Enemy Within (Vampire Born Trilogy, #2) (13 page)

My father shatters the moment when he turns his gaze to Garwin. “Emerik will find out who attacked Brooke, and we shall deal with it. It did not come down from me. Whoever it was acted without my knowledge and will be punished accordingly.” His face tightens with menace.

Lijepa was right; he can be swift in his justice.

“I’m still not sure I believe that,” my mom says, unmoved even after the moment they shared.

Any reply from my father is interrupted when the buzzer in the den chimes, announcing someone at the front gate.

“Were you expecting someone?” Garwin asks my father.

“No,” my father says, looking to Emerik.

Emerik shakes his head.

“Rorik,” Garwin says.

“I got it.” Rorik takes two Zao Duhs with him and leaves.

“You’re not expecting anyone, either?” my mom asks, her forehead lined in worry.

“No one.” Garwin sips on his brandy, something I’ve realized soothes him.

It’s tense and silent for a few minutes. It bothers me, so I speak. “If you don’t want to kill me, what took you so long to come for me?”

He offers me a soft smile. “As I told Mirko, I meant to come earlier, but Jelena left things in such a way I could not divert my attention until they were dealt with. I called but to no avail.”

No one responds to that.

My father glances between Mirko and me, studying us.

It makes me feel awkward, and if I weren’t so squished on the couch, I would slide over an inch or two away from him. Not sure why. It isn’t like I’m trying to please my father or ashamed of Mirko, but the way my father surveys us gives me the feeling I shouldn’t be so close to Mirko.

I don’t like it.

Rorik comes back in. “A runner from the Commission is here asking for Brooke.”

“What does he want?” Garwin asks.

My father stands. “The Commission?”

“Is there only the one?” Mirko asks. He stands as well. He, Garwin, my father, and Emerik move to leave the den.

I get up.

Mirko turns back to me. “Slatki,” he whispers, his face tight. He’s afraid.

It scares me.

“Stay here. Ace.” He jerks his head for Ace to follow them.

I watch them leave and then take a few steps toward the door.

“Brooke,” Hawk warns me.

“I’m not going out to the foyer. I only want to hear what they say.”

Hawk comes with me to the door. We stop and listen.

“Calling her for what?” my father’s deep voice drifts down the hall.

Whatever the reply is, it’s too soft for me to pick up.

I step outside of the door and tiptoe to the other wall in the hallway.

Hawk stays close beside me. Probably preparing to grab me.

“I have a hard time believing you weren’t aware of this.” Garwin. And he’s pissed.

“I am as surprised as you are. This was done underhandedly.”

What was? I use my Nestati as quickly as I can and step out of Hawk’s reach to make it to the foyer before I release it, reappearing. “What was?”

All of them turn to me with military precision.

“You’re excused,” my father says to the unfamiliar face within the crowd.

The kid bows, and Rorik escorts him out of the house.

“What’s going on?” I ask again. I look to Garwin, who looks to my father.

I stare at my father as he reads the paper in his hand.

I turn my attention to Mirko. “Mirko? What is it?” Nausea flutters in my gut. I place my hand over it, thinking I might be sick. My heart beats so fast I can feel my pulse in my stomach.

“The Commission has called you,” Mirko says. His face puckers as if those words physically hurt him to say.

“What? Why?”

My father tears his focus away from the paper. “The Commission has called you on Dikan’s behalf and without my knowledge to testify on Jelena’s ‘slaying.’ However, more is going on here than that.”

“Like what?” Ace asks. This seems pretty serious on its own.

My father’s lips thin into a tight line as he looks to Emerik. “I am not certain yet, but whatever it is …,” he looks over to me, “it is not good for you, or
me
.”

CHAPTER TWE
LVE

Mirko

I plead to a god I’ve never believed in to take everything back. Please let Brooke serve with the Društvos. Please let her father be our only enemy. Please don’t make me have to do this.

But I have to. There is no way around it. Not now. Not after her father acknowledged her as his child. Everything
’s changed. Brooke’s contract with the Društvos was really unfinalized because of who her father is. That’s unheard of in Društvo history.

Emerik found them a place to rent farther up the mountain but within the same neighborhood. With the Commission acting behind Zladislov’s back and calling Brooke, he thinks it best to be close but not under the same roof until they know what the Commission is planning.

Zladislov met with the Commission before he left for Virginia, and they mentioned nothing to him about calling Brooke. Nor did they mention they were calling him as well. Whatever they wanted from Brooke’s testimony couldn’t be given or resolved by anything Zladislov could offer them.

And although Zladislov doesn’t say, I know it scares the shit out of him.

It scares me too. Calling Brooke in for testimony and then a vote means a possible sentencing. The usual punishment for killing someone znaked—someone you have to get permission from the Commission to kill—is death if you didn’t have it, which Brooke didn’t before she killed Jelena. But they aren’t listening to Zladislov. He should be the one to say if Jelena’s killer should have to testify.

