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

24. Vega

24

VEGA

Okay, maybe I had overreacted. Well, no, I knew for sure that I had overreacted. While on the way here, as Yolanda drove like a rally driver, I picked up my phone and called Gabriela. Telling her to gather every single person possible because we had to save Adrian.

Now standing here in front of him and seeing all these cars made me realize that my panic was definitely blown out of proportion and it shouldn't have happened. Oh, well.

"You can't really blame me." I pouted, refusing to look at him. Bastard was laughing at me, shaking his head, but he should've known I would do something drastic. At least this showed that I should never be the one left in charge.

Weird shit could happen.

Armies could be summoned.

Stuff like that.

But as we raced here, I only had one thought in my head— I couldn't lose him.

I didn't want to lose him, and I guess in those moments between us leaving the Academy, me barking orders at Gabriela who basically laughed her ass off, and arriving here, I couldn't stop the panic clawing at my throat. Even Yolanda kept her mouth shut while I berated myself for pushing him away.

What if we were too late?

What if they already got him?

What if something happened before I could tell him how I felt?

What if my past actions would condemn the amazing future I could've had?

All those thoughts kept running through my head, and when I saw him with his back against the wall of one of the warehouses and that behemoth of a man in front of him, I simply reacted. I mean, they should both be thankful I chose to shoot a warning shot first before aiming for Ethan's head.

In my defense, not that I had a lot of arguments to put forward there, I had no idea it was Ethan. It never occurred to me to check his picture, and it wasn't like I had time to study every single member of The Brotherhood.

"So," Ethan said as he came closer to us. "Care to tell us what's going on?"

"I might have sent out a red alert." I winced, looking at the ground. The sound of several brakes screeching registered in my mind, but I didn't want to look at the cars. "Okay, so…" I turned toward Ethan and Adrian, both of them laughing. "Stop laughing at me. I thought you were in real trouble."

"He almost did get in real trouble," Ethan drawled, looking pointedly at Adrian. "It's a good thing that at least one of us can keep a cool head and go in alone instead of bringing in the cavalry."

"I had no idea what to do!" I exclaimed. "What was I supposed to do? Let him die?" The mere thought of him dying had my throat clogged.

"Hey, hey." He wrapped me in his arms, turning me around so I had no other choice but to look at him. "I'm fine. I'm alive. I mean, if it wasn't for Ethan I would've been halfway in that warehouse by now, but still. I'm here." I didn't wait.

I didn't want to spend another second separated from him. I wrapped my arms around his middle, hiding my face in his sweater.

"I thought I had lost you," I murmured, my voice muffled by the fabric. "I thought I had made the biggest mistake of my life, and I just," I shuddered, "I couldn't not do anything."

"I know," he replied, his lips pressing to the crown of my head. His hand dragged over my ponytail, soothing me with his touch and his words. "We're going to talk about it, but not now."

"I know." I nodded, untangling myself slowly from him and wiping the tears that had spilled over my cheeks. "I just…" I shrugged. "I don't know. I panicked."

"I can see that." He smiled softly, cupping my cheek in the palm of his hand. "But no more panicking, okay? I'm all good. We're good."

"All right," I murmured, looking up at him. "I want you to know, before we do whatever it is that we need to do, that I'm sorry." His dark eyes blazed, the emotion as raw as my own, but he understood what I was trying to say. "I'm not," I stammered. "I'm not good at these things. I'm not good at relationships or emotions, or any of this normal shit," I said. "But I'll try to be better. That's all I can promise. I'll try."

"Let's talk about this later, okay?" he grunted.

I could only nod, before a familiar voice boomed behind us, making me turn away from Adrian.

"So this is where the party is," Gabriela said, grinning at me. "You sounded worried, bella , but here he is, alive and well."

"Yeah, well," I chuckled, "I panicked."

"Hmm." Her dark eyes searched mine and then moved to Adrian who stood behind me. "You look like you were about to cry." She crossed the short distance between us, surpassing Yolanda and stopped right in front of me. "Did you fucking make her cry?" she bit out, looking at Adrian.

