“What are you doing, Violet?” Ivan’s voice is deeper than usual and stops me in my tracks. For a moment, I rethink talking to him. He’s obviously angry, but I’m not scared of him. I’ve seen worse and had worse done to me by now.
“I’ll be back,” I throw over my shoulder, walking out of the room.
“Violet…” Ivan growls after me. “Fuck, Violet,” he calls once more, frustration coating his words. I continue forward, ignoring him, and head down the hall and into the open gym. I notice instantly that almost all of the men who were here a short time earlier are gone now.
A grunt and the sound of something being hit draws my attention to the right corner of the room, where I see Roman landing some hard hits against heavy sandbags. Yet another difference between Ivan and him. Ivan isn’t nearly as violent and angry as his brother is, and I wonder why? Why is this man is so angry at everything?
I walk over to him, stopping once I’m only a few feet away. I know he can see me, there’s no way he can’t, but that doesn’t mean he has to pay me any attention and weirdly, that seems to make me angrier.
“I don’t know what happened between you and your brother, but if you don’t help us, he is as good as dead. They already found us once. They going to kill him and then…” I scowl, trailing off, as he lands another hard punch against the bag. With every hit, he grunts. Sweat drips down his face, soaking his thin cut-off cotton t-shirt.
“I don’t owe you or him anything. He got himself into this mess, and it’s not really any of your fucking business what happened between us. My anger with my brother is mine alone, and just because you’re riding his dick doesn’t mean I have to tell you a fucking thing,” he snarls, not even looking up from the sandbag.
I blink, taken aback by his rudeness. I know I shouldn’t be surprised, not after hearing him talk just a short time ago, but I am. He’s so cruel, violent, and uncaring. It oozes from every pore of his body.
“Well, I don’t care to know what happened between you two. I just wanted you to know that it wasn’t your brother’s fault. I begged him to help me get out of there, so if you’re going to be mad at someone, then be mad at me.”
I cross my arms over my chest as he lands another punch on the sandbag before stepping away from it and looking up at me. His eyes are a blue-gray that pierce straight through me, holding me in place. In a flash, he’s in front of me, anger marring his features. He might be handsome if it weren’t for the permanent scowl on his face.
“Hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but I was mad at my brother long before you came the fuck along, so while it’s heartwarming that you give a shit about that bastard, don’t try and fix something that was broken a long fucking time ago. This ain’t about you, or what he did for you. This is about him.” He turns, giving me his back, but I’m not done. Now that I know Ivan is going to be okay, I want to make sure everything else is, too. And that includes whatever is going on between the two of them.
“Is it about what happened to Mira?” As soon as the words leave my mouth, I regret speaking them.
Roman stops dead in his tracks and turns to look at me. Fury flickers in his eyes, and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
“What did you say?” He closes the distance between us with one large stride and before I have the chance to backpedal away from him, his hands are on me, his fingers biting into the flesh of my arms, holding me in place.
“Don’t say her fucking name,” he growls in my face so closely I can feel his hot breath on my skin. He’s terrifying now, his body looming over mine, sucking the air straight from my lungs.
“I’m sorry,” I whimper, and he releases me with a shove that sends me stumbling backward and away from him.
“Don’t bring up shit you know nothing about. Now get the fuck out of my face before I do something my brother won’t forgive me for.”
I turn around and run back into the medical room with tears glistening in my eyes. I try and hold them back, but I can’t. I can’t believe this man is Ivan’s brother. This cold-hearted bastard. Ivan is alone in the room when I enter, the other two guys having vanished. I walk over to the side of the bed and clutch onto his hand, needing his closeness. I never should’ve gone out there and tried to talk to Roman.
“What did Roman say to you?”
“Basically, he isn’t going to help us. What are we going to do now? Where are we going to go? We don’t even have a car anymore.” Tears start to spill over my lids and run down my cheeks.
“I’ll figure something out. Don’t worry, Kitten. Just let me rest for a few more hours, and we’ll go somewhere.” His eyes drift closed, and I know he needs to sleep. There is no way he can get up and walk around right now, not after having a bullet taken out of him. I stand aimlessly beside the bed and hold onto his hand until my legs hurt, then I move and sit down on the floor next to the bed. I can only assume it’s late outside. Ivan hasn’t woken up again, thankfully, because god knows he needs to rest. I wring my hands together, thinking of what is going to happen next. We’ve survived all of this, which is better than being dead. My thoughts are interrupted, and my head snaps up when a large figure suddenly appears in the doorway. My heart races impossibly fast in my chest. What is he doing here? Did he come back to argue? To hurt me?
“Time to go,” Roman barks. “I’m closing up the gym, and I need you out of here like five minutes ago.”
Ivan stirs beside me, and I get to my feet quickly. His eyes blink open slowly and a small smile tugs at his lips when he sees me. I want to return the smile but can’t manage to even make one with Roman in the room.
“I don’t have all night.” Roman sounds inpatient and unsympathetic.
Ivan sits up with a pained grunt, holding his stomach. I try to help him up as much as I can, but he is just too fucking heavy. He’s like moving a brick building. It takes him a minute, but he finally gets on his feet, steadier than I expected him to be. He starts walking out the door, pulling me into his side. Roman follows behind us and once we are out the front door, he closes it and takes out a pair of keys, locking the doors.
“Well, now that I’ve saved your life yet-a-fucking-again, you can be on your merry way. I don’t really give a fuck what you plan to do. Just don’t die in front of my gym. It’s bad for business,” Roman says without a trace of emotion. He starts to walk away from us. He’s just walking away. I can’t believe him.
How can you be so cold toward your own family?
The way he’s acting toward Ivan right now really makes me miss my sister. We’d never treat each other this way, no matter how angry we were at each other.
“There is a little motel not far from here, let’s just go there,” Ivan whispers down at me and starts walking. I wrap an arm around him and attempt to hold some of his weight but he’s heavy, too heavy for my weak body. We only take about three more steps before he starts to sway, his body leaning into mine more. I’m trying my best to hold him up, but his strength is withering away with each step.
He leans off of me and against the building. His chest heaves, and his eyes drift closed for a second. I wish I could help him more, I wish I was stronger, and that we were back at our little house, and that he never got shot.