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

27. Adrian

27

ADRIAN

It was easy going through life when the only person I had to take care of was me. But when you had someone you loved, someone you wanted to keep safe, someone whose happiness meant everything to you, it was hard not to think about anything else, least of all focusing on the mission.

But I had to.

Shortly after we exited from the car, Vega and I were split into two different groups of the four created, leading the men and women that came with Gabriela. With her and Ethan leading the other two, each group covering different areas of the Academy.

Vega refused to look at me as we started walking toward the back entrance of the building, and no matter how much that annoyed me, I understood. She was separating herself from the situation, from me, just like I should have done. But as we passed through the old gates that were thankfully still functioning, I couldn't help myself, pulling her to me and wrapping my arms around her.

"Come back to me," I grunted, squeezing her as hard as I could without hurting her. "Please, come back to me."

Her small hands rubbed over my back, slowly ascending toward my hair, playing with the strands at the back of my neck. "I will," she said. "I'll come back to you." She took a step back and I let her go, even when every single fiber of my being screamed for me to keep her close. To never let her go. "I'll always come back to you, Adrian."

She didn't let me say anything else before running through the forest and away from me, followed by the three soldiers Gabriela had given her.

That was an hour ago, and I still thought about her more than the mission at hand.

"Sir," one of the soldiers, Donato, called out for me as we passed my cabin. "What is that?" He pointed toward the dark figure not too far from us, his back turned toward us.

I pressed my finger to my lips and pointed for Donato, Raffaela, and Alejandro to circle around the figure. It was hard to see if it was one of our people, since they were wearing a tactical uniform with a balaclava over their head. But one of our people wouldn't be randomly standing not very far off from my cabin, with a rifle in their hands, scanning the area.

Donato went to the left with Raffaela, sneaking up on the figure, while Ale took the right side, with me somewhere in the middle, coming straight at their back.

The wind picked up, slamming into us from all sides, and I hoped the sound of the wind rustling the trees and the cawing birds above us would hide the sound of our footsteps as we came closer, and closer, and?—

"Down on your knees, soldier," I said, pressing the barrel of my own rifle against their neck. The person froze, their fingers tightening around the rifle they were holding, but with one nod from me, Donato came to their side, taking the weapon away, while Raffaela bent down to remove all the knives strapped to their thighs.

"On your fucking knees," I bit out, pressing the rifle harder into their neck.

They dropped down like a sack of potatoes, trembling from head to toe. "Please don't kill me," the male voice came out, and without even an instruction from me, Ale pulled off the balaclava, revealing a man I knew from the time I worked with my father. I walked in front of him, needing to see his face to confirm my suspicions.

"I would say it's nice seeing you, Nathan, but given that you were pronounced dead not too long ago, I'm not sure if I should be happy or scared since zombies tend to eat other people." Ale chuckled, trying to cover it with his hand and failing miserably. "So, are you a zombie, Nathan, or was this just another lie my father created to keep us all in line?"

His green eyes lifted up, looking straight at me, and for someone with a character known for his cockiness that made me want to kill him myself, he was awfully quiet and scared. Hell, the man trembled in front of me as if he truly didn't want to be here.

"I didn't have a choice!" he thundered. "They were going to kill me if I didn't do what Gerard wanted me to do."

"Which was?"

"Pretend I was dead. Join the secret team he was building behind your back." So, my father knew about The Brotherhood longer than I thought. "He wanted us to infiltrate your team, to infiltrate the Academy, and work in the shadows. I didn't want this, Adrian. Trust me, I didn't fucking want this."

"If I recall correctly," I said, crouching in front of him. "You were the bloodthirsty one, weren't you?" I smirked at the terror flashing on his face. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you were one of the soldiers who tried attacking me just before your mission."

"I was wrong," the fucker mumbled. "I was under a lot of pressure. I didn't?—"

"Spare me your explanations," I barked, standing up. "You joined that secret team for my father because you wanted to save your own ass, even though you knew what they were doing. You could have come to me. You could have explained and I would've listened."

"No," he shook his head. "You don't—" The gunshot went quietly, thanks to the silencer, and as Nathan fell back, his blood started oozing out of the gunshot wound in his forehead.

"What the fuck, Adrian!" Ale yelped, jumping in the spot. "He could have given us information."

"No," I said, putting the gun back into the holster. "He was a foot soldier, useless to us. He was here to guard the area, that much I already knew."

"But—"

"And I didn't want to listen to him." Especially, since he was one of the men that had put me in the hospital a couple of months before I came to the Academy. I was starting to think my father ordered that hit as well, but I couldn't be entirely too sure, especially since I had no idea how long he had known about The Brotherhood. Judging by what Nathan had said, he'd known for quite some time, but he didn't do anything about it until I refused to come back home and pretend to be his dutiful son.

