36

Completely overwhelmed, I turned on my back on the cracking forest floor and looked through the branches above me at the sky, which looked beautiful in its bright blue from here.

My heart was beating slowly, while my breathing seemed calm and balanced, but deep inside me the adrenaline threatened to tear me apart.

I had killed her... I... with my bare hands, so to speak, for I had wielded the blade and ended her life.

I waited impatiently for the possibility of crying. About to throw up, but nothing happened... I just lay there and watched the clouds float overhead like in slow motion.

Was that a shock? If so, then I would rather have freaked out or collapsed, because this state of doing nothing made me panic more and more until a loud ringing broke my rigidity and I raised my upper body in shock.

Mournfully, I found my way back to my feet and immediately looked at Irina's corpse, which was lying on the side of the tree, staring into space with huge, empty eyes.

Even dead she scared the shit out of you!

Very carefully, I reached into her jacket and took out a black flip-up cell phone, where an unknown number was calling, but I didn't answer. My panic of being caught by someone was way too big and I quickly realized that I couldn't clean up the mess here on my own...

I had to tell my brothers the truth...

Heart racing and feeling slightly dizzy, I wiped the blood from the knife on my dark shirt and then, caught in a trance, ran out of the small wooded area, quickly rushing past our security guards and into the house, where Keeva and Rian appeared to be arguing.

While Odran was standing on the terrace with the still stranger and appeared to be talking amusedly, Rian and Keeva yelled at each other at the top of their lungs, but fell silent as soon as they saw me standing in the doorway.

"What happened?" Keeva wanted to know with wide eyes and immediately approached me to lead me gently by my arm to the table, where I sat down on one of the chairs, breathing heavily. "Calm down. I'll bring you a glass of water," I only heard her whisper softly through the rushing in my ears and looked stubbornly at the table, on which I put the still slightly blood-covered knife shortly afterwards.

I overheard Rian running to the lane door and asking Odran to escort Chiara out while Keeva came back with a large glass of water, which she placed right in front of me while she stood next to me and gently rubbed my back.

Then there was a moment of absolute silence.

My brothers both sat right in front of me, eyeing me silently, and I kept flicking my irises between them until I looked sideways up at Keeva, and she gave me an encouraging smile.

"I'm here," she whispered soothingly, continuing to rub my back.

"I..." I started, fidgeting with my hands nervously. The idea of ​​telling them the whole truth made me very uncomfortable. The shame made it almost impossible for me to return their gazes and yet I knew deep down that they would be there for me in an instant, no matter how much had always stood between us.

"I met Irina in a club and that same evening she wanted to take me home with her. Of course I went with her because I shot a Russian in the head in the middle of the street for her," I began noticing that Rian and Odran were both very focused on my words.

"Anyway, I didn't know that she was Juri's sister, otherwise I would never have gone with her. I then met Mandy during therapy and, through Padraig, her sister Valentina. When I was with Valentina and Fiore showed up, Tina hit him with one Baseball bat hit his head so hard he passed out. We thought he was dead so we went back in the house for a moment. When we came back he was just gone and we wanted to keep it all to ourselves."

I took a deep breath to get to the part that was really hard for me. I avoided her eyes again and just stared down at my hands resting very still on my legs...

"When I wanted to get my cell phone from Irina that I had forgotten there before, I saw a photo and recognized the connection to Yuri. Of course I wanted to run away immediately, but suddenly she was in the door with this bastard Fiore and blackmailed me with the Shot of Tina where you could see her punching Fiore. She said if I didn't do what she says she would put Tina in jail and Fiore would make Mandy's life hell."

I suppressed my anger at all this and frantically ran my fingers through my hair until I suddenly felt Rian grab my hand. I looked at him questioningly and with a hateful expression he eyed me upset.

"What did she ask for?" he wanted to know and I plucked up courage because it was now more important to me to tell the truth than to sink into my self-pity.

"She handcuffed me, gave me some Viagra and fucked me against my will," I said bluntly, only looking straight into Rian's eyes because the way he looks at me has always been the most important thing to me, but his Look at me didn't change. He didn't look disdainful, nor did he pity me, more like he was struggling with himself right now to keep from completely freaking out.

I looked at his hand, which was still on mine, and suddenly I felt a tremor in his. There was absolute silence in the whole room until Odran suddenly banged so loudly on the table that even Rian winced and looked at the giant with wide eyes.

"I'll kill her!!!" he yelled, pulling out his gun to unlock it and angrily stormed to the front door.

"Odran, wait!" I called, getting up in a hurry to quickly run after him, while Rian and Keeva also followed me.

"Where is she?" he said, still completely taken by his anger and only stopped at the entrance, where Irina's Mercedes was still parked. Odran didn't hesitate and kicked the car several times so hard that the entire side dented and the alarm went off.

"Odran!", Rian now admonished him and yanked the big one away from the car, who just like Keeva seemed uncontrollable in his emotions.

"Where's Irina?", Rian then asked me and clearly had problems keeping Odran in check. I pointed to the forest and before they both disappeared, Rian approached me and Keeva again.

"Who knows everything about Fiore?" he wanted to know, looking back and forth between the two of us.

"Tina, Mandy, Padraig and Irina said she had sent the video to some friends who would hand it over to the police if something happened to her," I explained and swallowed hard at this thought.

"What exactly is on the video?"

"That Tina knocks him out," I answered and he nodded thoughtfully before taking his cell phone out of his pocket.

"I've got someone in the police force who will get rid of this video as soon as it gets there. Odran and I will take care of Irina and the car. Keeva, you just go in, take care of Esme and tell John that nobody allowed on the property today. No fucking gardener or anything! And you," he turned to me and handed me the key of his beloved BMW, which made me stare at him in astonishment. "You go to Valentina and take care with Padraig that this Fiore doesn't show up and if he does, then Padraig will surely know what to do."

I nodded and was about to take the keys when he suddenly pulled my arm tightly to his chest.

"I'm so, so sorry," he breathed, ruffling my hair once before quickly pulling away from me. "You have no idea how sorry I am that I didn't give you the confidence that you could have opened up to me immediately."

He looked deep into my eyes for a moment longer, then turned to kiss Keeva on her forehead and then turned back to Odran, who was already ripping off the car's exhaust pipe with his bare hands for the sheer crowd Anger.

"Give my regards to Mandy," Keeva smiled mildly and she gave me another big hug before making her way inside while I walked over to Rian's BMW and was just grateful for opening myself up to them.