child."

"I know," she grumbled. "But I'm still pissed." Good.

Her anger was better than her completely breaking apart because a person she once trusted turned out to be the person who hurt her.

"Come on," I patted her butt, pushing us slightly away from the table. "I promised you the story about my family, but you gotta see the pictures."

"You have them here?" She perked up. "Do you have any pictures of you as a little boy?"

"Ha!" I laughed. "You wish. Those are safely tucked somewhere in one of the houses my mother has. She and my father don't really live together, but they are staying in this sham of a marriage. Anyway." I stood up just as I lowered her down. "They're right here," I said, walking toward the drawers next to my bed. The wood creaked as I opened the drawer, pulling out the stack of pictures I had prepared even before her attack.

The first one was of me from several years ago, wearing tactical gear, ready for a mission. I handed it over to Vega, who kept smiling widely and teasing me about the short haircut I had at the time just as she sat down on the chair we were occupying moments ago.

We went through the photos of my father, my mother, some of The Brotherhood when we just started, until I came to one photo I could never get rid of.

Dain and I stood by a lake in Switzerland, both of us serious as we stared at the camera. I was definitely younger than I am now, but Dain was already starting to fit into the uniform he wore, resembling our father more and more with each passing day.

"This is Dain," I said, slowly handing the photo over to her. "It was taken a little bit before he disappeared, but it's the only photo I have of him."

Vega's eyes softened, her hand in the air, ready to take the picture.

"Please keep in mind I was still just a teenager here." I laughed, finally giving her the photo. Her eyes stayed on mine, soft, happy. I wanted her to always look like this—relaxed, happy, content. But the emotions I saw on her face quickly vanished when she took a look at the photo.

Her hands shook, her lips parted and closed, and she looked up at me. The sorrow she had on that first day after she woke up was back in full force, telling me something was wrong.

"Vega?"

Tears filled her eyes, making me drop down on my hunches right in front of her. My hands landed on her knees while desperation coursed through me. "What's wrong, Bambi?"

"That's Dain?" she asked, her voice trembling, her hands still holding the photo.

"Yes." I nodded, unable to understand what was happening. "Vega, you're scaring me."

"T-That," she stammered. "That's not just Dain, Adrian." She took a deep breath just as the first tear rolled down her cheek. "That's Tyler." Had she punched me it would've hurt less than what just came out of her mouth.

"What?" I asked, quickly standing up. "What are you talking about?"

"Dain is Tyler, Adrian," she said, gritting her teeth as tears fell down and down and down, until I could no longer stand being this far from her. I pulled a chair closer to hers, taking the photo from her and dropping it to the table. "Dain is the one that raped me, Adrian. Your brother."

I’d been in a car accident once and I never forgot the sound of the brakes screeching in the darkness of the night. The same sound shot through my ears right now, finally hearing what she was saying.

My brother… My brother pretended to be Tyler.

My brother who I thought was missing was the one who pretended to be her friend, only to hurt her like this years later.

"What the fuck?" I breathed out, pulling her to me. "It can't be."

"I'm sure of it," she bit out, her anger resurfacing. "He's the motherfucker who pretended to be my friend. He came to The Schatten before my first mission. I don't know, I think I was maybe twelve." Which also coincided with the time Dain had disappeared.

All this fucking time I blamed myself for what happened to him, but he never went missing. He was buying himself time to destroy me.

That motherfucking son of a bitch.