My stomach falls to my feet, and bile rises in the back of my throat.
Nothing about this is right.
Noah looks between the two of us before his attention locks onto Ezra. “You’ve been pushing me too far, and I’ve been letting it go because we’re family. Get your shit together, or I will kill you.”
“I’m not going to betray you like the others did. I’m on your side. I always have been.” Ezra’s tone is firm as he casts a stern look at me.
Noah tucks the gun away. “You know, those words don’t sound as true as they once did. You’re going to want to make sure you’re at that fight, Ezra, otherwise I’m coming for both of you, and your little pet here is going to have a very slow, painful death. And you’re going to watch it all.”
Noah says nothing more, leaving the apartment as I bite my tongue.
The moment the door shuts behind him, Ezra hurries down the hall and locks the door. When he comes back into the kitchen, his cheeks are red and splotchy.
He slams his hands down on the counter. “What the hell was that? You nearly got us both killed, and for fucking what?”
“For fucking what?” I shake my head, hands trembling and stomach tying itself into tight knots. “You were the one who basically rolled over and showed him your stomach.”
“Because he is going to kill you if I don’t!”
“Let him try!” I stalk away from him, going down the hall to our room and slamming the door shut.
I twist the lock in place and drop down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.
All I need is a few minutes for myself. That’s it. Just a few minutes, and then I can go back out there and keep fighting with him. I just need some time to get my head on straight.
I don’t get that, though. There’s a rattling on the other side of the door.
Sighing, I squeeze my eyes shut.
He’s likely to knock it down if he can’t get it open, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the bastard stashed a key somewhere.
Sure enough, the door swings open, and Ezra’s heavy footsteps stomp across the room.
I open my eyes to see him standing at the edge of the bed. “I don’t know why you want to bother arguing anymore. You’ve made your choice.”
“I want to keep arguing because you keep acting like it’s something easy for me. You keep acting like I want to be going to the fight. Like I enjoy risking my life.”
“Don’t you dare lie to me and say that you don’t when I can see in your eyes that you do.” I sit up and cross my legs, hopingsomething about sitting there takes my blood pressure down a notch or two.
“Fine. I like the fighting, is that what you want to hear? You like knowing that I enjoy feeling like I’m in control? That I have power for the first time in my life? That I like knowing I can fight back now because I couldn’t when I was younger and he forced me to kill my family?”
I scoff. “You could’ve fought back then too, but you didn’t. You looked at him as an idol, just like you were looking at him out there.”
Ezra lets out a deep breath, pacing from one side of the room to the other. “I am navigating a world in which I’m trying like hell to keep you alive. I don’t want to lose you the way I lost everyone else.”
“Well, you’re going to lose me.”
He stops in his tracks and spins to face me, the color draining from his face, making the dark bruises stand out even more. “What are you talking about?”
I swallow hard, forcing down the lump in my throat. “I’m not going to watch you get yourself killed, Ezra. I can’t do that. I care about you, and just sitting to the side while you do this shit is hell. And then, when I try to tell you there’s another way, you’re convinced your way is the only way.”
He scrubs a hand down his face, his shoulders slumping. “Your family is going to kill me for all I’ve done.”
“They haven’t yet.” I get to my knees on the bed in front of him, reaching out and taking his hand. “Please. You have tobelieve me. We can speak to Aiden, and he’ll offer you the same protection he gave Zoe and Gia.”
“And you think that’s going to fix this?” Ezra pulls his hand away from me. “Sure, let’s say he does give me somewhere to go. I work for Noah. The money I make is from doing the work for him. If I even so much as try to enter a fight again after that, he’s going to have me killed.”
“Then don’t fight. Aiden has other things you could do for him. It doesn’t have to be violence all the time.”