"Let's go," I said, moving away from the group. "We need to get to the main building." Ethan had managed to get in touch with one of the students who were hiding in the control center, and it seemed that my father's soldiers had decided to use the main building as their base.

I had no idea what the point of this attack was, if it was just a warning or a full-blown assault, but whichever it was, we needed to deal with it. I couldn't allow my father to take over the Academy.

That was out of the question.

What worried me was the fact that someone must have let the soldiers in. Someone from the inside, because there was no way they'd be able to gain access otherwise.

Javier, the kid who spoke with Ethan, told him there was no forced entry. The guards at the main gate were killed by someone from the inside and we either had a mole among our ranks or my fucking brother had managed to sneak inside without us noticing. Considering that Dain knew the Academy better than I did, it wouldn't surprise me, but Javier had no idea if he was there with the soldiers.

The more we unraveled this whole spiderweb, the more pieces of the puzzle started falling into place.

It was clear to all of us that my father and Heinrich worked together now, and that my brother was involved with them as well. The agents we've had around the globe had confirmed as much, and we were too foolish not to check it all out before. Truth be told, I hadn’t thought much of my brother until Vega confirmed that Tyler, in fact, was Dain.

I should have expected something to happen, but I still had so many questions and not enough answers. All those years I thought he had died, or was locked up somewhere, far away from all of us, when in reality he was probably working for our father, infiltrating The Schatten. Or more likely, Heinrich already knew who Dain was, and had used it to get closer to our father.

Whatever it was, I wished that Heinrich had destroyed my father if and when he had the chance instead of working with him. It bothered Vega that the only people she had ever known were the same ones trying to eliminate her. It bothered her that the motherfucker who took her in, who practically stole her from a regular life, was the same one who wanted her gone now.

After all these years, after all the sacrifices she'd made, you would think that an organization such as The Schatten would appreciate its people just a little bit more. Unfortunately, if there was one thing I’d learned in the last couple of years, it was that each and every one of us was expendable.

We were replaceable.

She was one of the strongest people I knew, but it was clear as day that this news wasn't something she expected to have. Vega obviously wanted to leave, but just because she wanted to leave didn't mean it didn't hurt her knowing that those she considered a family, once upon a time, were the same people who presently wished her harm.

"Get down!" Raffaela suddenly yelled out, pulling me back from my own thoughts, just as Donato slammed into me, knocking me down on the ground. The sound of gunshots tore through the quiet afternoon, scattering the birds and destroying our cover.

"What the fuck?" I gritted out, moving slowly from underneath Donato. "Where did they come from?"

I looked up, seeing the walls of the main building but not the location of our shooters.

Movement to the left pulled my attention, gripping my heart in a punishing vise when I realized who it was.

Vega ran across the clearing, pointing her rifle upward. My eyes tracked the path her rifle was pointing when she shot one, two, three times, followed by the sound of screams echoing around us. Two men that were perched on one of the balconies higher up fell down, their bodies smashing against the ground.

I jumped up as my three companions screamed for me to duck down. There was still one more shooter aiming at us, but I didn't care.

There were trees covering us, but Vega—Vega was completely uncovered. Exposed.

She rolled down on the ground and started crawling toward the wall of the building, but it was no use. If the shooter had a clear view of her, they could?—

"No!" I thundered as the person targetted her, and seeing the bullets raining down around her only had me running faster.

Someone came up behind her, pulling her back, but she fought against them. I recognized the person immediately as one of the soldiers she took off with, but where were the other two?

The sound of a shot being fired from behind me had me freezing on the spot. I turned around slowly only to see Ale with his rifle aimed at the person we could now see bent over the small fence placed in front of the window.

"Holy shit, man," I wheezed. "A little warning next time, maybe?"

"There was no time." He shrugged. "Come on. Your girl was over there, right?"

"Yeah," I nodded, jogging toward the place where Vega was just a moment ago, but when I looked at the spot again, I could no longer see her. "Where the fuck did she go?"

Raffaela, Donato, and Ale all followed my lead as we scanned the windows on the building, but none of the soldiers were there. If this was a full-blown attack, they would have placed more people around. So far we had only encountered Nathan and a few other soldiers strolling around, plus these three that were shooting at us.

Knowing my father and his generals, they would've deployed everyone to take us down. Unless they really thought we would still be on the other side of the town.

It all felt too rushed, too unplanned, at least for what I was familiar with. Gerard Zylla always planned—always. Sometimes even too much, but none of our missions were this scarcely manned.

I expected more from them, unless?—

"Adrian," Raffaela mumbled, pointing at something not far from us.

We slowly rounded the building, walking toward the back end, where the cliff ended, where not so long ago I had Vega pinned to the wall, too angry with myself and this attraction I felt toward her. But I wished we were back at that place, instead of here, with her on her knees in front of me and my brother behind her, holding a gun to her head.

"Hello, Adrian." The motherfucker grinned, the blood on his face making him look even more sinister.

