“How sweet,” she spat, retracting her hand as if the books were suddenly written in poison that seeped into her skin.
“What do you want, Odina?” I asked, shrugging my shoulders as I stepped closer. “We’re here visiting. We’ll go back to Ibiza before you know it, and you won’t have to see me. You didn’t need to come here tonight.”
“I’m sure you would have loved that. Having them all to yourself without me in your way,” Odina said, spinning to face me with her legs shoulder width apart like she was ready to throw down. I’d never been one to physically fight my sister. But whereas before it had been because I didn’t believe the answer to our problems laid in violence, it had become a question of whether I’d be able to stop before I killed her.
Nobody infuriated me like her. Not even the greatEl Diablo.
“That’s not what I meant. I’m trying to tell you that I am not in your way unless you put me there. My relationship with Mom, Dad and Grandmother isn’t ever going to be what it was now that I don’t live here anymore. They may come to tolerate Rafe, and I certainly hope for that, but they’ll never like him in the way I want. You don’t need to act like we’re in a competition,”
“I don’t want to talk about them,” she said, smirking cruelly as she tilted her head to the side and ran her eyes up my body. “See the funny thing is, you don’t look hurt to me. I wanted him tobreak you.” She leaned in, snarling brutally and crossing her arms over her chest.
“Sorry to disappoint,” I said, smiling sweetly in the face of her hatred.
“I remember him. You don’t forget a man like that. He was there that night with Wayne.”
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about. I don’t remember that night, because, as you might remember, I was drugged. It seems a little far-fetched to believe that he would have been at a high school party. To what aim exactly?” I asked, touching a hand to my jaw and looking at her with eyes that were filled with sympathy.
“Protecting perfect, precious Isa,” she hissed through clenched teeth. “Hugo promised me Rafe would hurt you.” I crossed my arms, pulling the sleeves up inadvertently and realizing my mistake too late. Rather than trying to correct the fact that she could see the tattoo and brand on my body if she looked, I chose to hope she didn’t notice.
Explainingthatwas the last thing I needed to do.
“There are lots of different ways to break a person, Odina. You of all people should know that some of the deepest hurts happen under our skin. I may not look hurt to you, but I promise you know nothing of my life,” I argued.
Her eyes fell to the tattoo on my arm, the brand feeling like it blazed to life all over again under her scrutiny. “You call yourself his wife, but he branded you like cattle. You’reproperty, aren’t you? Nothing but a whore for him to fuck when he’s feeling some kind of way.”
“This is one of those moments where you shouldn’t talk about things you don’t understand,” I warned, stepping closer until her face was directly in mine. Odina was less than an inch taller than me, putting us nose to nose. Toe to toe, staring at each other with only inches separating us that somehow felt like an uncrossable chasm. “Yes, he branded me. Would you like me to tell you how much that hurt? Or would you like to hear how he wears my name branded on his skin too? Does that sound like I’m property to you, or is he mine?”
“Go back to whatever hole you crawled out of. I hope this time he kills you,” she said, fury twisting her face as I ripped away the last pieces of vengeance she’d clung to. I’d suffered at Rafael’s hands. The pain of my evolution was something that felt necessary in hindsight, but it didn’t stop me from remembering what it was like to feel my heart crack in two when I learned of his deception.
I wouldn’t have wished it on her, even if she deserved it, andthatspoke to Odina’s hatred far more than any words she ever spoke could have. She’d wanted me broken; she just didn’t know I would emerge from the ashes stronger than ever. It didn’t stop every word she spoke from feeling like a knife in my chest, but the final acceptance that there would never be anything I could do to make her forgive my mistake gave me a sense of peace all at the same time.
“I think that is quite enough,” Rafael said, and I spun to face him. I hadn’t heard the doors to the office open, but that wasn’t what surprised me. He’d always moved silently, a predator in truth—capable of stalking his prey without them ever seeing him until it was too late. His hands were clenched at his sides, his face cold and impassive. Giving away nothing of the anger I could feel radiating off his body in waves, he stepped closer until he stood next to the two of us. “It is not just Isa that you have to fear any longer.”
“Wonderful. Now my perfect sister has the perfect husband to use to lecture me on my life choices. How quaint,” Odina said, rolling her eyes as her glare turned from Rafe and back to me. “Control your dog.”
“I’m confused. Am I his whore or is he my pet? You can’t have it both ways.”
Rafael’s head tilted to the side, a tiny fraction that most people wouldn’t have even noticed. But I saw it for what it was: Odina coming to the end of the very short leash he’d allowed her. She might as well have wrapped it around her own throat.
“You and I both know I am far from perfect,” Rafael said, his voice dropping low. Odina’s eyes snapped to his, her lips parting as she finally recognized the predator in her presence for what he was. Rafe took one more step into her space, making her back up a step as she swallowed. “I am not a man you want as your enemy, Odina.” Another step into her space, and she backed up more until her spine struck the bookshelf where she’d run her grimy hands all over my reading material. His hand came up to touch her throat, wrapping his fingers around it with a fierce intensity that he’dneverused on me.
“Rafe,” I protested, watching as she gasped for breath.
“There is no faster way to become my enemy than to insultmi reina. I have severed limbs for less,” Rafael growled, keeping his face distant from Odina’s. Despite the fury to his words, there was no trace of anger in his expression. Only a cool detachment that showed how little he cared if Odina lived or died.
The choice would be hers in the end.
Odina wheezed, trying to breathe around the tight grip on her throat. I stayed planted to my spot, watching with rapt attention as he showed me everything he could have been with me. Cold. Unfeeling. Indifferent.
Odina raised her hands to clutch at his forearms, her nails digging into the fabric of his shirt as her eyes came to me, filled with pleading and hope that I would interfere on her behalf. I said the only words I could in that moment to make her understand the severity of what Rafael would do to her if she behaved so foolishly again. “I don’t command him.”
Rafael’s eyes snapped back to mine, the coldness in them melting to heat as he studied me. He peeled his hand off Odina’s throat slowly, turning his body away from her and making his way to me as she collapsed to the floor in a heap and sucked back deep lungfuls of air. “You asshole,” she wheezed finally.
“I believe the term you’re looking for isEl Diablo. Asshole isn’t quite strong enough,” I said, leaning into Rafe’s side as he wrapped an arm around me.
Odina fled the room without another word, clutching her throat as she sought refuge with the family I knew would take her side. It wouldn’t matter to them if Odina deserved the violence, because no man should put his hands on a woman.
Perhaps the next time I’d do it myself to save him the trouble.