Execution (Off Balance 2)

as I slowly stood, mortified at the sight before me.

"What the fuck are you doing, Hayden!" Kova raged, ducking from another blow. He stood to his full height and shoved Hayden back with a push to his chest. "You almost hit her!"

Kova maneuvered himself behind Hayden, putting him in a chokehold. He looked up, eyes gleaming. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth where his lip was cracked. Hayden had surprisingly gotten in a good punch.

"Nice to see you answering the door in actual clothing this time, Ria." His mouth twitched. The hint of something more in his words didn't go unnoticed. Hayden wrestled in his arms, but Kova had a firm lock on him. He wasn't going anywhere.

I glared at him. Of all things to start a conversation with, he picks that.

Hayden twisted in Kova's arms. "Are you trying to get hit again?"

"That was a sucker punch, Hayden. It will not happen again. It is obvious you are no match for me. Now stop trying to fight me so I can—"

"You're fucking scum!"

Kova paused. "I have been called worse."

"Hayden!" I screamed. Vodka, and about twenty different feelings and emotions, ran through my system, making me hotter by the moment. My fingers tingled with adrenaline. "Fucking stop it!"

"If you promise to act civilly, I will release you," Kova said to the top of Hayden's head.

Hayden mumbled under his breath and Kova freed him. He ran both hands through his dirty blond hair and adjusted his now wrinkled shirt. He shot Kova a scathing glare, then looked at me. I recoiled at the look on his face. He hardly held back how he felt.

"How can you defend this piece of shit after what he did to you?" Hayden asked, gesturing toward Kova.

I squinted at Kova. He'd lifted the hem of his shirt to wipe the blood from his mouth.

My jaw trembled, upset he still believed I was forced against my will. "I told you, he didn't do anything I didn't want. You're never going to believe me, are you?" My voice sounded as fragile as my emotions felt. "I don't know what I can do to make you believe me."

He squared his shoulders back. "Knowing the position he's in, there's nothing you can do or say that will change how I feel. Nothing. It's wrong and he should've been the one to know better."

Tears blurred my vision. "It's not wrong if I wanted it. It's really not."

"I feel like I'm talking to a wall right now," he responded.

"You have some nerve saying anything, Hayden," Kova cut in. "Especially after everything I have done for you and your sister." He gave Hayden a cutting look that sent him into a frenzy.

Hayden’s face went stark white. "That has absolutely nothing to do with this!" he roared. "Nothing! So, what, because of that you can do whatever it is you want and I should be okay with it? Like I'm indebted to you for the rest of my life? Where do you get off with your line of thinking?"

I looked back and forth between the two, lost. They were having a conversation over something I had no clue about.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Why do you think there were rules implemented, Adrianna?" Kova asked me while staring at Hayden. "Why do you think there is a dating policy that I enforce? Ask your beloved friend right here. Holly is the reason for it."

I glanced at Hayden, but he was focused on Kova.

"Kova," Hayden growled. He took one step toward him. "Don't."

"Don’t what?" I asked, looking back and forth between them again.

Kova lifted an elegant shoulder like he didn't have a worry in the world. He was secure in his stance, confident.

"I am just reminding you what I did for you, Hayden. Now you will do the same for me and grant me with the same discretion I did you." He finished with a raised brow.

I was more lost than ever. "Do what for you?" I shouted. "What the fuck is going on?"

Both men turned to me, the whites of their eyes more visible than the color. I inhaled a lungful of air. Pressure mounted in my chest as I tried to take deeper, bigger breaths. My lungs burned from the restriction. Horrified by their reactions, my heart shattered into a million pieces and I burst into tears. I wept over a battle I never had the chance to win—making Hayden a believer, and losing out on the gymnastics meet. Both were irrevocably unattainable and the gravity of that realization produced an effect so severe, my throat closed and hot tears clouded my vision. No matter what I said, Hayden would never understand, and no matter what I did, Kova wasn't going to let me compete at the meet.