Kiss Me, Cole (Part 1) [IN EDITING ]

Cole (19)

"Tell me, Tita," at hinarap ko siya. "Does Daddy know what is happening at The House?"

"Of course," alisto niyang sagot. "He's the vor."

I don't know what to think about Daddy allowing this woman and her girls teach me things I shouldn't have been learning yet.

"Mommy will kill you all once she finds out what the two of you have been doing to me."

Tita Leine just shrugged, unconcerned, and took a dainty sip from her wineglass.

"She may try, darling, but I didn't get to be the Abbess of the House of Devin if I were that easy to kill. Besides, what is there for her to get angry about? We are teaching you an important life skill. She should be rewarding me for saving her the embarrassment of teaching you. "

"Most kids my age didn't have to learn what Theo and I have been learning. Yet."

"Most kids are not going to become a vor and his bodyguard. You and Theo will lead our family someday. You cannot be a slave to anything. Especially not your desires or your body. Sex is a type of power, little vor. And to have power is to have control. Control is everything in our world, Cole Sokolov."

"Orizaga, Tita Leine," pagtatama ko sa kanya. That surname she just used is dangerous here.

"Your older brothers are the Orizagas. You are and always were a Sokolov. A Sokolov doesn't lose control. That legendary Sokolov control keeps our bratva safe."

I sighed and said, whimsically, "Daddy said he's out. All of us are."

Umiling lang si Tita Leine at nilapag ang basong hawak sa baranda ng balkonahe.

"We can't be a hundred percent clean. Maybe in your time, we will be. Pero hindi pa ngayon."

Napabuntong-hininga na lang ako at hindi na umimik. Theo and I have plans we can't share with anybody else, especially not with this Tita Madeline.

"What exactly did you see, Tita?"

I hope she's just bluffing.

"Everything? I saw and heard everything."

Natigilan ako roon. I can feel the hotness of shame creeping up my neck to my face.

"H-heard?!"

Mahina siyang tumawa.

"You were in my room, Cole. My working room. The boys gave me a sweet surveillance set-up there."

Napadaing ako. How could I have forgotten about the cameras and recorders?

"Are you going to tell on me, Tita?" mahina kong tanong. Malugod kong tatanggapin ang kaparusahan mula sa mga magulang ko at kay Tito Fyodor kung malalaman man nila.

"Nah. I deleted the videoes."

Maang akong napatitig sa kanya ulit. "Why?"

"Sabi mo nga, nothing much really did happen," nakangisi niyang sagot.

"I undressed in front of her," paalala ko.

She shrugged. "In the grand scheme of things, that's nothing. Why bother having your parents work up over something innocent like that?"

She let me stewed on that for a few minutes. Hindi kami magkapareho ni Tita ng definition ng 'innocen't but I let it go.

"You heard everything she said?"

Napahalakhak si Tita Leine. "Oo. Yours, too."

"Please don't remind me."

Lalo lang lumakas lang ang tawa niya.