My blood turned to ice seeing her on the ground like this, at his feet.

"Dain," I bit out, coming closer to them.

"Na-uh." He chuckled. "Stay right where you are." He pressed the barrel of his gun harder against Vega's head, smiling like a lunatic the entire time.

"Let her go, Dain," I said, unable to look away from the scene in front of me.

Vega looked… She looked fucking pissed. Her eyes held the same anger I felt when I saw my brother with her here, but something else was there too, something I couldn't quite understand. She was pissed at more than just the fact that Dain held her at gunpoint.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," the fucker said, dragging his hand over her cheek. "You see." He looked down at her. "Vega was a very bad girl, and you know what bad girls get?" he asked, looking up at me. "They get punished."

I gritted out, "Let. Her. Go."

The longer we stood here, the more I realized I no longer saw the boy I grew up with. Yeah, we fought just like all brothers do. Yeah, we had our fucked-up situations, but the man in front of me was insane.

I could see it in his eyes, in the way his hands twitched, in the way he kept looking down at Vega and then up at me.

"She let you touch her," he said calmly, almost too calmly. "She's mine!" I could no longer listen to him. I could no longer create excuses for his shitty behavior, and without waiting, I lifted my rifle up, aiming it at him.

"Ah, Adrian." The lunatic laughed. "When will you learn? You think you can take me?"

"I know I can."

"Think again, little brother. Or did you forget that I was always two steps ahead of you in every single one of our games." He nodded at something, and before I could decipher the meaning, the sound of a gun cocking came from my back and my left side—right where Donato and Raffaela stood.

I could feel my blood pressure skyrocketing, my eyes widening as I turned around, looking at the two of them.

Alejandro stood there, stupefied, his rifle up in the air.

"Drop down the weapon, Ale," Raffaela said, aiming at him. "Now!" He looked at me, then at her, and before I could say anything, he aimed straight at Raffaela. But before he could even pull the trigger, she shot him, point-blank, in the middle of his forehead.

Alejandro dropped down on the ground, his eyes wide open, slowly getting covered with his own blood.

"Why?" I asked, looking at the two people who were supposed to be on our side. "Why would you do this?"

Raffaela shrugged, while Donato smirked. "He pays better," Donato said. "Besides, neither one of us liked Gabriela all that much."

"They're not the only ones," Vega murmured, and as I turned around I saw her looking at me. "This piece of shit," she pointed at the man lying on the ground now in a pool of his own blood. "He tried to kill me." It was the same man who started pulling her back.

"And you fought so magnificently," Dain croaked, now dragging his gun over her cheek. "Like a true angel of death, just how we taught you."

"You didn't teach me shit, you motherfucker. I swear, I would—" Dain slapped her, making her head turn to the side from the force of his hit.

"No!"

"Na-uh, Adrian." Raffaela stopped me when I tried moving toward them. "On the ground, pretty boy." She pressed the barrel of her gun between my shoulder blades, and when I didn't budge, she pushed me down, making me fall on my knees with a huff.

I looked up at Vega, trying to ignore the bruise forming on her face and the pain in her eyes. I focused on her anger, on her need for revenge, but the situation we were in wasn't something we had anticipated.

Yes, we knew it would be dangerous, reckless even, but we thought we could trust our own people. We thought we could trust the soldiers that were supposedly on our side. Now it would seem that we didn't have one mole, but several of them.

Dain trained his gun at me this time, wrapping his hand in Vega's hair, forcing her to look at me.

"Look at him, Vega." He laughed. "Look as I kill the man who dared to touch what was mine."

"No," she whispered. "Please. No."

There was no reasoning with him, not even if it came from her. There was no reasoning with a madman, no matter how hard you tried.

"I love you, Bambi," I said, seeing that there was no way out. Dain would kill me, that much was obvious.

He was obsessed with Vega, but me… He didn't give a fuck about me. He'd probably wanted me dead far longer than I knew. There was no love lost between the two of us, but Vega could survive. She was smarter—smarter than all of us.

Dain was obviously unhinged, completely unstable, but the way he held her, the way he caressed her, told me he cared about her more than he let on.

"I'll forever love you. I need you to know that."

"No," she shook her head, "don't say that."

"Shut up!" Dain thundered, but I wasn't going to waste the opportunity. "Shut the fuck up, Adrian."

"I want you to live your life, baby. I want you to be happy, to do everything you always wanted to do." Her eyes filled with tears, tearing me apart. "Be happy, Vega. Be happy, for me."

"I said," Dain started. "Shut the fuck up!" Vega's tears fell freely down her cheeks, killing me more than any bullet ever could, but this was inevitable.

I broke my promise and I just prayed she would one day be able to forgive me.

"Any last words, little brother?" Dain asked, pulling Vega up by her hair, making her yelp out in pain.

"Yeah." I looked at him, grinning widely. "I'll see you in hell."