My heart clenches on the verge of ceasing. “No! He cannot send you away.”
Mirko works his throat. “He meant he’d kill me.”
I drop back against the wall. It’s the only thing holding me up because my knees are too weak.
I’m overwhelmed with emotion. Fear, anger at my dad, anger at Mirko for not telling me. “Why would you keep something that important from me?” I smack his solid chest and step into the game room.
He comes up behind me and turns me around by my shoulder. “I didn’t want to give you one more thing to worry about.”
“Because of grief?” I laugh. “Is this the real reason you’ve been so hesitant? Because I recall at Lijepa’s, you were the one doing the begging.”
“No, Slatki.” He cups my face. “As soon as I found out who your father was, I knew what the consequences of loving you could be. I decided right then that I wasn’t going to allow anyone to scare me out of loving you. If it risked your life, that was different, but this is my life and I can’t imagine it now without loving you.”
My heart melts for him all over again. I’m torn between kissing him and smacking him. “I could have killed you!” God, if I knew tempting him was this dangerous, I wouldn’t have done it.
He kisses me. “Nobody knows how long they’ll live, Slatki. If bedding you is the last thing I do before I die, I’ll die a happy man.” He grins at me with his cocky smile, the same curve of his lips I fell in love with. “Plus, I figured he’d be gone at meetings all day.”
So did I. “So what’s he going to do?” I ask because I’m still shaking in fear.
“I don’t know. But I am not giving you up.” He grabs my hand, and his eyes are as fierce as I’ve ever seen them.
“I’m not giving you up, either.” He might make light about his dying, but I can’t live without him now. I’m certain of it.
“I’m serious,” he says, thick as an oath.
“Me too.”
“Promise me. No matter what he says or does, you won’t give up on us.”
“I promise.” How could he even doubt me?
When he’d tried to break it off with me, Mirko never mentioned that my father would kill him. I knew his life was always in danger because of me, but the least I could do was try to keep him safe instead of seducing him to death.
I throw the double doors open and march inside. I stop in front of my dad, toe to toe, and glare up at him. “How dare you threaten him?”
The look he gives me makes me want to pee my pants, but I don’t back down.
There’s a man standing behind and to the side of my dad. I’ve never seen him before, but I don’t care if I’m making a scene in front of a guest. Maybe my dad shouldn’t have told us to meet him in the library then.
“Brooke,” Mirko says and tugs the back of my tank top to pull me back, “that’s not helping.”
My dad faces Mirko and lays into him in Croatian.
“In English!”
The stranger walks over to Mirko and starts directing him toward the exit of the library.
Mirko’s muscles tighten, as if preparing to fight.
This won’t end well.
I get back in my dad’s face. “You do not get to walk into my life and then start threatening the people I love.”
He bends so he’s closer to my face, and for a second, I regret standing up to him. “Yes, I do. It matters not to me how long I have been aware of you. You are my daughter. You are a Pijawika, and he is a Zao Duh. I will not tolerate any daughter of mine defiling herself with a Zao Duh.”
I step back because I can’t talk back to him with him so close to me. “I’m also a human. Because you slept with one. How is this any different? Save for the part that you got her pregnant and left her.”
I see the guy is still trying to push Mirko toward the door. “Stop!” I yell and use Sanjam on him. He’s strong, so it only causes him to hesitate for a moment.
“Stand down for a minute, Vasek,” my dad says to the guy.
Vasek stops pushing Mirko, but he doesn’t release his grip around his arm.
Mirko’s muscles are taut, ready to spring into action at any moment.
Once my attention is back on my dad, he speaks to me. “You know that’s not what happened.”
“Really?” I challenge. “Because you’re the freaking mob boss of all vampires, and yet you couldn’t find one human when her trail hadn’t even gone cold? Jelena found us. And if it had been Mirko and me, you bet he’d come searching for me. He’d hunt me down until he found me and demand an explanation. So either you’re a coward, or Mirko loves me more than you did my mom.”
