Chapter 23 Klaus
KLAUS
“How are you?” Matteo asked as I stepped into his office the following day.
“Little like hell,” I muttered, looking over at Alessio. “Guess you visited there as well last night, huh, brother?”
He grunted and drank deeply before wiping his mouth. “I suppose you could say that.”
I nodded grimly. It seemed we were all struggling in one way or another. I still didn’t know what to do about Rosalie. All I knew was that I missed her, and the distance was killing me.
“I called you both here so we could talk,” Matteo said as I settled at the bar next to Alessio and looked at Matteo.
“Alessio already knows. This is for you, Klaus.”
I frowned and leaned forward. “What’s going on?”
Matteo sighed. “I—we—have been keeping a secret from you. Sylar was here and told me it was time to tell you. It’s why I called us together today.
” He paused, his focus fixed on me. “I want you to know that I did not like keeping this secret. I don’t know what to say to it other than I am sorry.
To me, it didn’t make sense to not tell you since you didn’t have any direct ties to the situation outside of me, but here we are.
I listened, and now it’s time to tell you. ”
“OK,” I said slowly, wondering what the hell this could be about.
“I think it’s better if we show you,” Matteo said softly, gesturing for us to follow him. I got up with Alessio, and we both walked with Teo past countless men to a doorway that led to the lower levels of his estate.
I didn’t often venture down there unless someone was injured in a gunfight, so this was already interesting to me as we descended the stairs. When we reached the first level of the basement, we followed Matteo to the elevator and got in.
“Should I be prepared for something huge?” I asked as the elevator moved us lower.
“I suppose that depends on how this affects you,” Matteo said.
I looked at Alessio, who shook his head, looking lost and a little sad.
I didn’t let the rush of concern take over. Instead, I inhaled deeply and mentally prepared myself for what could possibly await me at this level.
The elevator dinged, and we stepped out.
This part of the estate was finished with hardwood floors and rich colors that felt warm and not at all like a dungeon.
It was a safe space, so to speak, and I knew it was completely stocked with food, water, its own energy source, and weapons.
We could easily survive an apocalypse or war down there.
It was where Matteo kept a lot of his medical equipment too.
We walked until we reached a heavy wooden door. Matteo turned to me and gave me a smile.
“Sylar told me to tell you. Someone is waiting for you in this room. I am sorry, and I do not know what it means, but I trust Sylar. I know you do too, or you’d have killed him long ago.”
I glanced from Alessio to Matteo, feeling completely confused.
“My son… Stefan. I have seen him. Spoken to him. Do you have Levin?” Had he, I assumed I’d have already heard about it.
“No.” Alessio muttered, shaking his head. “Teo is right. Neither of us knows what it means, only that you need to face it alone.”
“Feels like one of those dungeon crawlers we’d play in college,” I muttered, remembering the good old days when we weren’t killing people.
“I assure you what’s behind this door won’t be a threat,” Matteo said with a soft laugh.
“It better not be an animal. I told you guys that I don’t want to get a damn dog.”
“Just go in,” Alessio said as Matteo stepped aside. “We will wait upstairs, right, Teo?”
Matteo nodded. “We will.”
I frowned at their cryptic words, the anticipation rearing in my chest as they left me standing there alone.
“What the fuck is going on?” I muttered. I was already having issues in life. I sure as fuck hope they didn’t get me a goddamn dog that had to be locked away because it was a biter.
Sighing, I pushed open the door and stepped into a lavishly decorated apartment.
I continued through the entryway and stopped dead in my tracks when I saw Fox Evans sitting up in a bed, a notebook in his hand. He was the same, yet he wasn’t.
“Fox?” I called out, so many emotions slamming into me at once. He was alive. He wasn’t dead. He was here. Rosalie. Rosalie. ROSALIE. I WAS GOING TO LOSE HER. Nothing else mattered. My feelings no longer mattered. Fox was here. He was going to go to her and take her away.
