Chapter 34 #2
I nod for Zander to let Kratos switch spots with him. The moment I do, he’s running toward me, scooping me up in his arms. He drops kisses on my cheek before he collapses onto the floor with me tucked into his lap.
“Don’t worry, Doll, I’ll go easy on you,” Zander chuckles as he continues to shower me with kisses.
“Well, I make no such promises,” I tell him, putting my hand over his face and pushing him away, trying and failing to contain my laughter.
I feel him huff against my skin before he sticks his tongue out and licks the length of my hand, causing me to snatch it back.
“Fucking gross,” I cry in outrage, wiping my hand on his face and shirt as he dissolves into a fit of laughter, taking me to the floor with him.
“Are you finished now?” Leo asks, and I shoot him a glare at his tone.
“Yeah, all good, man,” Zander says, pulling me close to his chest and smiling up at Leo as if he had genuinely asked him. Sometimes, I’m not sure if he really is oblivious or if he’s just really that much of a smartass.
Could go either way with him.
“Alright, you two know the rules, but I get the feeling I should say ‘em, anyway. The first one on the mat loses, no life-threatening attacks. Anything that would be considered a killing blow is to be done at less than full strength and taken as a fatal hit by the other. We don’t need you guys slicing each other open with training knives.” Leo jokes, but I know there’s a hint of truth to his words.
He saw Kratos the night Dom told us the truth.
He was ready to kill him. Leo had been the only thing to stop him, and even then, it was with a gun to his head.
“We will step in if necessary, and if we have to do that, all bets are off. If the only way to stop you is to knock you out, that’s on you, not us.”
Leo shrugs before he takes a huge step back.
“Three.” Another step. “Two.” He turns to look at me as if unsure about letting this happen, but I know it has to for Kratos to move forward.
What Dom did hurt him, and he needs this to heal.
I don’t think he really wants to kill Dom or even hurt him all that much, but even if he does, at least here, we can stop them.
And we need to work as a team against Ivan.
“One.” I nod, and he nods back, and for a moment, I feel as if he completely understands me.
“Fight.”
I turn my attention to the mat. My oldest friend, the first person I ever trusted, versus… my brother.
“Calm down, nothing's going to happen. They need this, and you gave it to them. Just know we’re all here and watch from a place of learning like you did the rest of the matches,” Zander whispers in my ear as he presses his hand to my chest, where my heart beats wildly.
I hadn’t even realized how nervous I was until he pointed it out, but he’s right.
I take a deep breath and try to let it go, focusing on where Kratos can improve. What might save his life later.
They take turns trading blows, nothing too damaging.
They’re both pretty quick on their feet, considering their size, but I know from fighting both of them that Kratos’s hits hold a lot more power.
Dom seems to understand that pretty quickly, too, changing up his attack pattern to put him outside of his reach.
They dance around one another, and with the new distance, Kratos’s hits land less often while Dom still manages to get a few in. Watching Kratos, I see his frustration growing with every passing moment.
He’s going to lose it.
I attempt to sit up, but Zander tightens his arms around me, holding me to him.
“Watch,” he says, nodding toward them. I’m half tempted to elbow him in the face and break his hold, but I don’t. Huffing a sigh of annoyance that makes him chuckle, I turn my focus to the mats.
Dom ducks under one of Kratos’s failed hits, popping up in front of him and hitting him hard with a right hook to the jaw.
That does it.
Kratos all but explodes with a roar. Lunging forward, he takes Dom by surprise as he tackles him to the mat.
Kratos gets the jump on him, and for a second, he has him down on his back.
Usually, we would call it; Kratos would have won, but nobody, myself included, moves as we watch to see what they will do.
“Lying piece of shit!” Kratos hisses as he grips Dom’s shirt, slamming him down on the mat.
The mat’s thick, so I doubt it hurts much, but the shock is still clear in Dom’s eyes as he looks up at him.
Watching Dom, I feel like I can read his emotions as if they are my own.
His eyes, which are so much like mine, shine as his shock settles, pushed away by guilt before the anger creeps in.
Dom bucks up enough to unbalance Kratos before throwing his elbow up toward his face.
Kratos can either take the hit or move further back, giving Dom an opening to free himself.
He moves back, the smart choice. It might be annoying to have to put him back down, but a well-placed elbow to the side of the face could take him out completely.
The second Kratos is off of him, Dom lunges, putting them in damn near a mirror position to where they just were. Only this time, Kratos is the one on the mat.
“You think I don’t know that!” Dom snaps right before his fist does the same, hitting Kratos in the face, making me cringe again. He hardly even seems to notice, though, as he swings out for a hit of his own.
This close, Dom can’t do much to avoid it unless he moves off of him. Dom takes the hit dead in the face, swaying for a second before he blinks and hits back.
“You think I wanted to lie to you? To her?” Dom shouts as he rains down hit after hit in such rapid succession, leaving Kratos no choice but to block his face.
Zander’s arm around my waist slips away, and we both sit up, ready. I don’t even need to look around to feel the tension that surrounds us, and I know we’re not the only ones ready to jump in if needed.
