Vik (Shot Callers 2)

The bridge of my nose tingled with unshed tears.

Jesus. Get a grip.

This pregnancy foolishness had me a mess.

Although Roam hesitated, he uttered, “This doesn’t mean shit.” His eyes narrowed on Anika. “For all I know, it could be yours.”

What Anika responded with rocked me so hard my head rattled.

Anika’s stance grew rigid. Immediately, she returned a stony, “Yeah, I’m infertile.” And my heart stopped altogether. She glared at Roam as she clarified slowly, as if she were explaining it to an imbecile, “That means I can’t have children.”

The words came out firmly but pained, and the breath that left me was light but full of sorrow. My brow dipped as I swung my head to look at her, my lips parting at the devastating news.

The pressure in my head increased until I felt I might pass out from it. My chest ached as betrayal lit heavy in my soul.

Great. Yet another thing I hadn’t known. Just how many lies had I been told? How many secrets were being kept from me? I was tired of this. So tired.

A feeling akin to grief suddenly weighed me down, and as I blinked at the woman I called my friend, I wondered if I ever really knew her at all.

Then, suddenly, my mind rewound, back to Dr Henley’s office, to how desperately the doctor had tried to get Anika to stay. She begged Anika to spare her a moment. My guess was to talk, presumably about her options.

My gut clenched with the realization that Anika had battled all of this on her own. And it broke my heart that she felt she had to.

Right. So, Anika wasn’t sick. But as it turned out, she was mourning. And I suddenly understood why she was so excited about this baby. It would be the closest she would ever get to having her own.

The hurt I felt dulled a notch, but the ache remained.

Roam’s suspicious eyes swept over me as a whole, and when he uttered a bored, “Congratulations. Now I have two incentives for Viktor to comply,” my stomach dipped painfully when it finally dawned on me.

Of course.

This was him. The guy. The guy from the upper east side. The guy who was feeding Vik rough work. And now, he was a guy who apparently had plans for me.

A sudden rush of hate filled me as I ground out, “He doesn’t know. I haven’t told him yet.”

Laughter rumbled out of his chest as he lowered his head. Hate filled my heart. I was so glad he found this amusing. He then shook his head, took another bite of his sandwich, and spoke around his mouthful. “Wow. You dames are something. That’s perfect. I love it.”

Knowing what was coming, Anika stipulated, “If you take her, you’ll have to take me too.”

And Roam… well… that was the precise moment he had enough.

Throwing his sandwich down onto the counter with a slap, the tall man advanced. His jaw tight, he started for her. My feet began to move to shield her as she had me, but his arm shot out, and a hard shove had me stumbling into the table, hitting my side with a wince, my hip throbbing. I watched in wide-eyed terror as he backed a petrified Anika right into a wall. Pressing the hard barricade of his body into hers, he lifted his hand and ran his knuckles gently across her cheek. She swallowed hard, turning away from his touch, rejecting it.

Roam did not like that.

The expression he wore was one carved in granite. Cold and resolute. He gripped her chin between his thumb and forefinger and jerked it up, forcing his glacial gaze on her.

He spoke in deathly quiet. “I think it’s cute you think you have some kind of hold over me, princess, but I’m going to lay this down right now so you don’t misunderstand me. Your one and only appeal to me is the sweet-tasting fruit between your legs. We both know that if I wanted you that night, I could have had you.” His lip curled a second before he stated, “But I don’t. Your desperation is wafting under my nose, and it stinks. The charm of your loneliness was fleeting. You’re a pretty woman, but your mouth is going to get you into a lot of trouble. Don’t push me, Anika, because I—” He tightened his grip on her, causing her to flinch. “—push back.”

Anika trembled, and the fear in her eyes spoke volumes. She didn’t know where to go from here, and when her frightened eyes searched for me, my decision was cemented. Seeing my oldest friend in the grasp of this psycho was all I could take.

I didn’t have much of a choice here. And even if I did, I would make this one over and over again to see her out of harm’s way.