Right Behind You

Chapter Nine: Love Galore

"Why you bother me when you know you don't want me? (yah)

Why you bother me when you know you got a woman? (yah)

Why you hit me when you know you know better? (true)

Know you know better (true)"

-SZA (Love Galore)

Andrei:

I watch her every day.

It's sickening actually.... how interested I had become in her.

I studied every single movement she carried out.

How she twirled strands of her curly hair against her pointer finger, the innocent pout on her lips she carried when she was thinking hard, the same lips that quietly murmured to herself for whatever reason. I distinctly remember watching as her eyes remained so focused on the books she read in her office for hours on end. I wondered how she never got tired of reading medical books so much. The only time she took a break from them was when she was treating injured men or when Milena came for her daily visits to chat her up.

I focused on her too much, my job was to watch the estate. Make sure everything was under control, make sure we weren't being infiltrated by enemies. I had to watch everyone, but I watched Kae the most.

She wasn't a threat. I've been doing this for so long, I knew the difference between a spy and someone who just got caught up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Assessing her further, I picked up the fact that she's been in a domestic relationship. Whether it be a boyfriend, a family member, or someone close to her. Someone has been putting their hands on her. I saw it in her vulnerable eyes when she was brought to Alexei, I still see it in her eyes whenever I get close to her.

She's careful in what she says, her tone, everything is calculated.

Almost as if she steps out of line, she knows the consequence.

When we were walking late at night a few days ago, I had raised my hand to pat her hair and she flinched. The way she clenched up, squeezed her eyes shut like a little girl after having a nightmare, brought a desire to protect her from harm.

When she opened up her eyes and looked at me with shock and surprise, I could see the years of pain and hurt that she had been through. Like me, she had been through a lot since she was young, pain like that never went away and tormented you until you died.

I never really spoke much of my childhood, as it was something that I always tried to forget.

I was seen as weak and useless to both my older brother and father, before his passing.

Lord knows that my heart leaped with joy when that fucker died.

Alexei, that was the only time I ever saw him cry like a little bitch. He and my father were almost one and the same, he was becoming more and more like him every day. His aggressive behavior, reckless thinking overshadowing judgment, the heavy drinking, smoking, the lack of empathy for anyone but himself.

The only thing he was pretty much missing at this point was the abuse towards women.

My father hit our mother, but Alexei never knew that.

His ignorant ass still thinks that man was a saint, but he doesn't know half the things I know about him.

Men like my father only deserve to be in one place and that's hell.