“I never wanted any of this!” Dom huffs as his hits begin to slow, his shoulders sagging in defeat as he looks down at Kratos.
“All I wanted was to save my little sister. She was my best friend, and he took her away. Stole her in the middle of the night right from under our noses and acted like he didn’t know a damn thing while our lives fell apart.
” Dom’s voice cracks with emotion as he lets his arms drop at his side, but makes no move to get up.
I expect Kratos to go on the offensive again, but he doesn’t. Instead, he stays where he is, looking up at Dom as he pours his heart out to him, trying to make him understand.
“Do you know what it’s like to watch a man who kills for a living and demands respect, break down and beg the gods to bring his little girl back?” Dom asks. His words are hardly more than a whisper, but I feel as if he carved them into a knife and stabbed me with them.
“Because I do. I came here to find her. I was ready to die for her if I had to. I didn’t expect to find a friend and didn't think I could ever trust anyone again after that. I came here thinking the world would only fuck you if you let it.” He pushes off Kratos’s chest, falling to the mat in a heap next to him.
“But instead, I found you, found her.”
Dom’s eyes find mine across the room, full of hurt, fear, and sadness, and I have to look away. I don’t want to feel bad for him, feel sorry for what he went through when he played a part in this fucked-up life I’ve lived.
But I do, anyway.
“You guys built Vengeance to save people, and you did. Whether you like it or not, you saved me, even though I don’t deserve it. Just like you saved Leo.”
I look up, finding Leo where he stands off to the side of the gym, and for once, he doesn’t seem like his usual cocky self. His head hangs low as he looks down at his shoes, and I know Dom’s words are true.
“I never wanted to run the family. All that mattered was my family. My father, mother, and sister. But since finding Vengeance, that changed. For the first time in my life, I felt like I had people I trusted, and I fucked it all up because I was afraid to tell you the truth.”
He jabs his finger angrily at his own chest as he turns back to Kratos.
“I can own that. I know what I did and who I am, and I'm okay with that. I’ll live with the fact that my sister hates me, even if she hates me forever, even if you both do. It doesn’t matter because I’m not going anywhere.
You can all hate me if that makes it easier, but I’m not leaving you to fight this shit alone.
If you want me gone, you'd better kill me, because that’s the only way to get rid of me now. ”
Dom looks around the room as if waiting for us to challenge what he said, but nobody does.
I can’t even begin to think of a way to argue that right now, because as angry as I am at him and Leo, I hear the truth in his words.
He could have just let Leo take me back to Ivan, but he didn’t.
They could have let me go and run, but they didn’t. Instead, they’re here, helping us.
Neither of them has any real reason to be here, helping us, yet here they are.
They say they want to take down Ivan, that he’s a monster, but neither of them are even on his radar at the moment.
They could have tucked tail and run long before he knew, or even just let us fight him and pretended they had nothing to do with it.
Instead, they both stayed and offered to help. Throwing themselves into the mix with us will no doubt paint a target on their backs should our plan fail, but I’ve yet to hear either of them so much as worry about that.
“I spent all this time looking for the little sister that I thought needed me. In my mind, you were still this scared little girl who had nightmares, and you were out here facing them all alone. But that’s not who you are anymore.
You took the nightmares and made them a part of you to save those around you.
I went searching for a scared little girl, but instead, I found the strongest person I’ve ever met.
It made me realize that you never needed me.
We needed you. I need you, and I will not, cannot let you face anything else alone. Never again.”
My breath catches as he says those words, the very ones I longed to hear as a child, and I can’t help but look up at him.
He still sits on the mat across the room, but even from here, I can see the tears in his eyes.
I told Jake just days ago that we would be here for him, but can I promise the same thing to Dom?
He turns away, back to Kratos, before I can decide, and it’s probably for the best, since I have no idea how to answer that. No idea if I can ever be what he wants.
“I’m not looking for a pass here, Kratos, but for what it’s worth, I am sorry.
I never intended to hurt you, either of you.
I did what I thought was best with what I had, and looking back now, I see where some of my choices might have been wrong.
But I can’t change them now, and truthfully, even if I could do it all over, I’m not sure that I would because of where we ended up.
This,” Dom throws his arms wide, and Kratos looks around the room.
His eyes move over each of the guys before they land on me, and I see his gaze soften the way it only ever does for me.
“This is everything any of us ever wanted. We’ve all been through our own personal brands of hell, some much worse than others.
But if I had to go through hell for anything, I’d say this was worth it. At least to me, it is.”
Dom pushes up off the floor, and Kratos lets him go. He no longer looks ready to kill him. If anything, he looks confused, and yeah, I get that.
Dom leaves, and for a moment, the room is silent. I think over his words and can’t bring myself to argue with them. This life isn’t easy, and we never asked for this shit.
But these guys are worth it. The girls I saved were worth it.
Life is worth it, and they all gave me something worth living for, the same way I did for Dom, even if I didn’t know it…