All Chapters of The Assassin’s Portrait: Stepbrother Dark Romance : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

꧁ Marisella ꧂ Sonya’s magnetic personality comes in handy once more at Vanity, the nightclub she’d chosen for tonight. A peck on the cheek here, a flirtatious hug to a bouncer there, and we’re in. I hadn’t even gotten the chance to flash the ID that shows I’m 22. My coach bag holds nothing but my camera, phone, lip gloss, and pepper spray. All brand new, courtesy of the 50k Alexei had thrown at me five days ago, like some whore. At least not a cheap one. One half of my brain laughs at the joke while the other half cringes at how crass it is. Once we’re in, heads begin to turn. I’m not modest enough to downplay the fact that Sonya and I are in the top 1% of goddess tier women here. She walks deeper into the space, pulling me along. Her blonde hair, pulled into a messy bun, gleams under the pulsing lights, giving a girl-next-door vibe. Wide, round hips sway with every step, the chain of her necklace dripping a string of gems down her exposed back. And me? My dress ends a few

꧁ Marisella ꧂ Without Sonya’s presence to dilute the tension, it swells, trapping me in a dense bubble of anxiety. Alexei and I in an enclosed space always spells disaster. The knowledge of what he’d witnessed me do last night is a hot knot in my throat. I can already feel my stomach tightening, my chest thick as I try—and fail, to calm my nerves. But then something else suffuses the suffocating air. Alexei’s eyes shift to meet mine in the rearview. Ice slides down my spine. Only then do I realize he’s been mentally absent this whole time. We’ve been driving almost ten minutes after leaving Sonya, and Alexei is only present with me now. How deep had his mind gone to completely erase his intoxicating soul? Had he been thinking about last night? My face prickles with a searing blush. His eyes flick up again to glance at me, so dark. So deep. They spell danger. Inevitable, thrumming danger. It’s all too much. “What do you think you’re doing?” I snap. “You’ve been here barely

𖤓 Alexei 𖤓 Marisella shakes like a leaf in the passenger seat. I’m shaking too, for the same reasons. Except, where she’s terrified about being observed by an intruder in what should’ve been her safe space, I’m seething. Hungry for blood. Aching to rip the spine from the man who’d gotten within meters of my… charge. I don’t know what she is to me anymore. It should be impossible to feel this way toward a stepsister. My knuckles prickle with tension on the wheel. When I drop Marisella at Aston Bay, a hotel with security sharper than its marble edges, her gray-green eyes are the coldest I’ve ever seen them. I don’t like it. “Where are you going?” she asks once I turn to the door after a customary sweep of the room. The building is secure enough to hold her while I complete my earlier mission. “Stay here. I won’t be long.” Her fingers are tight around her bag’s straps, random items sticking out from the open zip. Her soft brows furrow with irritation. “Within a week of you

꧁ Marisella ꧂ As Alexei stalks back at me, it takes everything to not melt into a puddle on the hotel’s expensive rug. The T-shirt sleeve cuts into his flesh as he folds his arms, chest bunching under clinging fabric. I should be riled up and ready to defend myself against the resentment churning in his gaze, but that pain… that nameless pain that had accompanied it sucks me in like a vacuum. He stops right before me, face twisted to convey emotion too deep to be fake. “You name all the bad things that started happening once I showed up a bit too much for my liking.” This is the first time in a while he’s using so many words with me. It excites me. “How about the good?” he says, nearly growling in that Russian accent. “The good?” My mind is calm, as it usually is when I sense a way in. “Of course. I never got to thank you for Mom’s treatment. And the money that first night. The job at PRISM… I don’t even think verbal appreciation is sufficient.” His face visibly slackens. The

꧁ Marisella ꧂ Alexei and the other man, whose name I still don’t know, are long gone before I register what had happened. He’d successfully avoided telling me anything useful about the situation. He’d distracted me with soft words and a well-timed caress. I glare daggers at the door. He hadn’t even told me his next plan. What would it take to learn his secrets and more? Since I can’t leave the hotel on his orders, I decide to call Mom. “Hello, this is Nurse Giselle at Baptist Health Hospital. Your mother is resting. Would you like to leave a message for the attending physician?” I catch myself sighing in relief, then guilt makes me stutter a response. “Um, yes… actually, thank you.” The call ends after a short conversation about my mom’s current condition, which is positive, and my concise message. As soon as Alexei gives me the clear, I’ll go see her. I cover my face with both hands and just breathe. This… thing with Alexei is affecting me to the point of shying away from