With nothing left to go on, we went back to Klaus’s place. I trudged to the room I shared with Anson and grabbed a quick shower. He was out with E.
E pissed me off.
He’d tried to question me in Church’s garden. I knew he was testing me to see what kind of guy I was, but he’d gone too far by commenting on how Rosalie fucked. I didn’t like that. It was disrespectful as fuck.
So while I missed his ass, I also wanted to pummel him too. I was proud of how far he’d come, but damn… he was asking for it.
And he kept doing it. Kept trying to catch me off-guard. Trying to make me come out and be whatever the fuck person he thought I was. Like I was hiding myself.
I mean, technically, I was, but not in a manner that I wasn’t good enough for Ro. That shit was just grating on my nerves. When I talked to Klaus about it earlier in the day, he told me it might be coming from a place of jealousy with E, and to let it slide. We needed help finding Rosalie, and E was a horseman and held quite a lot of power.
I knew this, but it didn’t piss me off any less.
I let my head rest against the tiles. Finally having some alone time, I let out the tears I’d been struggling with. They flowed freely and mingled with my water.
The only bright side to all of this was that no body parts had been found. No bodies. Nothing. So it gave me hope that wherever she was, she was alive.
Of course, I prayed she wasn’t being harmed. If I let those images flood my brain, I became unwell. I knew better than most what it was like to be hidden and tortured.
Fuck, I didn’t want that for her.
I’d take her place in a heartbeat if it meant she was safe.
I let the tears come for a few more minutes before I turned off the water and got out. I dried off quickly, put on gray sweatpants and sunglasses, and pulled my gaiter around my neck. I assumed E would come back with Anson, and I liked being covered when he was around. I left off my shirt and went out to the living room.
“Want food?” Klaus asked as he looked up from his phone.
“Whatever you get,” I said, going to lie on the floor to do some crunches.
He seemed fine with my giving him the green light on food and called in a takeout from a local burger place. I noted he ordered extra, so I assumed E would be coming back with Anson.
Klaus came and sat on the couch, watching me. He and I often worked out together. He was ripped, but I liked to tell him I was bigger. He’d chuckle at that and remind me he had height on me, since I was just a smidge below six feet five. Ro always looked so small between me, Anson, and Klaus. Anson was my height, and Klaus had about two inches on us.
It was all good, though. She needed big guys in her life. I liked how tiny she was and how perfectly she fit in my arms.
“What number are you on?” Klaus asked.
“Seventy-two. Three. Four. Five.” I counted as I continued to work out. I needed to take my mind off the nightmare of not being able to find my Ro.
He got up and left me, only to return a moment later with a weight. He placed it on my stomach.
“Go,” he said.
I grunted at the extra pounds, but continued to work.
“Good. Good form,” he encouraged me.
I was breaking a sweat. I loved it.
“We can spar when you’re done. Right here in the middle of the living room. I can grab some mats.”
I nodded, letting him know I was game. I knew he had a gym, but I hadn’t planned on a full workout. He left and came back. I stopped my crunches and got up, helping him move his coffee table out of harm’s way and slide his couch back a bit.
Klaus’s place was massive, so we definitely had plenty of room. I liked sparring with Klaus. He was unpredictable and gave me a run for my money.
He tossed me some headgear, and I put it on. He put his on, and we circled one another. He’d changed into track pants before he came back out and wasn’t wearing a shirt now either.
He swung on me, and I chuckled.
