Loving You Is Forbidden (Third Book of "Fire and Ice" series)

CH 14: Feeling closer - shredding harder (Part 2)

"Vsyo kharashò?" Anatoly asked me, seeing I kept silent.

"No," I admitted. "Anatoly, this is dangerous and you do realize that some piece of filth in school has some twisted game against you? Do you realize that it can turn out very bad for you?"

"I didn't give much thought about it. Of course someone must have it against me, because, let's face it: some losers didn't take well my getting back on my feet. And Oleg, you freaking know how I behaved. Shit...if only I could turn back the time and delete everything," he growled exasperated, locking his fingers in his hair, and I very much desired to meet this person face to face and exchange a couple of words.

I took a long breath and levelled the anger mounting in my body, the cold rage coating my veins and making me want to find this rat. He was not only endangering Anatoly, but he was trying to undermine his new found balance and life; from the way he seemed to act so far, the lowlife had no intention of striking openly, showing their face. This person acted in the worst way possible: first with small and petty actions that showed a rather immature and pathetic behaviour, such as painting his locker, breaking the taillight, slashing the tires. It was the same person and there was not the smallest doubt about it.

It all aimed to the same pattern: undermine Anatoly's balance and make him feel guilty more than he already was about his past. Then, the vermin stepped over the limit, wanting to actually hurt him physically. Not in an open fight like with that pitiable Sergey Lebedev, who of course acted like a coward by wanting to fight in five or more against two, but at least showed his face. This one here was worse and this one worried me considerably.

It was someone gravitating around Anatoly and the deal was to look into people's background. I had to act and this time, I would not pass through Mr. Denisov: this time I would personally and directly deal with the matter.

"Do you have any idea who this person might be?" He shook his head and looked away. Something else was on his mind and, as Anatoly spoke, my hand almost crashed the glass it was holding.

"It's not all," he paused a moment and closed his eyes, for then talking very fast. "A guy from the gang came to see me in school and told me to stay sharp, because that lunatic of Caden might be back soon."

None of us talked for a long minute and I let go of the glass my hands was still holding, knowing it was better not to shatter it there. I could not describe what went through me in that specific moment, but my ire and rage reached a level never experienced before; I knew that the leader of the gang would soon be back, after that accident where a policeman and another drug dealer got shot. The issue was that I unfortunately could not tell when precisely it would be and this lack of certain information made me feel very limited and inadequate to protect Anatoly.

"Who did seek you out?" I asked. Anatoly's eyes darted at me quickly and then moved away even faster. It was not a good sign. "Anatoly, answer me: who did come to see you? I want his name." He kept more silent and I could feel my patience about to wear out. I had to know. "Anatoly," I said rather harshly and with more than intended authority in my voice. "I want his name."

"It was Vincent," he murmured between his teeth, still not looking at me. "I'm sure I don't need to explain you who the hell Vincent is, right?" His eyes kept staring somewhere far from my face and Anatoly remained with his head turned away from me.

Indeed, that was very correct. He did not need to explain me who that piece of trash was, even though I was fully aware he was the least worse in the entire gang. As he did not need to explain what happened between them in the past years and months.

He had quite a promiscuous behaviour and, while at first I was principally concerned about his health and the one of his family, I slowly came to realize I was concerned for more: I had become worried about Anatoly in general, seeing that once he would gain his senses back, he would regret almost all of his actions. From the way he avoided to look at me, it appeared crystal clear it was something that left him uncomfortable. It was something that left me not very impassive as I had always presumed. I was not resentful for his past and I did not feel jealousy while thinking about it. We all had our past. However, knowing that person had the guts to seek out Anatoly and had the guts to try to get back in his life, this was something that gave my questions the final answer.