Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 79304 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79304 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 397(@200wpm)___ 317(@250wpm)___ 264(@300wpm)
“We’re brothers. Not strangers.”
“Enemies aren’t strangers.” His eyes were frozen like two pieces of ice.
“You’re no enemy of mine.”
“Really? You’ve had a change of heart about my operation?”
I refused to lie to get what I wanted. “No. But I already live with Father’s blood on my hands. I can’t live with yours too. It doesn’t fix the problem, only causes more problems.”
“So you still think I’m a piece of shit.”
“Yes.”
He smiled, as if the insult were some kind of joke. “At least you’re honest.”
“Then you know I really do feel like shit for what I did.”
“And that’s supposed to make it better?” he asked incredulously. “You betrayed your family—”
“And you’re betraying humankind. Those women are daughters, mothers, sisters, wives…what the fuck is wrong with you?”
“And selling crystal is better?” he snapped. “People get hooked on that shit and ruin their lives. Most of the women here got here in the first place because they’re on drugs—probably your drugs.”
“Not the same thing and you know it.”
“I don’t know about that…”
“You’re kidnapping women and raping them. My customers have a choice. That’s the biggest difference between the two of us.”
“Whatever. You aren’t a saint.”
“Did I say that I was?”
He tapped his fingers against his arm, growing impatient. “What do you want?”
“I already told you.”
“To fix this relationship? Well, that’s not going to happen. I don’t care how many times you apologize, I’ll always fucking hate you. What kind of sick bastard kills his own goddamn father?”
“A man trying to do the right thing.”
He shook his head. “The world doesn’t run on right and wrong. You know it.”
“But it doesn’t have to run on the blood of innocents either.”
He shook his head again. “You came all the way down here just to waste my time?”
“No.”
“Well, it feels like you’re wasting my time.”
The odds seemed even more unlikely now. My brother’s exterior had hardened over the years. There was no light to his darkness. He was a man stuck in his ways. “Ash…let’s bury the hatchet.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re the only family we’ve got left.”
He glanced at my left hand. “That can’t be true. Who’s the lucky lady?”
“Her name is Sofia.”
“Can I see a picture?” He waggled his eyebrows.
I played by his rules the second I stepped into his domain, but once my wife was mentioned, that respect went out the window. “I don’t need a gun to kill you, Ash.” My threat was as sharp as a knife.
His mouth slowly melted into a smile. “You think I’m gonna bring her down here and—”
“Don’t fucking say it.” I’d rather die than even think about something like that happening to her.
His smile remained. “My brother is in love…”
“I married her, didn’t I?”
“Most marriages are shams. But maybe this one is real.”
“It is real.” At least, it was to me.
His smile slowly disappeared. “Congratulations.”
I didn’t accept the sentiment because I knew he didn’t mean it.
“Had a wedding?”
I nodded.
“And you didn’t invite me?”
I didn’t need him until now. “I’m here now.”
He relaxed his arms and let them rest on the table. “It’s been five years since the last time I saw you. And you know what? I haven’t thought of you once until now.” He rose out of his chair. “So how about we go back to that arrangement? Pretending the other doesn’t exist.”
“If you really hated me, you would have killed me by now.”
“That’s because I don’t hate you—I’m just indifferent to you.”
I returned to the hotel and stepped out of the elevator onto the top floor. The double doors to the presidential suite were in front of me, and I dragged my feet as I crossed the hallway and slipped my card into the device.
The door unlocked, and I stepped inside.
Sofia was on the couch wearing my t-shirt, eating popcorn right out of the bag. “Good, you’re home.” She set the food on the table and got to her feet, greeting me the way most wives greeted their husbands. “You weren’t gone long.”
“Because it wasn’t a long conversation.” I headed to the bar and made myself a drink.
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“It wasn’t.” I turned around and took a sip, the alcohol having no effect on my mood. I didn’t expect much when I faced Ash, but even that fell below my expectations. “He wants nothing to do with me.”
“Maybe you need to give him some space…”
I couldn’t give him that much space. I needed to get this shit done. I couldn’t tell him outright why I needed his forgiveness because he would hold it over my head to further my punishment. “I have to make this happen…somehow.”
“Can I help?”
God, I didn’t want her anywhere near there. “No.”
She took the drink out of my hand then ran her palms up my arms, trying to comfort me with her seductive affection. “You did your best. Let it go.”
“No.” I could never let it go. “It’s hard to look my brother in the eye and not hate him. I stood in the bar and listened to the women service the men down the hall…women forced against their will. It only reminded me why I killed my father in the first place. Now my brother is continuing his legacy. It’s disgusting.”