“A relationship with him will ruin everything we’re working toward,” my dad says, not addressing the stuff I’ve thrown at him.
“And you’re the best judge of character? I’d be dead right now if it weren’t for Mirko! Emerik, your stražar, would have killed me.”
“I am grateful to him for how he’s protected you, but that does not give him free rein with my daughter. If you two can’t stay away from each other, then he has to go.”
“Then I’m going with him.” I won’t go to that stupid meeting. I won’t be his daughter.
The thought hurts, but not as much as losing Mirko would.
My dad’s eyes narrow. “Then I cannot allow him to live,” he lowers his voice, letting me know how serious he is.
I gasp, and the chill as my heart cracks spreads through my limbs.
All my fight evaporates.
“All right! I swear nothing more will happen between us. Just please, don’t hurt him.” Tears well up in my eyes. I can’t do this. “Please let him stay.”
“I can’t allow for him to stay here any longer. I’ll assign one of my men to guard you. You’ll be perfectly safe under his care.” He says it like my main concern is for my safety if Mirko leaves.
It’s not.
It’s my heart.
My dad strides over to Mirko. “Will you leave on your own accord, or shall he escort you?”
Mirko clenches his jaw and his nostrils flare. “I won’t leave her.”
“You shall. You know the alternative,” my dad says, looking back at me.
I stare at Mirko.
My heart crumbles into tiny shards.
I’ll never recover from this.
I force the words out of my mouth against everything inside of me trying to hold them back. “Go, Mirko.”
He gawks at me and shakes his head. “Brooke, don’t do this. Don’t try to save me,” he growls.
“Just please—”
He shakes his head. “Dammit, Brooke! Don’t. You promised me! If you say it, I won’t forgive you. Ever.”
“Go.” My word breaks on a sob.
Mirko glares at me.
I know everything he’s feeling because I feel it too.
He keeps it all inside, but it’s almost as if I can hear his heart break.
Vasek pulls Mirko, and at first Mirko resists, then he goes.
I watch him as he walks to the edge of the library, locking angry eyes with me the whole way.
They reach the door and he turns away from me.
The loss of our eye contact leaves me empty.
No, I’m filled with pain.
Unbearable pain.
I step in front of my dad and wipe my face. “I. Hate. You.” Venom seeps from my soul and fills my words.
He frowns but says nothing.
I turn on my heel and run to the hall to watch Mirko leave. I’m not ready to let him go. Seeing him leave will only break me further, but I can’t stop myself.
Vasek opens the front door to a group of men dressed in black on the other side.
Vasek and Mirko step back as the group swarms inside.
What the …?
They spread out and reveal a tall, scary man standing in the center.
My dad comes out of the library. “Orell? What is going on here?”
Orell takes a step closer to my d
ad. “By the power of the Commission, I am here to contain you. You are considered a threat to the Commission.”
“This is ridiculous,” my dad says.
The group of men steps in unison to surround Zladislov.
They can’t do this.
“Stop!” I yell, but they keep going, shoving me to the side as they move.
I flex to the center of the circle and stand next to my dad.
“Brooke,” he warns.
I look at him, surprised. “They can’t do this, can they?”
“I must go with them.”
No. He’s the leader, not them.
I crouch down into a fighting stance and attack the closest Pijawika. He drops to the ground and the others move in to contain me.
My dad grabs me out of their reach and tucks me into his chest. “Brooke,” he demands, his eyebrows pinching together. “I must go with them and you must let me.” He’s using his special Sanjam on me.
I fight it, but it makes no difference how hard I push at him. He’s using it differently. He said he switches the polarity, so I must be pulling him in. I quit fighting and focus on how he’s doing it.
I don’t want to but I nod.
I think I’m close to understanding his method when he releases me, and the group circles, pushing me out of the way again. “Vasek, call Florian,” he calls from within the group.
