AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Hayk leaned closer to me and lowered his voice in a way that made me feel like we were the only two people in the world. “You want someone to laugh with. Naked, mind you. You want to be naked and tangled up with someone, lying in the sunshine with no one around to disturb or upset you, laughing with your lover as you touch and suck and talk about the things that make you happy and joke about your troubles. You want to feel the whole world and everything in it contained in your lover’s laughter as he gazes into your eyes and smiles at you, the way your friends Peter and Neil smile at each other.”
Hayk smiled at me then. While gazing into my eyes. Like Peter and Neil smiled at each other.
I thought I might cry. Or scream. Or drop to my knees and pound the boardwalk under me with my fists until my skin was as shredded and bloody as my heart.
“You don’t know me,” I said again, but my voice wavered and cracked.
“No,” Hayk admitted, inching back a bit, something warm and soft lighting his eyes. “But I want to.”
He was making fun of me again, I knew it. Why would anyone want to know me?
I was about to hurl some sort of a comeback at him, even though I already regretted being such a giant prick, but before my hurt formed itself into words, I saw movement from the octagon that snagged my attention.
Lefric, Billie, and the others hadn’t moved from where they stood around the plaque, but another group had crossed one of the small bridges into the octagon. They were four men, all of them fit and strong and about ten years older than us, and they didn’t look happy.
“Are you Lefric Rohini?” one of them called out. “Olympus Hakobyan’s cock-sucking slave?”
I gasped so hard my throat hurt, and my pulse soared.
“Yes?” Lefric asked, confused more than anything else.
The other men bolted toward Lefric, one of them shouting, “Get him!”
ChapterSeven
Hayk and I both moved without thinking about it. My problems were forgotten as we sprinted back toward the octagon. The four men immediately went for Lefric as soon as he’d identified himself. It was a good thing Lefric was surrounded by friends.
Jace knocked one of them to the ground without so much as batting an eyelash, but then he focused on getting Gennadi to safety. Sebald had gone straight for protecting Avenel, although he looked ready to fight once he’d dragged Avenel to the side and was certain the men weren’t interested in him.
I was surprised by how fiercely Neil and Peter rushed into a fight. They weren’t the sweet, sensual, fainting violets they’d been when I first met them, that much was certain. It was clear they’d taken their training with Ox seriously. They were able to wrench two of the men away from Lefric when they got close, and they held them off.
Lefric’s first instinct had been to protect Billie, which he did well, but that left him open to attack from the fourth man. As fast as Hayk and I ran to join the others, we weren’t able to get there before the biggest of the attackers pulled Lefric into a chokehold, Lefric’s back against his chest.
“Murderer,” the man growled into Lefric’s ear. “You killed Gregorius Ali, admit it. You and your lover killed him and tried to dispose of his body.”
“I didn’t! We didn’t! Why would we?” Lefric hollered, wriggling in an attempt to get out of the man’s arms.
“Get off of him!” I shouted, throwing myself at the attacker without thinking. I might not have trained with Ox, but I’d just spent two months in the eastern forest. I could hold my own in a fight.
The attacker must not have expected a thin, sallow, twenty-year-old to come at him with such energy, but Lefric was my friend, and I would defend him to the death if I had to. He loosened his hold as my shoulder slammed into his side. I knocked him off-balance, which gave Lefric the opening he needed to scramble away.
But then the attacker roared and launched himself at me. I wasn’t fast enough to dodge, and in a split-second, I braced myself for the impact of his body.
It never came. Instead, Hayk threw a punch that sent the man reeling backwards. Then Hayk shifted to stand in front of me, his fists raised.
“Lefric had nothing to do with Gregorius Ali’s death,” Hayk shouted, “and he has proof of that. He knows who the real murder is and who he’s working for.”
I wasn’t sure if all of that were completely true, but it clearly hit a nerve with the four attackers. The three that were still standing looked visibly shaken, and the one Jace had knocked down scrambled to his feet. He exchanged a look with the others as though they’d been caught, then he turned to run. As soon as he started running, the two Peter and Neil had roughed up ran after him.
The one who had grabbed Lefric hesitated. “You don’t know anything,” he spat, but he looked anxious all the same.
“Believe me, I do,” Lefric said, gasping for breath. “And Vikhrov knows now too. The whole thing will be resolved within days.”
That was all it took to send the last attacker running.
“They’re working for whoever killed Gregorius,” Billie said. With her fists planted on her hips and her chin sticking out in defiance, she looked like…well, she looked like Ox, and it made me want to laugh.
“Do you think so?” Lefric asked, blinking.
