My beautiful Aleida, who I thought I was protecting, who I wanted to keep safe above all else, rushes to the door of the apartment and yanks at it. The sound of her sobs echo up the corridor, and I know this can’t go on.
Losing her or having her, I can never be the one who renders her pain.
I shoot out after her, my heart slamming against my ribcage.Do something, my brain snarls at me.Do something, make her stop crying.
Reaching her is easy, but then I don’t know what to do. Like the caveman I probably am, I fold an arm around her waist and stop her from running down the stairs.
“Let me go!” she cries out.
I put her down and whirl her around to face me. Wiping her tears away with my palms, I hold her face. “Listen to me, Aleida. Just listen.”
“No!”
“I can’t bear the sight of you crying. My entire life, all I wanted was to keep you safe. To make sure no one ever hurt you. You know why?”
She glares at me, eyes glinting with tears. “Why?”
“Because I love you,” I blurt. Fuck, I never thought this was how I’d tell her, but it’s done. Her eyes go round in shock, so I know I have a moment of distraction. “I love you so much it hurts sometimes. To know I’m not good enough for you, to know I don’t deserve you. Fuck, Aleida. I’m aware of all that. These days, with you interested in me? I knew it wouldn’t last. I knew you’d soon see the real me and run away.”
She stops fighting. “Keegan.”
“Please, let’s talk.”
She works her bottom lip, then nods. We make our way back into the apartment. I close the door, then walk away from her, giving her space. Aleida wipes her last tears away, and I feel a hundred times better now that she’s stopped crying.
“Did you kill any of them?” she asks.
“No. Just beat them up enough they thought they’d die. But I know what I’m doing.”
She swallows hard. “My ex was gone for days.”
“But he came back, didn’t he?”
She gives me a flat look. Guess that wasn’t the best answer in my book. “Keegan, he could have died. You beat someone up for something they did to me years ago.”
“I should have done that earlier, I know, but...”
“That’s not what I’m saying!” she cries out, throwing her hands up. “You can’t beat people up every time they mistreat me.”
I say nothing, because that’s what I would do. Aleida rolls her eyes. She probably sees right through me. She crosses her arms over her chest and taps her foot on the ground.
“What about Brad?” she asks. “What happened to him?”
My hands curl into fists. My knuckles get warm every time I remember beating that fucker up. With him, I would have not stopped. “Found him in a bar. He spiked some girl’s drink, then forced her into an alley. I filmed it all, then beat him up. The girl went home, and I had some fun with him.”
Aleida’s jaw hangs. “He was trying to...”
“Yeah.” I nod. “And you know very well he was capable of that.”
She darts her gaze away. “So, he hasn’t come back because you have this video?”
“Yeah. Made sure he knew I would keep you safe.”
Her shoulders relax. “And my boss?”
A smile threatens to spill across my lips. “You know you deserved better pay, so I went after him to... Talk him into it.” She shoots me a disbelieving look. Good. She shouldn’t believe this. I wanted to beat him up from the beginning for paying her this shit wage. “Showed up at his place, he was having one hell of an orgy.”
She gasps. “No way.”