Why didn’t he just use that special Sanjam on all of them?
Orell leads them outside.
I want to follow, but I’m stuck, watching for a peek of my dad’s back. I finally see it as he bends down and climbs into one of the silver Mercedes SUVs.
One of the Pijawikas climbs in after him, and they drive off in the center of the convoy.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Mirko
After the cars are gone, Brooke looks to me, but I turn away from her and regard Vasek. “Who the hell are you?”
“I’m the Master’s new stražar.”
“And all you did was stand there?” I huff and shake my head. A great new stražar this guy is turning out to be. Brooke was the one willing to fight for Zladislov, not him.
Garwin comes into the foyer with Annette following behind him. “What’s happened? Where’s Zladislov?”
Annette strides over to Brooke and holds her, speaking in hushed tones.
“The Commission arrested him,” I say.
“For what?” Garwin asks, flabbergasted.
“That’s what we need to figure out,” I say as Ace, Rorik, and the other remaining Zao Duhs stream in.
I turn back to Vasek. “Well, the Master is gone, and the master of this house is Garwin, so I’m staying. You get me?” I won’t leave now, though I should. Not with Zladislov gone, leaving Brooke on her own.
I can’t believe she told me to leave. She promised me no matter what, she’d fight for us. It hurt worse than anything’s ever hurt before. It hurt worse than anything Zladislov could’ve done to me.
I can’t even look at her right now.
“I will not allow you to carry on with his daughter. It is against Zladislov’s wishes.”
“I don’t think that’s something you need to worry about anymore. Maybe you should go call Florian so we can figure out what the hell is going on and where they took him.”
“I don’t know who you think you are, but I demand respect from you.” Vasek steps closer to me in challenge.
I pop my neck and step closer to him in kind, locking eyes with his. I’m not intimidated by him.
He’s got to be badass somewhere inside or Zladislov wouldn’t have chosen him as his stražar. But this world has gone to shit and I’m sick of being looked at as less than everyone else because I wasn’t born this way. “Not even five minutes ago, you were trying to throw me out. I don’t give a fuck who you are or what race you were born into, my respect is earned.”
“Are you challenging me?” Vasek asks, as if he can’t fathom it.
“If you’re challenging me, I’m not backing down.” I’m itching for a fight. I would have fought this guy in the library if it came to it. And if Brooke hadn’t told me to leave.
Garwin steps between us. “What is the matter with you two? Mirko, what has gotten into you?”
I keep my eyes on Vasek for a few heartbeats until I calm down.
Brooke and Ace stand next to Garwin. I finally look at Brooke. I can’t keep the pain and anger out of my gaze.
She shrinks back and creases her forehead. “Mirko—”
I turn my back to her and grab Garwin by his elbow, leading him toward the den. “Can we call Anton to figure out what’s going on and what we need to do now?”
“Mirko, talk to me,” Brooke pleads.
“Not right now. Ace, Annette?” I jerk my head in Brooke’s direction.
They can deal with her. I need a few minutes. Or days. I’m here. That’s as much as she can expect from me right now.
Garwin strolls over to his desk and picks up the phone. “I’ll have to make a few calls. I don’t have Anton’s direct number, so I’ll have to find it.”
I push the armchair from by the fireplace up to his desk. We’re going to be here a while. Vasek might know a way to get Anton’s number quicker, but I don’t like the guy. A couple more calls will be worth it to avoid him.
Garwin calls Richard Syphis, the man in charge of the Društvos in this area. Richard doesn’t have Anton’s number, so he who gives Garwin a number to someone above him. When Garwin calls, they tell him someone else will have to call Garwin back. Apparently, a human of Garwin’s status isn’t enough to have a Commissioner’s phone number. Regardless of the circumstances
I fill Garwin in on what happened with Zladislov before Orell came and took him away. I leave out the part about Brooke and me almost having sex. I only explain that Zladislov found us in an “inappropriate position.”
