Page 153 of Dance of Defiance
“But youdidn’t,” Vaughn growls. “Fuck, that is.”
I stare at him, fury flooding my veins. “No, but only because she bailed!!” I yell, disgust surging through me. “Exactly what thefuckwas your plan?! For me to screw my friend?! Then what?!”
“The human need for companionship and intimacy comes before so many other things, Val,” he says flatly. “You were both looking for that. I simply connected the dots.”
“And if shehadshown up that night?!” I bark. “And I'd fucked her?! Then I’d be—what? Your little Trojan Horse into the Nikitin family so that you could destroy them from the inside out?”
“My my my. It would appear that we trulyarebrothers after all.”
“Fuck. You,” I snap, yanking my hands off him and whirling. I shove my fingers through my hair as I cross the room, my breath coming quickly.
“I thought when she didn't show up that night,” Vaughn says meditatively, “that I’d have to find another way into the Nikitin family.”
My heart stills and an icy coldness creeps down my spine as I slowly turn to look at him.
“But it appears,” he says quietly, “that I’ve found a way inanyway.”
My stomach drops through the floor.
Vaughn sighs deeply as he walks back to his desk and sits behind it. “I know about you and Roman, Val.”
I slowly start to shake my head. “Not fucking happening,” I hiss.
He smiles. “I haven’t even asked yet.”
“But you’re going to,” I growl. “The answer is no. I’m not going to pull some secret spy, Trojan Horse shit to get you inside that family via Roman. Not fucking happening.”
Vaughn arches a brow. “Why not?”
“Because I’m not like you!” I roar.
He chuckles quietly. “Of course you are. We’re brothers.”
“Maybe so, but our lives have beenvastlydifferent. You chosethis,” I snap, looking around the room. “I chose art.”
My brother eyes me. “You also chose the new bike, the money, the glamorous loft apartment…”
I bark a cold laugh. “So those were your way of buying me?”
He rolls his eyes. “Don’t be so naive, Val.”
“Fuck this.”
I pull out my wallet and slam the cash inside onto his desk along with the keys to the loft before I plant my fists and lean right into his space.
“Take them back,” I growl. “I don’t want them. I’m not anyone’s goddamn puppet, understand?”
Vaughn sighs, glancing at the cash and keys and then dragging his gaze up to my face. “Keep them,” he shrugs.
“No.”
“And if I call them gifts? “
I shudder.
It’s wild that I didn’t see this before. I mean, yes, I knew Vaughn was clearly manipulative, and power hungry, and calculating. But I’m seeing now, for the first time, the full extent of his psychopathic nature. How deep he’s willing to go. How dark. How insidious he’s prepared to be with his methods to get what he wants.
I didn’t see it before because I wanted a family.
