35
Rafael
My uncle's gaze fell to the rings on Isa's finger as I unbuttoned the jacket of my suit and stripped it off. I hung it over the arm of the couch, rolling my sleeves up as his eyes followed the motion. Revealing the ink on my arm andmi reina'sbrand on my skin, he raised a brow at me before a smile tipped his lips up hesitantly.
"Should I be insulted that we were not invited to the wedding?" he asked, and my cousins heaved a breath of relief before they took their respective seats in the comfortable chairs next to his.
"He never bothered to invite me, so I would think not," Isa said, smiling sardonically in her attempt to ease what remained of the tension. I huffed a quiet laugh at her side as my Uncle's face twisted in confusion. When she met his stare with a blank one of her own, he barked out a loud laugh and shook his head.
"I think I like her," Sebastian said, grinning at me. Given the way he'd kissed her cheek in greeting, it was brave to make such a statement. Cousin or not, I would cut his tongue out before I ever let him near Isa.
"I think perhaps you should refrain from such comments," Thiago warned, grinning at me knowingly as he chuckled. "Else Rafael might feed you to the pigs."
"Tell me," my uncle said, leaning forward onto his knees as his eyes held Isa's. She didn't blink or balk in the face of all that attention, even though she must have suspected that my family would be in a similar career path as I. "If he did not invite you to your own wedding, how did you come to be my new niece?"
"He put a gun to my head," Isa said, shrugging as if it was inconsequential even though we both knew it was not. Of all the things I'd done to her, I suspected my threat to kill her if she refused to be my wife was among the worst formi princesa. Her inability to kill me to gain her freedom meant she had expected me to love her enough to let her live. To let her be free.
A good man would have, but I wasn't a man at all.
My uncle Andrés laughed, assuming she was kidding. When Isa met him with a deadpan stare, he tilted his head to the side and nodded as his gaze landed on me. "You always were an asshole, but this takes it to new levels,sobrino."
"She could have avoided it if she'd just said 'I do' on her own, butmi reinais as stubborn as a bull," I laughed, flinching back when Isa slapped my bare arm with a gasp.
"You're one to talk,El Diablo," she said, her tone mocking. "You are the most stubborn man I have ever met."
My cousins watched the smile consume my face with shock, their eyes landing on the pinkening skin of my bare arm where Isa slapped me. "Do you see what I have to put up with? She pretends to be so innocent, in the meantime she stabbed me with cutlery."
"How can you expect your woman to love you if you treat her this way? Wives must be treated with gentleness and affection," Sebastian said, staring at Isa as if he could compel her to see the reason in his words.
"Spoken like a man who has never had a passionate woman in his bed," my uncle laughed. "I hardly think Rafael's marriage is any of our business."
"Mi reinaloves me just fine," I said, leaning back and grasping her chin to turn her to face me. She met my eyes with an unamused look, leaning back in her own chair and crossing her legs delicately. Her scar gleamed in the light, and while I still hated everything it represented and the fact that someone had dared to hurt her, it was the mark of a survivor. The mark of a woman who had lived and adapted to whatever life threw at her.
If she could survive the devil in her bed, she could survive anything.
"Tell me about Pavel," Andrés said, his face turning serious. "Why is he gunning for you?"
"Aside from the fact that Rafael is planning a coup?" Thiago snorted.
"He disrespected me by inserting himself when he was not wanted. He nearly cost me Isa," I said, glancing over at her as I realized I'd never introduced her to my uncle as anything but my wife.
It was the most important label anyway.
"So you killed his eldest son." Andrés nodded, as if he understood the consequence. He would have done anything for his wife, and the prospect of someone taking her from him would be enough that he would do the same. Spending my summers with my uncle and cousins had shown me what love was supposed to look like. It had made me realize just how twisted my parents’ marriage was. While I'd decided that love wasn't for me, I couldn't help but admire the love they shared.
Even if I'd thought I would never have it for myself.
"Should we be discussing murder so openly in front of the woman?" Thiago asked with a laugh. "Mother doesn't like it."
"I have no secrets from Isa. She knows exactly who and what I am," I answered, dropping my hand onto her thigh. She might not have known exactly what I was doing when I'd left her, but a murderer was a murderer.
I'd spare her the details of what it was to hold a beating heart in my hand, but that was as far as my secrets went for now. We'd find out exactly what she could handle soon enough.
"So as far as you're concerned, has his penance been paid? Will his other sons be left to live their lives in peace until the time comes to remove Pavel from power?" Andrés asked, his voice trailing as he said the words. He already knew the answer to them.
There was nothing I would not do for Isa, even erase an entire lineage from existence.
"They were already set to die. But Maxim coming here solidified that," I returned. Isa stilled at my side, the confirmation that more murder was coming bringing all her more traditional sensibilities to the surface. I'd break her of them once and for all soon enough. She would not live a conventional life, and death would be a part of her future.