There was something violent, something deranged about Gabriela Barone. She looked like a lady, like a fucking model, if I was being completely honest, but whenever I spoke with her I could see her for what she truly was. She reminded me of me, before Adrian and all these fucked-up emotions that were making a mess out of me.

She played the role of a bubbly, happy girl way too well, but there was a wolf hiding behind that sheep's skin, and the look she directed at Adrian told me she felt more protective of me than him.

"No, he didn't do anything."

"Why are you looking at me that way?" he asked. "The two of us obviously have to work on our issues, but I didn’t make her cry.”

"He didn't," I added when her eyes moved to me. "I'm sorry I panicked," I said, sort of hating myself right now. I should've thought this through instead of calling her.

"Nonsense." She smiled. "You can call me any time and I'll come. You wouldn't have called me if it wasn't important." No, I wouldn't have. "Besides." She looked at Ethan who was standing somewhere behind Adrian. "Something tells me we didn't cross all this way for nothing. Ethan," she said, smirking before moving away from Adrian and me and toward the man in question.

I turned around, observing their interaction, and I didn't miss the way Ethan rolled his eyes the moment they landed on her. Something told me that Gabriela wasn't the most popular girl among their group, but she also didn't seem to give a fuck.

I felt Adrian's gaze on me, but I couldn't look at him. It was all cool and dandy, us kissing and apologizing, but I couldn't expect for things to just miraculously go back to how they used to be. We had to have a serious talk, and if we just jumped back into the way things were, nothing would ever change.

I had to trust him with my heart. Saying “I love you” was not just a magic recipe for a healthy relationship, and if I wanted us to succeed, and I definitely did, then I had to tell him everything. I had to tell him my fears so that he could understand why I behaved in such a way.

He was right—it couldn't be only one person doing all the work. The other one had to give something as well.

In this case, both of us made mistakes and even though it was hard admitting they were created by us, it was important we understood where we went wrong.

"Come on," Adrian said, wrapping his fingers around my elbow. "Let's join them. Ethan might get tempted to kill her if she continues talking for longer than necessary, and I kind of like her."

"I like her too," I murmured, letting him lead me. Yolanda quickly caught up with us, falling into step with me. I looked up at her, seeing her already looking at me with an are you okay? expression on her face.

I smiled, and while I wasn’t fully okay, I would be. We would get there. Right now we had more important things to worry about, and going over my relationship with Adrian wasn't one of them.

"So," I could hear Gabriela clearly now, "tell me about these assholes that are hiding in the warehouse."

"How many are there?"

"Do we have to do this with her?" Ethan asked Adrian, completely ignoring her.

We were standing right next to Gabriela now and I could see her eyebrow arching and that venomous expression crossing over her face. Ethan was standing one moment, but in the next, she had her hand wrapped around his throat, while her long nails dug into his skin as his eyes bulged out, looking at her with an anger that matched her own. His hand landed on her wrist, trying to peel her off, but there was no moving her without scratching himself.

"I'm going to ask this one more time, Ethan darling, and I really hope you're going to answer. As it is, I am hungry, pissed off, and I haven't had a proper night of sleep in months. So." She laughed darkly. "How many fuckfaces are waiting for us inside that warehouse and what are the specifics, because knowing you, you're already well aware of every entry and exit point, so why don't you share it with class?"

I looked at Adrian, my eyes wide, contemplating between helping Ethan and letting her do her thing, but Adrian simply shook his head, fisting his hands but letting her do whatever the fuck she wanted. I wouldn't want to mess with her either, if I was being completely honest, and I was sure I could take her on.

But where I fought because I had to, because I was trained for this, Gabriela loved it. There was something vicious in her eyes that told me she loved seeing Ethan completely at her mercy, seeing what she was capable of.

I moved toward them just as she released Ethan, stepping away from him, while the man in question rubbed his throat, throwing daggers at her.

"So?" she asked, not missing a beat. "Are you going to share with us the information we all so desperately need or are you still going to pretend you don't want to go in there and destroy the fuckers that dared to mess with us?" Venom dripped from her words, and if I wasn't on her side, if she wasn't fighting with us, I would be afraid. I understood why they called her the Black Widow. I understood why they feared her, because she didn't care.

