“Get the fuck out of my house. I don’t need her to want me to intervene when a man is trying to hurt her.” My forearmpresses into his throat just a little more before using it to push my body off of his. Little prick rubs at his throat.
“This isn’t the end of this.” He glowers.
My eyes track him as he storms out of my house, slamming the front door. “For your sake, you better hope it is.” I say to myself before setting off to find Annie.
It doesn’t take long to find her in the spare room across from my bedroom. She’s been staying in here for a few days now. Opting to rarely leave the confines of the room unless it’s to sit outside and study. She hasn’t even started medical school yet, and still she keeps her nose buried in textbooks. As predicted, when I push open the door to the room, she looks up from a medical book. My breath stutters deep in my chest; damn, she’s breathtaking.
Her dark brown hair is pulled up in a simple ponytail, pieces having fallen out to frame her face from having it in all day. Bright green eyes are hidden behind a pair of oversized glasses with thick translucent frames that take up most of her face in the most adorable way. While her oversized Princeton hoodie and black leggings dwarf her frame. She offers me a sad smile, which is honestly more than I expected or deserve.
“I’m sorry you had to see that. He’s just frustrated with the distance right now with us staying here.”
I don’t say anything, just analyze her body language as she talks.
“I mean, we aren’t distant. We’re fine. He’s the most amazing man and he loves me a lot, he’s just stressed. I shouldn’t have aggravated him like that. He’s under a lot of pressure with his parents and the upcoming semester. I mean, we’re moving in a week, and I’m locked up in a tall tower right now. I can’t imagine how frustrating that is forhim.”
I’ve let her ramble for long enough, and my sanity cannot take another second of her defending what we both know I saw. “Enough.” My voice comes out rough and gravelly with my barely contained composure.
Annie watches me with wide eyes and a slight tremble, like she’s scared she’s pissed me off. Where the hell is the little spitfire who’s been torturing me for years? It’s like her spirit is broken, and I hate that more than I care to admit.
I fell in love with her when we were just freshmen in college, but one bad night ruined us. It was completely idiotic, and I’ve apologized more times than I can count since then, but it’s not enough. I ruined us. So I love her from afar and try my best to protect her from the assholes. Turns out she found a way to fall for one despite my best efforts.
Washington acquired my rights after I was drafted to Jersey, a trade I didn’t say a word about because it would bring me closer to her. She’s always known she wanted to go to Johns Hopkins for medical school, then settle down in the DMV area. She told me once that she felt trapped here with the ties her family has to the mafia. I’ve got to admit that I get it, the mafia pull in Corey Heights and Jersey City is strong. Especially when your family is involved but you aren’t.
“I’m sorry.” She whispers while looking down at the bedspread. Which does nothing to calm the anger I feel over her shattered spirit.
“Don’t. Why are you apologizing? Why are you letting some punk ass dude change the way you see yourself? You’re Anneliese Ruth Fischer. You don’t let anyone alter the way you see yourself. You definitely don’t let some man walk all over you. If I ever…” I let my voice trail off.
“If you ever spoke to me like that, I’d castrate you then feed you your own nut sack.” She finishes nonchalantly.
“Exactly, so why are you letting him talk to you like he does and grab you like he did today? We both know all you have to do is blink twice and I’ll have him in the ground.” I’m practically pleading for a reason, unable to wrap my head around her thought process.
She shrugs as a mask of the cold and calculated woman that she seems to reserve just for me slides into place. “Maybe I love him more than I ever did you. Now if you’re done lecturing me, I’d like to study as much as I can before tomorrow.”
She might as well have roundhouse kicked me in the solar plexus with how badly her words sliced into me. I nod and, without another word, leave her to her own devices. She’s lying. She doesn’t love Calvin. Even in the off chance she does, she definitely doesn’t love him as much as she loves me.
Our bond is like the law of the conservation of energy; it can neither be created nor destroyed. It just is. It always has been and always will be. She can act like it isn’t there all she wants, but the gravitational pull we have to each other defies all laws and logic. At the end of all of this, it will be her and me in our rocking chairs, watching the sunset, with our grand kids running around the yard. If it’s not that, then it isn’t a life worth living.
42
Chapter Forty-Two
Declan
My lips press against Jake’s once more before I gently tug his bottom lip with my teeth and back away. “I’ll be back before you know it. Then it’s you, me, and Adam Sandler.” I waggle my eyebrows playfully.
He tries to hold a straight face but can’t help but laugh at me. “You’re an idiot. Be careful and come back to me safely and unharmed.”
“I’ll always come back to you, baby boy.” My smile is strong and reassuring right before I press my lips to his once more. “I love you, Chaos.”
“I love you too, Beast. Now go before they come looking.”
I walk out of the room backwards, watching him until I’m out the door and a pang of unease kicks me directly in the heart. I shake out my arms and fight to clear my head as Imake my way downstairs to my brothers. It’s do or die time now.
Walking into the armory where everyone else is strapping up, I make my way to my favorite double over the shoulder holster and grab it, setting it in place and making sure it’s comfortable. After checking to make sure they’re still loaded, I slide two Colt 1911s into their slots before sliding two more smaller caliber Glocks into the holsters at my side and in the back of my slacks. Flexing my ankles, I can feel my favorite knives strapped to them. I place my suit jacket over all of it, making sure that everything is concealed and in place.
I’m going to war with my biggest demons today, and one of us won’t come home. Let’s all hope that it’s me who gets to. If I don’t make it out of this, Jakob’s going to be so damn pissed.
“You ready?” Rowan calls at my back, and when I turn around I see them all watching me.
