Chapter 84 Armageddon war
ALEXANDER POV
Aurora wouldn’t stop sulking and it was driving me out of my mind.
I told her to follow me to work this morning but she just looked at me like l'd lost my goddamn mind.
I wondered what she'd be doing all alone at home. Liam was spending time with his uncle, so l'd hired that maid back-Jane, the one she actually seems to like.
Even that didn’t seem to be enough.
Now I’m sitting in my office trying to run an empire and I can’t stop checking my monitors.
She’s in the sitting room, curled up in the armchair with a book open in her lap. She’s not reading it. She’s just holding it, staring at the same page she’s been on for the last forty minutes, and she looks lonely in a way that settles wrong in my chest.
Too lonely. I can feel it through the screen.
I picked up my phone and dialed.
“Hello, brother,” Vivianne said flatly.
“Are you back in New York?”
“I just landed —”
“Good. Get to my house and stay with my wife.”
Aurora likes Vivianne for reasons I have never been able to fully explain to myself. My sister is not a particularly likable person by most measurements. She’s chaotic and shameless and her lifestyle choices would give a lesser man a headache. But Aurora gravitates toward her and that’s enough for me. If I have to allow my sister to corrupt my wife slightly in exchange for keeping her company and pulling her out of this sulking spiral, then that is a trade I’m willing to make.
It's not like I haven't done most of the corrupting already anyway.
A pause on her end, “I just landed and you already want me to babysit. Give me a break.”
“I don’t have time for your whining, Vivianne. My wife is bored and I need someone with her.”
I hung up before she could protest. It wasn't like she had anything better to do with her life than fuck her way through Manhattan. She might as well do something useful and keep Aurora company.
My office phone rang. I picked up.
“Mr. Miller,” my secretary said. “The ASL tutor is here.”
“Send him in.”
A man walked in, looking far too nervous. He started a rehearsed introduction.
“It’s truly an honor, Mr. Miller. I’ve heard so much about —”
“Stop.” I looked at him. “I don’t need your name. I don’t want to hear that shit. I don't need it."
I didn't give a damn who he was or what he heard about me. His only purpose was to make me understand my wife's language. If he turned out to be useless, he'd be leaving my office without his ten fingers.
"Let's get this straight," I said, leaning over my desk to make sure he understood. "My wife doesn't like speaking. When she's mad at me, — which is often —she uses sign language, and I don't understand a fucking word of it. That ends today. I need to communicate with her. You're going to teach me enough to string a sentence together, and it's happening today."
He nodded vigorously.
“And so we understand each other clearly —” I leaned forward slightly, “— if you are useless to me, if you sit in that chair for hours and teach me nothing I can actually use, you’ll be leaving my office without your fingers. We’ll start with the thumb. I find it’s the one people miss most. I'm going to break every fingers, fried them and feed them to my wife. She’s been in a bad mood. She could use the entertainment.”
The man looked like he was about to shit himself. He was shaking so hard his teeth nearly rattled. I found it exciting.
"I... I can try," he stammered.
"Don't try," | hissed. "Tell me you'll do it. I hate
'try'"
"Yes. I'll do it."
"Good."
He started to open a textbook, but I stopped him. I wanted to start with the signs I saw her use the most.
“Before we start. What does this mean?” I signed a specific sequence to him-the one she threw at me whenever she was furious.
The teacher's brows furrowed. He was probably surprised at how well I mimicked it. I have an unusual brain, once I see something, it's stuck in my head in high definition. I'm a strategist. I'm a genius. There's a reason the Brotherhood won't let me go.
A strategist who forgets nothing is not an asset you release willingly.
I’d been watching Aurora’s hands for months. I remembered every sign she’d ever thrown at me whether I understood them or not.
It’s both a gift and a specific kind of torment.
“It means…” he hesitated. “Go to hell, sir.”
I exhaled through my nose.
Of course it does. Typical Aurora.