Gabriela Barone simply did not care, and I wondered if she wanted to cleanse the world from those that dared to attack her and those she accepted in her inner circle or because she just didn't care about anything anymore. For all her bravado, for all her smiles and all those words she said, there was something missing in those dark eyes—life. Life was missing. The willingness to fight because she wanted to survive.

Gabriela fought because she wanted to die and that scared me more than The Schatten and Adrian's father.

I felt Adrian coming closer to me just before he wrapped his arm around my middle, centering me without even knowing it. He was my reason, my solace, my happily ever after, and I just hoped Gabriela would find someone like that. I hoped she would find her reason.

"The warehouse is approximately three kilometers away from here, as you can see.” He pointed at the warehouse with the red peeling facade. “There's at least ten of them," Ethan said, clearing his throat. "I scouted the area quickly, so we would have to be careful, but there are at least two snipers on top of the warehouse." He pointed in their direction. "The rest of them are inside the building, waiting for Adrian."

"Good." Gabriela grinned, clasping her hands together in front of her. "Now, was that so hard?" she asked him, her stare unwavering, drilling into Ethan.

"No," he bit out, glaring at her, but neither one of them did anything else. The thick tension in the air could be cut with a knife, but no one had any intention of drawing attention to that fact. I looked over my shoulder at a pale Yolanda and her shaky hands. She held her phone in her right hand, smiling weakly at me, but I could see her frightened eyes and the sweat beading on her forehead.

"All righty then," Gabriela murmured, turning toward us. "Shall we do this?"

It wasn't like we had much choice. If Gerard Zylla sent his soldiers to Wolfhole, then that meant the rest of the party wasn't far off. Was Heinrich going to appear as well? Would we be able to take down both monsters and reclaim this world as ours?

"We need a plan," Adrian said as his arm tightened around me. "I don't want us going in blind."

"Oh, now you want a plan." Gabriela chuckled. "Maybe if we had a plan from the very beginning instead of you driving here like a maniac and worrying my girl—" Adrian groaned. "—then I'd be able to go back in time and watch my favorite TV show!" Yeah, Gabriela was pissed at him.

"Are you done?" Adrian asked, obviously not amused at her shrieking and calling him out. "I thought I had no choice."

"We always have a choice, pretty boy," she smirked. "And we both know that subconsciously," she took a step closer, staring him down, "you wanted an out. You wanted to stop feeling it all in here." She pressed her forefinger to his chest. "You wanted it all to go away, because you're tired of having this weight on your shoulders."

"Gabriela," Adrian warned. "Don't."

She grinned like a madwoman, putting some distance between them. "Truth hurts, doesn't it, Adrian?"

"It does," he agreed, making me look up at him. "But you already knew that, didn't you? The truth has hurt you the most." Her eyes narrowed, the grin disappeared, and if she looked scary before, it was nothing compared to the look on her face right now. "I like you, Gaby, I really, really do," Adrian murmured. "But you don't get to behave like a raging bitch toward me and my friends. You're part of our circle, you always were, but before telling me about the hurtful truth you should look in the mirror and ask yourself why you've spent the last couple of years on a suicide mission, instead of going home."

"I went home."

"Nah." Adrian shook his head. "We both know that's not the home I'm talking about. We both know that he waited, and waited, and fucking waited, but you never showed."

"You don't know anything, Adrian," she fumed. "Nothing at all!"

"I know enough." My man shrugged while I watched the altercation. "I know that you would rather have spent all these years out in the world instead of going to the one place that could heal all those open wounds you've been carrying around. And we both know what happens to open wounds, Gabriela—they get infected. They make you rotten from the inside out, and you, for all your goodness, you've allowed yourself to become rotten."

Her eyes misted, but Adrian wasn't done. I had no idea if this was something that’d been building up over the years, but I wasn't going to stop him.

I liked Gabriela. Hell, I liked her more than most people, but she needed to hear this. If this was the truth she has been running from, then she needed to face it or she would never get to really live.

