Chapter 15
E dmundo
Watching Ana revert into the subservient girl her father expected killed me inside. Every timid word that fell from her lips was another knife to my heart.
Here at Wayward, she had learned to stretch her wings and sing outside of her father’s cage. Back in Russia, under Vadin’s watchful eye, she would slowly suffocate while her feathers grew dull until there was nothing left of the vibrant woman that I loved.
He looked between us, and I could see him trying to decide if we were telling the truth. He hardly said two words as we rode the elevator down and walked across the foyer. Meanwhile, I tried to figure out how to stop time or how to keep this from happening. But there were no miraculous superpowers to save us.
Before Ana got into the limo, she locked eyes with me, and her lips lifted with a little grin. My hand curled into a fist. Lawrence would pay for this. When the parade of cars was out of sight, I marched toward the athletic building.
“Mr. Genovese, where do you think you’re going,” Dean Martin, who had escorted us down, asked.
I turned to glare at him.
“Did you know? Did you know what Lawrence did to her?”
“This is not a conversation to have out here,” Martin said.
Scoffing at his non-answer, I started away once more. I wouldn’t be scolded in his office while Lawrence got off scot-free. Not today.
“Mr. Genovese, I’ll ask again. Where do you think you’re going?”
“All I need is five minutes alone with him. If you want him still breathing, then rescue the piece of shit, but I’m not letting this go. Not this time,” I called over my shoulder.
Dean Martin remained silent as I left him standing there.
The glass door to the athletic building cracked as I slammed it open and stormed through. Marching down the hall, I could hear music playing and the sound of treadmills as well as weights as they hit the floor.
Paul was running when I walked into the room. His behavior this past month made more sense now that I knew everything. Paul had never liked Lawrence, but he’d been hanging around him more. I’d bet my life it was to keep an eye on him, but I was still pissed with my friend for not telling me. He glanced at me and immediately hit the stop button.
Lawrence stood in front of the mirrors doing bicep curls. Our eyes locked in the reflection, and the moment he registered the rage in my eyes, he dropped the weights and spun around. He might have been a coward, but he was no fool.
He held out his hand as he moved sideways to put equipment between us, but nothing could save him. No one touched Ana. But Lawrence had more than that to answer for today. He scared her and tried to sabotage my relationship, possibly ruining any chance I had at convincing Vadin that I was worthy.
“You spineless piece of shit. I’m going to kill you,” I snarled. “I’m going to tear your fucking limbs off and beat you with them.”
Anger was rare for me, but when it surfaced, it was hard to contain the normally bottled emotion. All I wanted was Lawrence’s blood. To wrap my hands around his throat and watch the snake die.
“I didn’t do anything,” he said.
An innocent man wouldn’t hide like he was, and I could see the fear in his eyes. He knew exactly why I was here. The gym had gone silent as those working out watched and waited to see how this would play out.
“You didn’t think I would find out, did you? You thought she was too scared to tell me.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Lawrence yelled. “Get security. He’s gone crazy. I swear she made the whole thing up. I wouldn’t do that,” he said, lying right to my face.
“Yeah, you would,” Paul said calmly. “I know you did because I got my hands on the security footage. Ana refused to turn you in to keep Ed from killing you. She didn’t say anything because she was scared of you. She was scared for you and didn’t want your death on her conscience.”
Lawrence glanced between us as we closed in on him. He darted out from behind the equipment, but I was faster and jumped over the workout bench. Before Lawrence could run out the door, I tackled him to the floor.
“You were supposed to be my friend.” I landed a hard left. “How do you repay me for my friendship? You assault Ana, the love of my life,” I roared and hit him with a right fist to the jaw. “Your pathetic little ego couldn’t handle it when she got away, so you tried to destroy our relationship.”
He tried to protect himself, covering his head with his arms as he curled up in a fetal position. But there was no fighting off the beast raging inside of me. Ana’s fear, her tears, and the memory of the scratches on Lawrence’s face fueled me. My fists rained down on my enemy.
“Help…stop him,” Lawrence begged between the blows, but no one was coming to his aid.
They all knew that I was not only a top student, helped everyone, and was the captain of the soccer team, but I quietly ruled this school. Not even the dean would interfere in Lawrence’s punishment.
Paul grabbed my arm.
“That’s enough. You need to leave him breathing,” he said, trying to remind me of the consequences of killing someone on school grounds.
I yanked my arm away, and my fist found Lawrence’s jaw once more before Paul gripped me from behind, saving the asshole on the ground from certain death.
Marcus ran in and helped Paul restrain me from lunging after the bloody and now unconscious Lawrence. I fought against them, wanting him dead. Anything less than that wasn’t good enough.
“Stop, you’re going to kill him,” Marcus said, pulling me back further as I continued to fight their hold.
“That’s the fucking point,” I growled.
“What the fuck did he do,” Marcus asked.
“He assaulted Ana and then told her father a pack of lies about us. Vadin took her home, and I don’t know if I’ll ever see her again,” I said.
“What the fuck….” Marcus’s grip loosened. “On second thought, go ahead and kill him.”
“Well, isn’t this fucking entertaining. I just had to come see when I heard that Mr. Mikhailov was here and whisked his daughter away.”
