His Caged Dove -Mafia Romance (BOOK ONE)

Twenty-Four: Gedeon

"How did you feel?" he asked warily.

"Disgusted for one," I disclosed. Remembering how it seemed I had crushed her whole world. The last time I remembered having that sort of ache in my heart was when Mother hid me under the secret passage basement, making me promise to not come out no matter what. Let Father find me. I shook the memories away. "Shameful like I was doing the worst thing ever. I blew up people's brains for fun all the damn time. This shouldn't even phase me. But when she had her stupid eyes on us, it made me feel..." I trailed off, trying to find the right word but came to nothing.

"Dove is under your skin, isn't she?" he asked, though it came off as a statement.

"It seems like it, doesn't it?" I mused grimly. "Which was the last thing I wanted."

"I can only imagine," he agreed. He watched me rise from my seat and we both knew why I had turned my attention back to the window. It was like my eyes and mind always wandered to her, and I hated it. I hated that she was able to thaw and awaken something in my heart. "So, what now, Boss? What will you do now with her? About what you've sworn to do?"

"That's why you're here," I snorted. "If I knew, do you think I'll be confiding in you?"

"I think you're asking the wrong person," he laughed. "I've never had a girl hold my dick or my heart the way your little bird does with you. Though, I admire that you think I'm the best person to ask for advice in this whole place."

"For one thing, Nicolai can't even comprehend his own emotions, let alone others," I ran my fingers through my hair before tugging it. "Aleksei...well we all know why I can't be with him. And there's no way I'll tell Anastasia, because she's not going to let me hear the end of it."

"She's already thinking of your ship names. It's between Dodeon and Gedove," he reported with a grin. It seemed that everyone but me was already deciding what our portmanteau name was and my future with the way he didn't seem to be surprised by my revelation I've only recently come around to acknowledging. "Both terribly bad, but I'll never tell her that."

"You got one for us?"

"Well duh, it's Doveon. Before you ask why, Ana forced us to all make one," he stated as he walked to the entrance of the office door. He wavers there briefly, rocking back and forth on his heels before turning to me. "Gedeon, I really can't give you advice regarding what you should do, because I don't know jack shit about love. All I can say is that, for the most part, we will stand by with whatever you end up doing when it comes to Dove. Because at the end of the day, we want you to be happy. And we know you're doing everything for us. So, the question now is, what are you doing to do?"

"I don't know," I admitted gruffly. My shoulders sagged along with my body under this new weight I never thought I would have to face. "She's derailing everything I worked to achieve. An enemy I thought could never make me feel shit like this."

"Will you kill her? Or will you let her go?"

The thought of killing her or letting her go wasn't sitting right with me either way. And neither was seeing Aleksei coming outside in that moment to talk with her either. He warily looked around for any signs of me as he rubbed the back of his neck. In a thick sweater and sweatpants, he looked like he just got out of bed. Which is to be expected after going against Timor's suggestion that we should not spar, and I may or may not have taken my past rage back at him. He's keeping his distance like I thought after our little talk a few days ago after I knocked his ass down. By little talk, it was me threatening him and resulted in both of us not talking to each other.

Which Dove doesn't need to know why he's keeping almost five feet away from her.

So, I guess now, I have no bodyguard or a non related brother either. I thought he would apologize because there was no way in hell I would. It was radio silence since then as we avoided each other like the plague. Right now, I'm watching them both like a hawk, and I wondered why I felt scared.