“Why were you at that worn down theater? What were you doing there?”
He breaks eye contact and takes a minute to respond. I think he’s going to lie to me, but I’m surprised when he starts talking.
“I was there because they host fights there.”
“Okay, and you were there because you were doing what?” I push.
He takes a deep breath before answering me. “Uh, because I fight there.” My hand reaches out and takes his in comfort as he continues. “I fight for Natasha there. Sometimes I win, but sometimes I have to throw them. The night you found me, I was supposed to throw it but I didn’t. Jake, you were shot at that night because of me. She has people– Chaos, you were almost killed because of me. I’m so sorry. ”
The guilt in his voice breaks my resolve. “Declan, that wasn’t your fault. Why are you fighting for her? What does she have over you?”
It hits me that she doesn’t actually have shit over me anymore. The threat was always to pull Declan in if I didn’t cooperate. But she had him anyway, and it seems she’s beenmaking him fight for a while. Before he can answer any of my previous questions, I ask the most important one to me.
“How long have you been fighting for her?”
“Four and a half years.” He whispers.
Goddammit!
The same amount of time I have been. He’s been fighting the exact amount of time I have been, but he’s been held over my head this entire time. Granted, that’s not the only thing she used to keep me in her grasp. She also threatened to out us, but as it turns out, neither of us gives a fuck about that. Declan seems aloof to the panic rising in my veins, and I remember that’s because she hurt him.
“You said you didn’t lose like you were supposed to, so what the hell happened to you?” The few times I’ve lost, I wake up in the back alley and go home, but when I win, I walk out with my head held high and go home as quickly as I can.
“I don’t remember it all. Mikhail and Yuri brought me up to her office, and I watched her live streams of all of you. She gave the order, and I thought you were dead. I don’t remember anything after that.” His voice is strained with the frustration he has with himself for not remembering.
I move closer to him until I’m sitting right in front of him. “I’m so sorry, Declan.” My fingers slowly come up and stroke his cheek gently. His eyes shut and I can tell he’s struggling to keep them open.
I can spiral about this as soon as he falls back to sleep. He knows he has a concussion, but what he doesn’t realize is how serious it is. The only reason he was permitted to leave the hospital was because Rowan brought in an entire medical staff. He thinks Roe is just being over protective, but he doesn’t realize how scary it was for us.
“Hey, why don’t we try to take a nap? You look tired.”
I know I’m right when he doesn’t even bother to correct me. He just lets me pull him up and lead him to the bed. He’s only awake in maximum one hour increments right now. After getting him covered up and laying with him until he falls asleep, I gently sneak out of bed and down the stairs. When I pass Mac, I stop him with my hand to his chest.
“Where’s my sister?”
“Out with the girls, probably trying to figure out how to get on a no fly list. What’s up?” Mac isn’t like his brothers, he doesn’t panic when my sister goes somewhere without him. Lelonie has a security guard that goes with her, and where that isn’t enough for the other two, it seems to ease his mind. He tried to lock her up after the incident at my parents house, but she quickly shut that down. When he caught her trying to sneak out of a window to meet her two partners in crime, I mean her sisters-in-law, he realized that he couldn’t keep holding her hostage just because he couldn’t be with her all the time. So now he’s come to terms with her going out with her bad influences as long as he’s with them or Ian is watching her back.
“Can you keep an eye out for Declan? Just for a couple of hours?” My body is coiled so tight I’m surprised it hasn’t snapped yet.
“Yeah, sure. What’s going on? Are you okay?” He looks at me like I’m a ticking time bomb, and well, I guess I may be.
“I’m good. Thanks.” And with that, I move past him as quickly as I can to leave the house and make my way to my brother’s shop.
* **
One would think by the darkness in Dec’s room that it’s the middle of the night. It’s not. When I pull up to my brother’s shop, it’s ten in the morning. His business is in full swing, with cars in each bay and Dieter, Ethan, and their co-worker Bash each under a hood. Ethan’s head pops up just as I cross into the bays.
“Hey, J. What’s up?”
He’s eyeing me skeptically, but I just throw my hand up to him and continue on to the back of the shop. They keep parts and spare tools back here. I walk past the rows of shelves holding everything from sockets to starters and open the door to the very back room. My hand smacks the light switch on the wall, causing the fluorescent lights to slowly buzz to life. Inside this room is an air conditioned gym. There’s weights, a treadmill, a heavy bag, and a speed bag, just to name a few things. The concrete floor is covered with thick rubber mats, and a wide paneled mirror covers the long back wall.
I kick my shoes off before pulling my shirt off and tossing it on top of them. Typically this is where I would wrap my hands, but right now I need to feel the bite from the pain. Without another thought I make my way to the heavy bag and start my usual workout. This gym isn’t state of the art by any means. However, it’s exactly what the guys and I need. We all have keys and use them whenever it’s convenient for us. Right now, while I’m trying to process what the fuck Declan has been through, it’s convenient for me.
There’s more, I fucking know there is. He’s not flinching away from people touching him because he fights for her. I run through what I witness while at the theater, all the while my body moves of its own accord. Nothing’s coming to the surface, though. I get jumped pre-fight then have to fight pastthe beating I just received. Natasha doesn’t call me up to her office unless it’s to remind me of her threats. Aside from that and the occasional text, I don’t see her or her goons.
I don’t talk to the other men who fight or know anything about them. I’ve always assumed they were her puppets or other ‘kids’ of mafia families, but now I’m not so sure. I will guarantee one thing, though. I will find out.
I’m not sure how long I’ve been in here when I hear the door open and shut. Finally allowing my hands to drop, I turn to see both Ethan and Dieter leaning against the wall beside the door.
