Rich Bastard {mxm}

Twenty Six.

"Learning how to understand other people is crucial to my own feelings," -C.T

"Are you okay, Master Cheyenne?" I rolled my eyes at the voice of Tara as she stared at me from the passenger seat of my truck. "You've been silent this entire car ride," She pointed out and I gritted my teeth, wondering when I asked for the obvious. "Does it look like I'm okay?" I spat without thinking, knowing that I probably hurt her feelings.

It was at this point where I just couldn't care about anyone or anything. I let out a sigh as I turned on the radio, frowning as Bonnie Raitt's I Can't Make You Love Me started to fill up the car. As much as I wanted to turn it off because it was making me think of things that I was trying not to think of, I couldn't. In this way, if I confronted and faced my feelings, I'd get over them and who knew? After this, I just might give one of my mother's young friends a chance.

Who was I kidding?

I couldn't make anyone love me as much as I wanted to. I couldn't do anything. Part of me knew my mother was right about him confronting his own feelings and realizing what he wanted, but I had never fallen in love before. This was terrifying because I usually had control over everything. Not having control was dangerous for someone like me because people could easily see through me, break down the walls that I had years of crafting, snatch away the shell that has healed you. 

And when that happens, you are utterly crushed beneath their feet and you just decide to beg for death because there was nothing else to live on for. 

"Hey," Tara muttered and I spared her a glance. "What?" I saw her pointing at something behind one of the many abandoned buildings in San Jose. "Haven't we seen that man before?" I pulled over slowly to see that in the alleyway between the warehouses, there was a man that I had seen before: one of Sterling's henchmen, Bryan.

I rolled down my window to hear yelling and screaming. "Get off of me!" I heard the sound of a woman and then the sound of a slap that bounced off of the walls. "Shut your fucking mouth, whore!"

I put my car in park before impulsively getting out, going to put a stop to whatever this was. Sterling had no god damn right, and he was not going to get anyone else involved in his bullshit. I charged towards the darkest part of the alleyway, rage consuming me once my eyes landed on the burly man trying to pull a woman by the red miniskirt she wore.

"The hell do you think you're doing?!" I exploded with clenched hands, catching their attention. The woman looked at me, her eyes begging me to save her as Bryan sneered in my direction, rolling his eyes. "Of course, it's you," All of a sudden, Bryan balled up his fist and slammed it into the chest of the woman, her body flying back into the wall with a loud crash. "Boss said if we saw you," He grinned evilly, turning to me with a lick of his lips and a crack of his knuckles.

"To just kill you."

He stormed towards me, hands balled up and within the blink of an eye, his hands crashed into my cheek. A sharp pain erupted on the right side of my face as I staggered backward, a throb pulsating from the top of my head to my chin. I lost all sense of my balance as I shakily held my hand to my swollen cheek, wincing at the pain.

"There's more where that came from, boy," Bryan snickered as he advanced towards me and I stood up, cracking my neck. "Wow, you didn't give me a chance to get prepared," I cracked my jaw, the ringing in my head the only thing keeping me sane as I stood stance, beckoning for him to come forth. 

As he ran, I ducked as he threw a punch out, surging my own fist into his chest just like he did to that woman. He let out a loud choking howl, falling into the dumpster with an audible clatter. The inertia from his run and the angle of my punch hit an organ that would render him unconscious for a bit. Scumbags like him did not deserve the life they lived, to be out here snatching women left and right for a man who held no respect for them.