I looked up to see Christov Ivankov leaning casually against the doorjamb, smiling like he’d just won the lottery. He smirked at me and then pointed to Lawrence.
“He didn’t tell Vadin, I did.”
Arrogant prick. Christov and I had been natural rivals from the second I’d stepped foot on Wayward property. He was the star quarterback, second to me in GPA, but it was his attitude that separated us. Where I planned to build my empire without crushing the poor and defenseless to get there, he was all too happy to exploit a weakness or step over a dead body to get what he wanted. Until now, we had purposely avoided each other.
“Technically, it was Lawrence’s idea, but I made the call.”
“What the fuck, Christov? There is nothing for you to gain by doing this, and you didn’t just hurt me.”
The asshole had the balls to smirk at me.
“Wrong,” he said, casually removing lint from his uniform. “Did you forget where I’m from? My father has deep political ties in Russia. He’s already in talks with Vadin to unite our houses. Adding the Mikhailov wealth to my family is the plan, but ruining your reputation and watching you suffer is the icing on the cake. Face it, you failed. There is nothing you can do to get Yulianna back, and the only wedding you’ll attend with her will be the one where she gives herself over to me.”
“Son of a bitch,” I growled and tried to lunge at him, but Marcus and Paul held firm. “But you don’t love her.”
He snickered and shook his head.
“What the hell does that have to do with anything? This is why you’ll never make it in this world. You’re too soft and sentimental.”
“How about my guys let go of me, and we see just how soft I am when I snap your neck.”
Just as I managed to pull away from Marcus and Paul, Dean Martin and the guards walked in, forming a barrier between me and Christov.
I pointed at Christov as he laughed and walked away.
“I’m warning you right now, Dean Martin, I’m going to kill him,” I said with so much venom that no one would doubt my intentions. “The next time I see his face, I’ll rip him in two.”
Picking a dumbbell up off the floor I threw it as hard as I could across the room and into the wall of mirrors. One at a time, they cracked and crumbled into a million little glass shards, sending guys running to avoid injury.
“That’s enough, Mr. Genovese. You two take Mr. Collier to the infirmary. The rest of you will escort Mr. Genovese to my office,” Martin said.
I would comply today, but I already knew what came next.
By the time Dean Martin arrived, I was ready to tear his office apart. I’d been pacing the room for an hour, and with each minute, my frustration grew.
“Sit down, Mr. Genovese,” he ordered, walking around the large, wooden desk to turn on his electric kettle in the corner.
“I don’t want to sit.”
He stared at me until I sucked in a deep breath and conceded. Fighting Martin right now wouldn’t help me fix any of this. He went back to making his tea and didn’t say another word until he’d sat down and taken a sip.
“I understand your anger, Edmundo, and I sympathize with it. But I can’t have you murdering fellow students.”
Crossing my arms, I looked away.
“You don’t understand.”
“Yes, I do. You know that the Curators exist and that they run this school, but do you know their purpose?”
I shook my head. “Other than punishing families who step out of bounds, no.”
Martin placed his hands on the desk and locked eyes with me.
“We ensure balance. We do not interfere in business or family matters unless…there is just cause.”
“And what does that have to do with me?” I shrugged.
“Now and then, there is a student who walks through our doors that we...take a special interest in their future. The reasoning can vary, but the result is the same.”
Martin looked at my bloody knuckles, opened a desk drawer, and pulled out a package of wet wipes.
“Here, clean yourself up.”
I stared at my swollen hand as the fury burned bright inside of me, but I also felt helplessness creeping in to take over. I’d lost her. I’d done everything right, and I still lost her. I’d put on a brave face for Ana, but the empty void in my chest felt like my heart had stopped beating the moment she got in that car. What the hell was I going to do?
“What do you want from me,” I asked, wiping at the dried blood.
“I’ll be very honest with you, Edmundo, we cannot help you get Yulianna back. That is between you and Mr. Mikhailov. We are offering to help make your ultimate goal a reality.”
Whatever that meant, my interest was officially piqued.
“I’m listening.”
“I’m leaving this here.”
He tapped the plain folder on his desk that had been there the whole time. Had I passed some test by not touching it?
“I’ll be out of the room for a few minutes while I make copies of the paperwork needed to write up the altercation from today. More than likely, the copier will jam, and it will take me longer to come back. I’m not telling you to look at what is inside, but if you do…you may find it intriguing.”
Martin took a sip of his tea, nodded, and then quietly left. I watched him close the door before turning back to the folder. Maybe this was the test. Did he want me to look? Deciding that the dean was trying to help, I slid the folder closer and opened the top.
“Holy shit,” I whispered.
With this information, I could be a Don of Dons before my twenty-fifth birthday. Pulling out my phone, I snapped pictures of everything I needed as fast as I could before closing the file and pushing it away.
I had no idea why the Curators would give me such powerful information, but my plans had just changed. There was literally nothing in this world that I wouldn’t do for Ana, even if it meant getting my hands a little dirty from this day forward. It was time I showed the world—that despite being fair and upstanding in all my business dealings—Edmundo Genovese wouldn’t be pushed around.