I knew a thing or two about running from yourself, from the people who loved you and the places that you knew could heal you. I knew what it was like to look in the mirror and hate the person staring back at you, but you couldn't replace your skin with someone else's. You had to live with your mistakes, with your tragedies.

And every single one of us had tragedy carved on our bones, chipping away the pieces of who we wanted to be. That desperation to forget, to erase the past, to erase all the good and bad things was what kept us from moving forward. That desperation came from fear, from a place in our souls that wanted us to stay stagnant, to stay put, because the enemy you knew was more often than not your own mind and your own soul, even when your heart knew you needed to move forward.

I was afraid of love, of Adrian, of the future we could have together, and Gabriela… Well, that look on her face told me she was terrified of whatever the hell Adrian was talking about.

"So the next time you put your hands on any one of my men, I'll rip your throat out and feed it to the dogs."

She blanched. "You wouldn't dare."

"Try. Me." The vein on the side of his neck was protruding, his eyes filled with a wildfire I didn't want to put out, but I knew he would hate himself if he said anything that would really harm their relationship.

"Okay," I murmured as I moved in front of him, blocking Gabriela. "That's enough, Adrian."

"She doesn't?—"

"No," I pushed, placing my hand over his heart. "You've said enough, Adrian. Please." I looked up at him, waiting for those dark eyes to look down at me. "Look at me." His lips flattened, the tic in his cheek becoming prominent, but he finally relented and looked down at me, swallowing me in the darkness and the fury he just spat at Gabriela. "Hey," I smiled, placing my hand on his cheek, hoping it would calm him down. "We don't fight our friends, remember?"

His eyes closed as he placed his palm on top of my hand, inhaling slowly and exhaling quickly, calming himself down.

I could hear footsteps behind me, but I doubted Gabriela would try anything else right now. She was vicious, but she wasn't someone who would attack for no good reason, and if she did just because they had an argument, then she wasn't the kind of person I thought her to be.

"She just pisses me off," he grunted, lowering his face to the crook of my neck, his breath tickling my skin. "She's so fucking stubborn and she can't see what she's doing."

"Do you mind telling me what all of this was about?"

"Dante," he simply said. "They have known each other since they were kids, and while I don't know exactly what had happened, you had to be a fool to miss the way he stared, or rather, glared at her and the pain in his eyes. You also had to be a fool to miss the longing in her eyes whenever she looked at him and thought no one else was watching."

"Oh," I murmured, seeing Gabriela's retreating form over Adrian's shoulder. "Do you think she'll be okay?"

"I think she might try to kill me in my sleep." He chuckled. "But she crossed the line and I couldn't keep my mouth shut anymore."

"I know." I dragged my hand over his cheek, loving the way his entire body shuddered as his hand moved from mine, pushing through my hair. "She will cool down."

"And if she doesn't?"

"Then I'll have to kill her." I shrugged.

He pulled back briefly, looking down at me with the brightest grin I had ever seen. "You'd kill someone for me?"

"Darling," I smiled, wrapping my arms around his neck, "I would destroy the entire world for you." His eyes darkened, his lips parted, and I could feel his desire for me as he pressed his half-hard cock against me, making me moan quietly. "I thought we had a mission to finish."

"Right now I don't give a fuck about the mission," he grunted, lowering his head, when a throat cleared behind us, making us both stop.

"Uh." Ethan's voice made me turn around. "I am sort of sorry for breaking this up, but," he turned around and pointed at the warehouse, "if you don't mind, we still need to get this over with. I kind of don't like this whole feeling of being a sitting duck."

Adrian laughed, turning me around and pressing my back to his front. His cock pressed against my ass, and I could hear the quiet groan, while Ethan rolled his eyes. "Seriously?"

"I know." Adrian chuckled. "But just… Give me a second, okay?"

"Fine." Ethan laughed. "But you literally only have a second. I'll go and talk to Gabriela and hopefully she won't kill me."

I hoped so too, but before I could say anything to Ethan, Adrian started pulling me toward the open door of a building not too far away. His grip on me kept tightening the closer we came to the building, and I didn't need any more words right now.

I just needed him, right here and right now.