“Hey,” he greeted me softly. “I wasn’t expecting you.”
“I can say the same,” I said, stepping over and staring down at him in his bed. He was smaller than I remembered him being. An ugly scar ran down one side of his face, and that eye was milky white. He had tattoos now down his arms, and even some on his neck. I suspected they filled his torso, too.
He looked away from me, his cheeks reddening.
“Sorry. I look like hell,” he muttered, reaching for a pair of aviator glasses on his bedside table. He pushed them onto his face and breathed out. “How are you?”
“I’m terrible,” I murmured. “But I think you might be worse.”
He chuckled at that. “I think you’re right.”
I shook my head and took a seat in the overstuffed chair next to his bed. I noticed he was watching a fantasy movie in the background with the sound off, and his handwriting littered the pages of his notebook. In fact, he had stacks of notebooks piled on the bedside table and his mattress.
“It’s usually Alessio who sits with me,” he said. “We have a routine. I write and ignore him while he comments on the weather and poor American television programming.”
I smiled at that. Alessio hated watching TV.
“What…what happened?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Alessio never misses a shot. He drugged me in the underground and then took me out through a side tunnel with Sylar. I woke a few days later, busted to hell, and thinking I was dead. Turns out, I am. I’m Evan now.”
That tracked. Matteo had sent Alessio in to handle the situation once Fox—Evan—pressed the button. I always assumed it was meant to kill Fox. I suppose, in a way, it had.
And Sylar…
That little fucking weasel. He knew this entire fucking time. When I got my hands on him…
Fucking prick. An asshole just like his old man.
“So what do you want to do as our routine?” Evan asked.
I shook away my shock and irritation at Sylar and offered Evan a quick smile.
“I-I don’t know. Do you… like Monopoly?”
A sad smile graced his face. “Rosalie loves Monopoly.”
I swallowed hard at his words. “I know.”
He snapped his attention to me. “How do you know?”
“Fuck.” I scrubbed my hand down my face. “Evan, I fear I must tell you an ugly truth because I think you’re a good man and deserve only the truth.”
He frowned at me and set his notebook aside. “Is it about Rosalie? Is she OK?”
“She is well,” I said, holding up my hand to stop his panic. I knew he lived and breathed for her.
I could empathize.
I launched into me, not knowing, and Matteo saying Sylar told him and Alessio not to tell me. That it made no sense until I saw him.
“I don’t understand. Why didn’t it make sense?” he asked.
“Fucking Sylar,” I muttered, shaking my head once more. “He told me some time ago to visit a diner called Merv’s. To try a blueberry muffin. I had never heard of this place, but one day, there it was. Curiosity overtook me. I went in. She was there. Rosalie. She was waitressing.”
Evan’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he stared back at me.
“I-I don’t know how to tell you the rest,” I whispered. “I just…”
“She’s easy to love,” he said, his voice wobbling. “I get it.”
“Had I known you were alive, I would have never pursued her. I swear I wouldn’t have, but she has a hold on me. I’m choking on her, Constantino.” I swallowed hard and stared at him.
He said nothing. Instead, he turned his head so he was facing forward, a muscle ticking along his jaw.
“I will go to her tonight. I will end things. She will want you without a doubt. You’re her reason for breathing. She loves you so much, and misses you terribly.”
“Is she happy?” he asked, his voice low. “Is my girl happy?” He looked at me finally.
“She smiles,” I murmured. “She laughs now, but I know deep down she aches. She is the bravest and strongest person I’ve ever met. I admire her deeply. And I respect the love you two have for one another. I will step away.”
“She’s alone. I know Anson hasn’t taken her. Alessio told me about it all, at least what he knew,” he said. “I just… all I’ve ever wanted in my life was for her to be happy. To have her dreams. If you make her happy, Klaus, I want that for her.”
