“I own this club and own a few other businesses,” he says, being as vague as possible. Dima is a criminal. Some might say mafia. This bar and his strip club are covers for his drug business, which has expanded into a supplier business too, now that he has a new business partner. Some Brazilian guy I haven’t met, but I don’t really give a shit. It’s not my problem.
Dima glances at me with a brow raised in question that I haven’t told Leo about the company I keep.
“I need to use the bathroom,” Leo says before getting up from the table and walking over to the rest room.
“You’re on edge, what’s wrong?” Dima asks.
“I don’t want questions tonight. Too soon.”
“Fair enough, but don’t take too long if you intend on keeping him around.”
“I know.”
“He’s hot.”
“And you’re dead if you say that again, Dima.”
Dima only chuckles as I take a sip of my drink and see Leo from the corner of my eye, starting to walk back over to our table. But he stops as an older man from behind him grabs his arm, standing too close, saying something to Leo that makes his expression strained.
“Relax,” Dima urges, but I’m already up from the table.
The older man is now tightly holding Leo’s wrists, and Leo is trying to move, the alcohol in his system making it harder for him to fight back. The heat inside my body is an inferno of anger as my world narrows. My veil has dropped as I approach.
“Get your hands off him,” I say, as Dima stands next to me. Waiting for the inevitable. He knows not to interfere.
“Fuck off,” he says.
“You are touching what does not belong to you,” I say, voice low, and the older man only sneers at me.
“Relax. I was just offering the cutie a drink.”
“You’re still touching him.”
The man laughs. My reaction is fast as I strike him, before he collapses into confusion and blood and shock. But that doesn’t stop the maniac inside of me. All I can see is his hand on Leo. I grab this guy by his collar and I punch his face, over and over and over. I feel no pain, I don’t see or hear anything else around me as the hard bone beneath my knuckles cracks under the pressure of my punch, the wet sound of blood sings like a dream the more I connect with this fucker’s face. I’m in my element. I’m free.
“Ethan!” I hear a shout from behind me. Leo. I stop briefly, and turn to see his face pale and mouth agape. Why is he so surprised? Did he not see this inside of me? Sense it? If he’s expecting an apology, he will be waiting a lifetime. This is who I am and who he will have to accept.
“Well that’s a fucking mess,” Lev says from next to me and I look down at the guy. Half of his face is so swollen and bloodied there is no way I would recognize him. I can’t even tell where his nose is.
“Is he dead?” Seb asks, and Dima checks.
“Who cares? Dumb fucker,” Lev says, and I agree.Some people never take the warning and they push you to show you mean business. It’s not my fault.
“Nah, he’s breathing. Just dump him out in the street, someone will pick him up,” Dima says and he begins to argue with Lev over who should be the one to get rid of the old man. The perv.
“You do not belong to the public,” I tell Leo quietly, but he remains frozen. Quiet. I’m actually starting to get annoyed that he still doesn’t get it.
Leo looks down at my hands that are swollen and covered in blood. I expect an argument, or a dramatic display, but he just nods and doesn’t pull away when I grab his hand and lead him out of the bar.
“That’s fine. Just leave, I’ll clean up your mess,” Dima shouts after me, but I ignore him. Only focused on getting Leo back to my place.
CHAPTER 25 - LEO
Idon’t remember deciding to come back to Ethan’s apartment, but I remember the elevator. The silence and shock that filled the space. The way my hands wouldn’t stop trembling even after the doors closed and sealed the city outside.
I remember all that blood, the smashed-in face of that prick of a man who wouldn’t stop hounding me like a piece of meat. The sound his body made when it hit the floor. It’s nothing like what you see in the movies, it’s so much more crude watching violence like that. You can literally smell the blood in the air. It made me feel sick and confused.
And then I remember Ethan’s face. Not angry or wild, just empty, like something essential to being human had been switched off. That’s what follows me up here into this amazing penthouse, not my body, but his face. He looked like a stranger, so cold and demonic.