Not Dikan.

I find Brooke with Kaitlynn, David, and Jaren in the billiard room. They’re playing Monopoly to pass the time. I still can’t stand Jaren hanging around. Brooke said she feels better not leaving him on his own since she brought him into our mess, but it certainly doesn’t make me feel better.

He still ogles her when he thinks I’m not looking.

Like the punk’s doing right now.

I walk around the pool table—on the side leading me directly into Jaren’s sight—and stroll over to Brooke. I bend down and kiss her cheek. Nothing will prove my point to Jaren that she isn’t his like me kissing her and her smiling because of it.

Plus, I can’t be near her and not place my lips on her skin.

She glances up at me with a bright grin on her face. “Hey, you wanna play?”

“No,” David growls. “We are not starting over. He can join in next round.”

Kaitlynn laughs and elbows him. “You only say that because you have Boardwalk
and
Park Place.”

David nips her shoulder. “You would too if you owned ’em. But you don’t. I do.” He smiles as Kaitlynn laughs at him.

They’re good together.

I chuckle. “Don’t worry, David. I won’t take your properties away from you. But …,” I lock eyes with Jaren, “I will take Brooke.”

When Jaren’s glowing face dims and turns back to the game, I ask Brooke, “Can I talk to you for a minute?”

“Sure.” She moves her Monopoly money to the side and stands. “Watch him,” she tells Kaitlynn, pointing at David like he might steal her money from her neat little pile. She hops away from her game, smiling and laughing.

I loathe myself for what I’m about to do, but I can’t avoid it, and the longer I let it go, the more we risk.

“What’s up?” she asks when we clear the room.

“Let’s go out back.” I grab her hand and weave my fingers between hers, bringing her knuckles up and kissing the largest two. I hold her hand for a moment as I sniff her skin.

Lemon drops and rain. So slight and sweet. I pucker again before I drop our hands.

My stomach knots tighter with every step we take closer to the back terrace. I meant it when I told Brooke nothing would hurt me like losing her, and I can already feel that pain slicing into my heart.

I racked my brain, tried to come up with some way around it, but there are too many what-ifs left hanging by not doing this.

The cold breeze nips my neck as I close the French doors and step out onto the terrace.

Brooke shivers and clutches my arm tighter as I lead her down the stairs, through the garden, and then to the trees lining the back. I don’t want any prying eyes. I’m the closest to tears I’ve been in years.

When we cross underneath the canopy’s autumn shield, I stop. I take a deep breath to steel myself and face Brooke.

“What is it, Mirko?” She releases my hand and holds my face. She sees right through me.

I haven’t done well closing off my emotions. They’re too painful and push too hard against the lid I try to shut over them.

I work my throat, trying to relax the muscles before I can speak. “Your dad’s here.”

“Yeah …?” She raises her eyebrows.

“He’s come here to claim you as his daughter.”

Her face lights up. “I know. Can you believe it? He never even knew my mom was pregnant, so it was never that he didn’t want me.”

My throat hurts.

How can something so painful for me cause her so much joy?

I curl my lip at her happiness despite my sorrow. “Do you remember the night we spent in the cave?”

She grins and tilts her head mischievously. “I remember,” she whispers, her voice thick and creamy.

God, I want nothing more than to pull her close and slide my hands under her shirt, up the warm, smooth skin of her back.

I constrain the urge.

Focus.

“You asked me about us being together. If we were allowed to be together …” My words hang in the air. I don’t want to do this.

Her eyes dull as if she understands where I’m going with this. “No,” she says on an exasperated breath.

“He’s claimed you, Slatki.” Pain thick and potent rides my voice, and I can hear the torment they twist into my heart.

She hears it too because her eyes well with tears. She wipes at them forcefully with anger. “No.”

The dam breaks and the words spill out as fast as they can before I can’t say them. “It was unacceptable for us to be together with you serving with the Društvos, but it wasn’t forbidden; it wouldn’t kill you to be with me. But Zladislov is the Head of every Pijawika in the world. A powerful Pijawika would have been enough, but he rules over every one of them. If he knew we were together—that we actually love each other—he could banish me from ever seeing you again. Or worse. I can’t have you in the position you’re in and not know if you’re safe, Slatki. To not be on the inside of your security detail. No matter how much it kills me, I can’t not be near you.” My throat finally closes off, and a single, lonely tear climbs onto my lower lid and falls, running down my cold cheek.

That spurs the tears Brooke holds back. They stream down her cheeks in groups of two.

“No.” She wraps her arms around me. “We won’t tell him. He doesn’t have to know.” She steps back and looks at me. “If he can’t know, he won’t know.” She has so much determination and desperation on her face.

Something inside of me shifts, slips, and melts away.

Courage is what carries you forward in your resolve when something is difficult, and that is what I lost.