“What does that mean?” I asked, staring at him.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. She’s single as far as anyone knows. I’m stuck here. I don’t even know if she’d want me considering the way I look now.”
“She will always want you,” I said fiercely. “She is not a superficial woman.”
He said nothing and looked down at his hands. “I am familiar with sharing my girl, Klaus. I know how it works.”
My heart banged hard against my chest.
“You would share her with me?”
“If it made her smile, I would do anything she asked of me,” he said, his voice laced with meaning. “It may take me time to get used to… you, but I think I could. In time. I’d need time.”
“I understand,” I said earnestly. “I would give you that.”
He smiled at me. “I don’t think you’re as bad a man as I’ve heard. You clearly give a damn about my girl and have kept her safe and happy. Bad men don’t do that.”
I said nothing, not wanting to deny my feelings, but not wanting to admit them because it meant a hell of a lot of things I wasn’t sure how to navigate.
Things I wasn’t sure I was ready for.
“Matteo says I’ll be able to leave soon. When I go, I’m taking her with me,” he said, cutting into my thoughts. “In time, you can come to us if it’s what she wants.”
“I appreciate that,” I said thickly. “Truly. It is more than I deserve.”
He said nothing as he stared at the TV, not really watching it, but not really paying attention to me either.
“She-She goes out dancing alone,” I said into the silence. “She is lonely. She hurts because of what Lorenzo and the horsemen did to her.”
“Watch her.” He looked over at me. “Please. If anything happened to her…” He raked his fingers through his messy black hair. “I-I just couldn’t. I want her out of this life, but you sort of complicate things.”
“I would leave for her.” The words fell from my mouth before I could stop them. Words I never thought I’d say. “For her, I would walk away without question.”
“Then maybe there is no problem.”
“Well, there is a problem. I do find myself confused. I am trying to fix things with my boys, and Matteo needs me while we go through everything—”
He held up his hand to stop me.
“Klaus, I don’t need to hear excuses and reasons.
It’s easier to make excuses than it is to make changes.
Believe me, I know, but if you want her, tell her.
Don’t hurt her. Cut her loose if you aren’t sure.
Whatever it is, just be honest. Trust me when I say that life is easier once you make up your mind. ”
I let out a soft huff of laughter. “I believe you.”
His lips twitched. “We’re good. Promise. Whatever you and she decide, I will stand by it.”
I nodded, my throat tight.
“Do you like football?” he asked after a moment of silence.
“I love it,” I admitted.
He lifted the remote and changed the channel to a football game.
“Good. Alessio wasn’t such a fan, and all he wanted to talk about was soccer.
It’s cool, man, but I like the roughness of football.
I have been working on watching it again.
Some days I can. Some days… not so much, but I have faith I’ll get there eventually. ”
“Me too with the roughness.” I relaxed in my seat, not wanting him to feel like his trauma was a bother to me.
“I don’t know if you know this or not, but I was a quarterback in high school.
I got scouted to play at Mayfair, but I was an idiot and just wanted to party and have fun. Look where that got me.”
“Really?” Evan shook his head at me. If I could see his eyes, I knew he’d be staring in disbelief at me.
“Yeah.” I laughed. “I was such an idiot when I was younger. Let me tell you about this party where I ran naked through campus and had the campus police chase me while I wore a sock on my dick…”
And that was it.
Conversation was light and effortless after that.
We both seemed comfortable, and I stayed until he eventually drifted off to sleep, his notebook clutched in his hand. Gently, I reached out and took it from him to see a note to Rosalie inside.
I dream of you every night. Sometimes I wake calling out your name. I both love and hate knowing that you are likely doing the same because of me…
I placed his notebook next to him on the table and backed away.
He loved her. Truly, head over heels, destined soulmate sort of love.
I would give her up so she could have him back. In reality, I wasn’t so sure anything would work between us, but I grasped the tiny sliver of hope and decided I needed to just let her go.
For her.
For Evan
For… me.
And that broke my damn heart.