Page 60 of Heartless Sinner

I touched the small of her back, just to let her know I was there beside her. That I would always stand next to her in a united front. “Do whatever you feel is right.”

This man was her blood. Her brother. And even though he’d taken Dmitri’s life and Marla had promised her dying brother retribution, I couldn’t make that decision for her.

I looked over at Toby and nodded my head. He and the other men left, so that it was just the two of us, and Alexander. Whatever Marla decided to do now that she knew the ugly, terrible truth, I wanted it to be because she’d made that choice on her own, and not because she felt pressure from others around her.

Marla looked at me. I nodded. “Whatever you choose, I’ll support you.”

I loved her, and I meant it.

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Chapter Twenty-Six

Marla

* * *

It felt almost surreal, standing here.

Alexander glared at me. I stared back. I felt sick inside, but not the kind of sick I knew that I probably should feel. I didn’t want to throw up or anything. I felt… I felt bitter and so incredibly angry.

All the others were gone. It was just Vince with us. Vince, who told me he loved me with an agonized look in his eyes. Vince who gave us privacy and said that whatever I did, he would support me.

I felt like I could do this—whatever ‘this’ was—as long as he stood there with me. Beside me.

“Why?” I asked my brother.

Alexander looked at me for a long moment, his gaze dark and assessing. So many times I had seen him look at people that way and I had always just put it down to his quiet, reserved nature. How much of my brother had I misread?

All these years, resenting how he and Dmitri had chased away any man who dared to get close to me and yet I had never really thought about what that meant. I had known our world was violent and yet I had never really considered what that meant for my brothers, or what kind of men they were.

“Dmitri begged me to find out who did this to him,” I said, trying to keep my emotions from spilling over into what I needed to say. “He said I was the smartest in the family and that I could figure it out. He said he didn’t know who did it. But now I wonder if Dmitri knew and just didn’t want to say your name in front of Mom.”

Alexander didn’t say anything. He just stared at me. Cold and unfeeling and callous.

Finally, I asked, “Do you hate me, too? Like you hated him?”

“I don’t hate you,” Alexander replied, his gaze sliding to Vince before returning to me. “I’m disappointed in you.”

“Would you prefer I left our world?” I asked.

Alexander shrugged. For some reason that passive, unemotional gesture angered me more than anything else.

“What do you want me to do?” I screamed at him. “What should I have done instead, huh?”

“Kept your nose out of it!” Alexander yelled back, finally snapping.

“You murdered our brother and your complaint is that I tried to find out who did it?” My voice was a roar I didn’t recognize.

“He was selfish! Reckless and stupid! He’d always been that way!” Alexander shouted back at me, looking as though he was vibrating with rage as he sat tied to the chair. “He had no respect! And Papa always talked about when Dmitri was in charge, when Dmitri was handling things—as if Dmitri wouldn’t have run us into the fucking ground!”

The hot, seething darkness in me seemed to settle and grow cold in the pit of my stomach. “And so killing him was the only option?”

“I couldn’t let him keep—running around like that. He stole my girl, just to fucking crush me. Just to see the look on my face when I found them together.” The hatred in Alexander’s eyes disgusted me. “He was shameful, he shamed us. He shamed me. I did what I had to do,” he sneered viciously, and without an ounce of remorse. “You know how this world works.”

I looked at Vince. He didn’t tell me what to do, didn’t even give me a sign what his opinion was. He was letting me do this on my own.

Oddly enough, that was the moment I realized it was safe to love him. He might tell me what to do in the bedroom, discipline me or dominate me, but he never wanted to control me. I couldn’t think of another man I’d ever met who wouldn’t have tried to offer me his opinion in that moment, who wouldn’t have tried to tell me what I should do.

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