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“I know, Sweetheart, I know, but it breaks my heart. You and Luca can always stay here with me as long as you need to. Just promise me you’ll think about it.” she said, hugging me.
I woke Luca, loaded my arms with the mounds of food, and headed to my apartment praying that Aleks would be passed out when I got there. But no such luck. The day had ended up going too well for it to end on a decent note. Aleks was furious. Before I could even set my stuff down, he was in my face screaming and yelling at me for being so late.
“Where the hell have you been Katya? I have been waiting for you for hours. Where is my dinner? How dare you not be here when I expect you?” he screamed as he threw the leftover pizza across the room, scaring Luca who ran to hide in the bathroom.
Terrified, I didn’t know what to do. Immediately I started trying to soften things by apologizing. “I’m, I’m sorry Aleks, I had to work late,” I tried to tell him but he didn’t care, Plus, he couldn’t hear me over his yelling. He was blinded by rage and began to move closer. Even though it had been a few months since he’d actually laid a hand on me, I could tell from the look in his eye that he wasn’t going to hold back. I closed my eyes and braced myself for what was coming next.
Chapter Eleven
Zane
Onsomelevel,Iunderstood that what I was doing was insane.
I mean, really, what the hell was I thinking going down to Harry’s office and taking the employee directory out of his desk drawer? The only logical explanation was that I had stopped thinking all together. I was clearly delusional, or maybe that one glass of wine had just hit me harder than I thought it would. Either way, it wasn’t until after I dropped Kenlee off with Sloane and was on my way across town to Katya’s apartment building, that I realized just how weird this was.
Why was I so worried about her?
I didn’t have an answer to that question. In fact, all I had was this sick feeling in my stomach. I felt like she was in trouble, and that she needed someone to protect her.
Why did I have to be that someone?
Perhaps because Katya didn’t seem to have anyone else in her life. Or perhaps that was just what I told myself so that I didn’t feel like such a creep as I pulled up to her building and put my car in park. I checked the note I made on my phone, and then headed up to the door with a placard that said “Unit 1F.”
This was her unit.
I raised my hand to knock, then took a moment to collect my thoughts, and let my fist drop.
I shouldn’t be here. This isn’t—
But then I heard shouting, and the sound of glass shattering. I pressed my ear to the door, but couldn’t make out any of the words being said. All I knew was that someone was screaming and that Katya might be in trouble. I didn’t hesitate this time, nor did I knock. Instead, I tried the handle, and thankfully, it was unlocked. I busted through the door, and saw a man with his fist raised high in the air above Katya, who was cowering, trapped in the corner of the room. I launched towards the man and tackled him to the ground.
The guy was bigger than me, but he also hadn’t seen me coming, and I used the element of surprise to my advantage. I pinned him to the ground and then landed three hard hits in a row to either side of his face. He passed out after the third hit, but I raised my hand once more, and probably would’ve delivered another blow, if Katya’s voice hadn’t cut through the sound of my blood pounding in my own ears.
“Zane, stop! You’re going to kill him!”
I sat back and drew in a deep breath, then turned to look at her, and slowly the rest of the room came into focus. I felt a dull ache pulsating through my right hand, and when I looked back down at the broken, bloody face of Katya’s boyfriend, I realized now would probably be a good time to explain myself.
“I—I’m sorry,” I said, getting off Aleks unconscious body and shaking off the rest of my anger by shaking off my bleeding hand. “I just—I heard him yelling and…” I trailed off. There was no good explanation for why I was even there in the first place, and the last thing I wanted to do was make Katya feel even more scared.
“But… How did you know where I live? Why did you come over in the first place?”
These were both very valid questions, and ones I wished I had good answers for. Instead of saying anything right away, I ran my hand along the back of my neck and looked around the room for Katya’s son. “Is your boy okay? He didn’t lay a hand on him, did he?” Some of the anger I was feeling before started to bubble up inside me once again, but I managed to push it down when Katya shook her head and then hurried to get me a glass of water.
When she handed it to me, I took a sip, then walked over to the sink and used the rest of the glass’s contents to rinse out the cuts on my fist. Sighing once more, I looked back at her and said, “I’m sorry for just barging in like this… I came to apologize. I felt bad for sending you away like I did earlier, and I wanted to make sure we were good. I also had this feeling…” Then I laughed at my own ridiculousness and shook my head. “Never mind.”
“No, what? Tell me.”
I shrugged. “I just got this feeling that you were in trouble. I don’t know. It’s weird. And maybe I’m just trying to make up a better reason for why I looked your address up in the employee directory and came to your house without an invitation…”
“But you were right…” She looked down at where Aleks was still lying unconscious but breathing. “I was in trouble.”
“You shouldn’t stay here with him,” I said. I knew I was crossing a line by telling this woman how to live her life, but I wasn’t about to walk out of there and pretend like everything was fine either. What good would that do her. “You deserve better than him.”
“Yeah, well,” she said, and then she muttered something else under her breath but I didn’t quite catch it. Before I could ask her to repeat herself, however, she talked over me. “Listen, I appreciate you coming over here to apologize and for… everything else, but you have to leave before he wakes up. It’ll just be easier that way.”
“I can’t just leave you here with him.”
“Zane,” she said, her eyes filling up with tears. “Please. We don’t have another choice, and he could wake up at any second.”