“What were you thinking?” Garwin asks and leans back in his chair, folding his hands behind his head. The gray streaks on the sides of his head are stark against the rest of his dark hair.
I’ve known him for over thirty years. He looks different from when we first met, but he’s aging well. “You should know better than almost anyone else here how much she means to me.”
“I do, but I thought you told her you two couldn’t be together.”
“I did. But I couldn’t go through with it.”
“Annette’s going to kill me when she finds out.” Garwin chuckles. He fucking chuckles.
I’m so twisted up inside, I smile. “Why do you think this is so funny?”
He leans forward in his chair and rests his elbows on his desk. “Other than Brooke being a little too young to participate in activities such as you had in mind,” he eyes me, cocking an eyebrow, “I can’t think of anyone better suited for her than you.”
“Yes, well, that was before she told me to leave.” And broke her promise to me. I prop my ankle over my knee and hold onto my shin.
“You know she only did that because she thought she had no other choice.”
“She denied me, Garwin. And she broke a promise that was important to me. Even after I told her I wouldn’t forgive her if she did.” I’m a Zao Duh, so of course I’ve had plenty of people look down at me or deny me. But I can’t handle it coming from Brooke.
Never from her.
Vasek comes into the den, ending our conversation about Brooke. “I spoke to Florian’s stražar. He’s going to have him call me back within the hour. I gave him your number, so he should be calling back on this line.” He points to the phone on Garwin’s desk.
“Thank you, Vasek,” Garwin says.
It takes everything inside me not to say, “Yes, thank you, Vasek,” in a condescending tone since I told him to go call Florian. That would be petty of me.
I grin thinking about it, though.
The phone rings and Garwin answers it on speaker. “This is Garwin.”
“Is this line secure?”
“Yes,” Garwin answers.
“This is Lazlo. I’m Anton’s stražar. He’s available to talk to you now.”
“Great, thank you,” Garwin says.
There’s a short delay as Lazlo transfers the phone to Anton. I recognize the deep voice when he answers. “Hello, Garwin.”
“Thank you for calling me back. I highly appreciate you taking the time to talk with me.”
“I’m assuming they came for Zladislov?” Anton says, more as a statement than a question.
Vasek is standing to the side of Garwin’s desk. If he were a Pijawika I respected, I’d offer him my seat.
But he’s not.
“Yeah,” Garwin says. “What on earth is going on?”
“Orell initiated an emergency conference call with us. He said he had reason to believe that Zladislov is now a threat to the Commission.”
“How so? He’s the Commission’s Head.”
“Orell wouldn’t give us his exact reasoning, but provided enough information without full disclosure to convince everyone, save for Florian and me, to vote that Zladislov should be contained. At least until his daughter meets with us.”
Shit. That means Ivan voted for Zladislov to be arrested. This is not a good indicator that he’ll vote to free Brooke. “Where’d they take him?” I mouth to Garwin.
“Do you know where they’re keeping him?” he asks.
“He’s not in our normal holding house. Florian was able to get everyone to agree on a compromise that no one would know, except Orell, of Zladislov’s whereabouts. Whatever is holding Orell back from telling us the full details of why Zladislov is a threat should be enough to stay Orell’s hand in hurting him.”
“And if it’s not?” Garwin asks.
“Then he is the only one who knew where he was, and it was his doing. He’ll be punished accordingly.”
“That doesn’t make me feel much better,” Garwin says, shaking his head.
“It was the best we could do.”
“I understand.” Garwin sighs. “What do we do now?”
“You continue on as you were. It is more imperative than ever for Zladislov’s daughter to come to the meeting if we hope to get Zladislov out of this.”
“She’ll be there,” Garwin promises, and they hang up.
However, I’m not sure at this point. I have to figure out what’s going on and why Zladislov allowed Orell to take him. I need to know what all of this means for Brooke before I’ll allow her anywhere near these people.
Enemy Within (Vampire Born Trilogy, #2) Page 21