He’s the best, most loving, giving, protective person I know and they treat him terribly. If he was actually close to them, I’d have resorted to violence by now.
I nod to tell him to continue.
“Well, fighting is the fastest way for me to get the amount of money they need, quick.” He shrugs like it’s not a big deal, and I get it, but he’s…he’s a big name down there. The more he wins, the bigger the opponents. The bigger the opponents, the bigger the risk.
“How many?” I ask, pushing off of the counter and into his space.
“Fights?”
“Total. Then how many a week.”
“Seven. Total. One the other day, two the week before, four the first week,” he confesses, dropping his head down like he knows how I’m going to feel. And he’s right.
“Seven?Seven?” I say incredulously, throwing my hands up out of anger. “You’ve been in seven goddamn fights and didn’t tell me. Didn’t think to let me come to watch your back or help you when shit got too close to the line?”
“Look, Roxie,” he starts to say, but I cut him off.
“No, this isn’t a ‘oh I forgot to tell you’ thing, Ty! This is dangerous and you fucking know it.”
“Don’t stand there like you’re better than me, baby. You forget where I saw you for the first time in six long fucking years. Knocked the fuck out in the middle of a fight that you never should’ve been in,” he growls, standing over me, but I’m not easily intimidated. I step closer, shoving him back with my hands.
He doesn’t really move, but sways backward.
“That was different and you know it. Don’t twist shit around now, fuckwad.”
“Alright, alright,miereda,” he curses, putting his hand up in surrender, before I shove him again and he grabs my arms holding me tight against him.
“Keep shoving me and I will pull you down to the floor with me,” he growls hotly, and I know right then that he’d pin me down and make me whimper from pleasure. But then his expression softens slightly and he nods. A fierceness in his eyes that’s different from the annoyed frustration before. “I didn’t want to worry you. I absolutely didn’t want you coming to the Underground when you’re still recovering. Not only that, but didyou think I was going to let anyone from Mickey’s crew breathe the same air as you? Absolutely fucking not,sobre mi cadaver,” he snarls the last part, but I know it’s notatme, more in my direction.
“Cadaver… Over my dead body?”
Ty smirks a little and says, “You’re getting better, baby.”
“I can’t fault you for not wanting me around…them,” I say softly, shaking my head just slightly. “But you know,you know, how I’d do anything to help you. Maybe I could–” I start to offer suggestions but he shuts me down fast.
“No, baby.” He’s not unkind about it, but there’s definitely no room for argument. “Absolutely not.”
Oh hell no.
“Terecino Hernandez, that is not how we are.” I stand up straighter, shoving my finger in his face. “We don’t hide from each other, not anymore. We don’t brush each other off and handle things ourselves.”
“What are you talking about, Roxie? That’sallwe do.” He shakes his head as his eyes narrow at me like he’s asking a question.
My shoulders drop as I tilt my head, looking right into those beautifully haunted brown eyes I love so much.
He’s right. I know he’s right. But Ty goes on anyway.
“You spent six years,six years, in hell because you were trying to save me. Save me from what you were going through, because you knew that I’d move heaven and earth to bring you to safety. Now, I’m doing this to try and help us both. Sure, there’s some pain involved,butI’d take that over you getting hurt anymore, anyday.”
“That was my choice, Ty! Don’t turn this shit around like you have some debt to settle.”
“I’m not!” He raises his voice. Not in anger, more in frustration. It doesn’t make me want to fight, it makes me want to shake him and tell him to not be stupid about this.
“You are. You don’t have to protect me, I can protect myself.”
Ty’s expression softens, his eyes widening and then closing heavily while a shadow of a grimace covers his lips before he opens his eyes. Our eyes connect and I can see into his soul.
He’s got this amazing superpower of shutting off and puffing himself up when he needs to be intimidating and emotionless. He can project that facade and people that don’t know him would never be the wiser. But really, Ty’s this incredibly layered person. He’s deep and emotional, always trying to be better, be more. It’s amazing.
