Chapter 133

‘’What?’’ Alexi sounds furious for once, not cool and low calm that sends chills down my spine, nope. This time its unconcealed rage and venom and I think this may be worse. His rage is unveiled and it’s aimed at his cousin with a raw fury that is rare.

This is how he was the night I tried to run from the Hamptons, this was the look I saw on his face when he snapped the neck of someone who touched what was his.

‘’You heard me. Leave her alone Lex, enough is enough of this BS.’’ The silent looks and that determined strong tone, steel and stubborn between them.

‘’What’s it to you?’’ Alexi snaps at him.

‘’I won’t stand back and watch you keep destroying her for absolutely nothing.’’ Mico moves closer to me and Alexi seems to grow in size, warning him to back off as he crowds his prey possessively.

‘’Nothing??? … Where have you been? She brings this on herself … every fucking time.’’ Alexi sounds exasperated, rather than furious.

‘’No, she doesn’t. Your head's up your ass when it comes to her, and you know it. Let her alone and leave. She has done nothing to deserve the shit you throw at her and I won’t stand here and watch it this time.’’ The air becomes suffocatingly thick, and weirdly Alexi is first to break and look back at me with a touch of hesitation. He seems to be losing the fight, and rather than erupt like a volcano, it’s almost as though Mico is dousing his flames.

He pauses and then shakes his head angrily throwing me a look that is completely unreadable before looking back at him with some weird unspoken message that Mico seems to understand. Alexi is back to glaring at me before he lets out a huge sigh of exasperation.

I just stay here curled up on the floor, heart in my mouth and weakly afraid, scared to move or bring his anger back to me.

‘’You know what? FINE! I’m done with you and this shit, you don’t want to go to Chicago? Then don’t. You don’t come back to the club either, EVER! Let your hero here decide where to put you and stay the hell away from me. He clearly wants to be responsible for you from here on in, so he can have you. I swear London you come within fifty feet of my club or me after today, I will not hold back, and Mico won’t have the chance to intervene. I will put you in a world of pain and regret that you will wish I had snapped your fucking neck already.’’

I can tell without a shadow of a doubt that he means every word and it breaks my soul in two, no matter how afraid and how submissive I am sat here, he can still destroy my soul. Alexi glares at me one more time as though imprinting my face to a file in his brain marked ‘’waste of my time’’ and then he turns to Mico coldly.

‘’She’s your problem now. As soon as she pays off her debts you can cut her loose, but until then I never want to see her again. You do what the fuck you want; I don’t want to know anymore. She’s been trouble from the day we scraped her off the sidewalk, and I am not going to be the fool who keeps dealing with her. She’s like a bad penny I cannot fucking shake.’’ His words cut me like a knife, my weak dumb arse heart can’t shield me from the emotional pain this man can inflict, and I look away from my cowering space on the floor and stare at the wall for a moment instead. To bite back the tears and swallow down a reaction.

I won’t give him the satisfaction of my tears.

Mico nods, looking determined and unemotional, there is another long moment of silent communication between them before the stance softens and Alexi looks back my way one last time. Back in that unreadable and emotionless mask and I have no idea what he is even thinking. I just stare back emptily, welling up inside. Alexi doesn’t wait any longer, he storms out of the room noisily, slamming the door as he leaves, and I am left a trembling wreck on the floor, blinking Mico’s way with a broken heart and a head so messy I have no clue which way is up anymore.

Mico pauses to look at me as he reaches for the handle of the door.

‘’Don’t look at me like that. It’s for the best you’ll see. You and Lex … you just bring out the worst in each other. He gets erratic and reckless and acts like a prize asshole around you. You get under his skin, Camilla, and it’s not a good place to be. This isn’t who he normally is or how he deals with shit. I think he knows he can’t control it and somehow it just makes him worse. You’re a liability to him and this … it’s just toxic.’’ Mico shakes his head as though he cannot explain it either and yet it does nothing to make me feel any better.

Alexi just made it clear that from now until eternity he never wants to see me again. As much as I should be rejoicing and celebrating that little bout of freedom my heart is crumbling to dust and I feel like I am bleeding out of every orifice as pain weighs me down and threatens to suffocate me.

He set me free, made it clear I am never to grace his presence again and I should be happy, yet pathetically, I am dying inside, and my heart is weighing me down like a lead balloon.