Then, my thoughts strayed to what she had signed to me in the limo after the party. I closed my eyes, pictured her jagged, angry movements, and signed them back to the tutor slowly.
"What does that mean?"
The man's eyes bulged. He looked like l'd just signed a confession to a murder.
“Are you going to translate it or do you want me to start with a finger? We have ten to work through. We have time.”
“It — it says —” he swallowed hard. “‘You fucked me in front of your enemies and came in my hair. Why?’”
The tutor looked like he couldn't believe those words had just left his mouth. I just shrugged.
"Me and my wife do crazy stuff. Do you want the details?"
He shook his head aggressively, his cheeks flaming.
"Start teaching then," | commanded.
We went six hours.
It was supposed to be a two hour session. I extended it three times, I'm a desperate man.
The man looked like he’d aged a decade by the time we were done.
I learned the basics, but I made sure to learn the essentials:
I want to fuck you. I want to eat you out. I want to suck your breasts. Suck my dick.
I learned the softer ones, too.
I'm sorry. Did you eat. Go to bed. You smell like vanilla and lilies. And more...
I even learned how to sign I love you. Not that I'd ever need to use it, but it seemed like a handy tool to have in the kit.
I couldn’t wait to sign to her. All of it. I wanted to see her face when she realized I’d learned her language, that specific look she gets when something surprises her and she tries to hide it and completely fails.
The tutor scrambled out of the office the second I dismissed him.
I was pouring a scotch when the door opened. I didn't even have to look up to know who it was.
"How in the hell did you get into my building, Kade?"
It was a dumb question. The Brotherhood had eyes everywhere, and Kade knew I tolerated him more than the others. He was abusing the privilege.
"I saw something interesting on my way in," Kade said, sitting across from me. "A man holding an ASL textbook." He tilted his head. Are you learning sign language, Alexander?"
Shit. He'd run right into the tutor.
"I'm learning for my son," I said, not looking at him as I downed my drink. Kade could read anyone, no matter how twisted, so I kept my face flat. "He developed mutism after you and the brothers killed his mother."
“Mm.” A pause. “I thought he could talk now. Rumor has it he’s been speaking since you took your new wife.”
They really don’t know how to mind their business, do they? Any of them. Not a single one.
"I'm learning in case he decides to stop talking again," I lied. He nodded and sat back.
They didn't know Aurora had selective mutism, and I intended to keep it that way.
"What do you want, Kade? I'm two seconds away from smashing your head. I hate your face, so speak."
I poured a second drink and slid it across the desk. He eyed the glass, then me.
"I'm not a coward like your brothers," | hissed.
"If I'm going to kill you, I'll look you in the face while I slash your throat. I don't need to poison a drink or a bomb a plane."
He took a sip. "I came to remind you about our deal."
“Why? Are you planning a war in case I don’t hold up my end?” I leaned back in my chair and looked at him. “How big is the war going to be, Kade? Are we talking Armageddon war in the Bible? Every army, every nation, heaven and earth lined up on opposite sides waiting for the signal? That scale? Because I want to know how many men to prepare for.” I smirked at him.
“We don’t want war.” He set the glass down carefully. “I just want your promise. No matter who contributed to Anastasia’s death — no matter who — you hand them over to death camp. You don’t handle it yourself. You don’t make exceptions. You bring them to us.”
He was pissing me off. The repetition was a taunt.
"How about we start with you and your brothers?" | asked, leaning back in my leather chair. "Since we’re talking about who contributed.”
“I don’t mind.” He didn’t flinch. Not even slightly. “But promise me, Alexander. No matter who.”
I looked at him for a long moment.
“No matter who,” I said.
"Remember those words," Kade said, standing up. "I'd hate to have to remind you when the time comes."
"Sure. I can't wait to see you and the rest of them rot away."
Kade walked out, leaving me alone with my scotch with my head telling me there's a war coming.