Pretty Little Tainted by Terri Anne Browning

Author:Terri Anne Browning [Browning, Terri Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Anna Henson

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

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All the yelling in a foreign-to-me language was giving me a headache. I still had no idea what had caused the rift between brother and sister, but it made my heart hurt to hear the anger and pain in both Sammy’s and Vaughn’s voices.

And then, seemingly out of nowhere, when things began to calm down, Samara started to laugh. It was a bit chilling, but I tried to brush off the way it made the fine hairs on my body lift with a shot of fear.

“She’s laughing,” I whispered, stating the obvious, but I felt a need to distract myself from the slight mania in my friend’s laughter. “That’s a good sign, right?”

Vaughn kissed the top of my head. “I would call it a win, wildfire.”

That was reassuring, but when I saw the warning side-eye he sent his sister, I wasn’t so sure I believed him.

As soon as Sammy’s laughter dried up, they were back to arguing in Russian again, and I didn’t care about her half-hysterical laugh from moments before.

Until she meticulously broke the nail off her manicured pinkie and picked the lock of her handcuff without so much as a flinch.

“I expect a manicure when we’re done,” she told Vaughn. “You’re going to throw in a pedicure as well. I expect to be pampered afterward.”

“How did she do that?” I asked in gaped-mouthed fascination.

“Our mother, I suspect,” Vaughn said, amusement lightening his voice. “Anything else you expect, princess?”

“Daddy is going to be so angry when I get home,” Sammy muttered to herself, and I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing at the way Vaughn’s face scrunched up, knowing she wasn’t talking about her father. Her daddy was Elias, and she wasn’t embarrassed to let anyone know the dynamic of their relationship.

For the rest of the flight, Sammy was calmer, but she and her brother continued to speak mostly Russian. Obviously, they didn’t want me to know what they were talking about. Which was fine. Vaughn wasn’t ready to tell me what had led to the breakup of his family. I didn’t want to cause him more stress when he was already having to face his sick father with his injured sister in tow.

Once we were on the ground, Vaughn helped us to the SUV that was already parked on the tarmac for us. With a kiss to my forehead, he walked over to speak to the two pilots as they stood waiting. One of them had already loaded a few cases into the back of the vehicle, so it was just me and Sammy watching the three men a good distance away.

The silence between us wasn’t uncomfortable, but there was something I wanted to know before Vaughn joined us.

“Why did you pretend not to know Vaughn when I told you he was my professor?”

Turning her gaze to me, she shrugged. “I didn’t realize my brother was your Professor Vaughn. He and I haven’t kept in touch. I didn’t even know he became a college professor.”

I

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