"Baby."

  "Hmmp," I groaned, my face buried deep in the pillows.

  "I’m going down to the undry room," a soft, cheerful voice whispered. "Don’t forget to eat your breakfast while it's hot, okay?"

  A sweet, innocent kiss pressed against my temple. I heard the rustle of a undry basket, soft footsteps retreating down the hall, and the heavy click of the front door locking shut.

  I slowly forced my eyes open.

  Shit. The morning light felt like daggers in my skull. My head throbbed with a sickening hangover, and my entire body felt heavy, bruised, and completely drained. I rolled over and squinted at the digital clock. 8:00 AM.

  The memories of st night hit me like a freight train. Andrew's cold, deadpan stare. The physical fight in the VIP booth. Gaby dragging my hollow shell back to the loft. The horrifying, desperate, entirely one-sided sex where I y completely numb while she cwed my chest open. It was all vividly, agonizingly real.

  I dragged my aching body out of bed and walked out to the kitchen.

  Everything was sickeningly perfect. A hot pte of eggs and a steaming mug of coffee were waiting for me on the pristine marble isnd. I looked around the open-concept loft. It was absolutely spotless. The clothes we had torn off in a panic st night were gone. The ruined bedsheets had been stripped and repced.

  It was as if st night’s psychological nightmare had never even happened. Every single trace of our trauma had been methodically, desperately scrubbed away.

  I walked into the bathroom and gripped the edges of the sink, looking at my reflection in the mirror. I completely froze.

  The deep, bleeding scratches Gaby had cwed into my chest and the harsh bite marks along my colrbone had been carefully cleaned. They were covered with small, neat bandages and smelled faintly of antiseptic. She had treated my wounds while I was passed out.

  Fuck. It wasn't a bad dream. But why the hell was she acting like a cheerful 1950s housewife after what we just went through?

  I spshed freezing water on my face, walked back out to the kitchen, and took a sip of the coffee. It was perfectly brewed.

  The manic fog had finally lifted. My cold, sobering rationality was back. I needed to talk to Gaby. I had to end this. I was turning her into a monster, and I didn't want to destroy her life any further.

  The White Fg.

  After forcing the breakfast down my throat, I carried my coffee mug out to the balcony. The cold, morning city wind hit my face. I leaned my forearms against the metal railing, sparked a cigarette, and stared out at the Chicago skyline.

  I was deep in thought, coldly mapping out the logistics of the breakup. I needed to find a safe pce for her to stay, since her summer csses were still ongoing and I couldn't just throw her out onto the street. I would offer to pay for a sublet. I would take the bme. I would do it cleanly.

  Fuck. I felt terrible. After everything she had sacrificed to try and be enough for me, and after the horrific ways I had degraded her to numb my own grief... I was a total, irredeemable asshole.

  "Baby..."

  I flinched, violently pulled from my thoughts. I turned around.

  Gaby was standing in the doorway of the balcony. She was holding the empty undry basket against her hip. She looked absolutely exhausted. Her face was pale, restless, and her brown eyes looked completely cornered. She was staring at me standing in Jessica's sacred spot, and she looked absolutely terrified. She knew exactly what I was thinking. She was bracing for the end.

  Fuck. Can I really do this to her? I looked at her trembling hands. My spine instantly dissolved.

  "I didn’t hear you come in, babe," I said smoothly. The charming, perfect-boyfriend mask snapped instantly back over my face, accompanied by a warm, gentle smile.

  She exhaled a massive, shaky breath. The terror vanished from her eyes, instantly repced by her usual, desperate warmth. Just hearing me call her 'babe' was enough to convince her she was safe. "I wanted to surprise you, baby!"

  Shit. I am a pathetic coward. "Let’s get back inside," I said, stepping off the balcony and closing the gss door behind me. "You still aren't done showing me that novel you were raving about st week."

  She giggled, a bright, relieved sound, and immediately clung to my arm. "Yes! Let’s go, baby!"

  My God. I am the worst person alive.

  *

  July 2012.

  It had been three full weeks since the explosive intervention at the underground club.

  I had completely ghosted the Russian crew. I actively ignored all of Nikoy’s calls and left Andrew's texts on read. I couldn't face them. Instead, I dedicated all my energy to maintaining a fwless, impenetrable facade with Gaby.

  This time, it wasn't the manic, adrenaline-chasing "Sex Demon" controlling my actions. It was just the old, hypocritical, cowardly version of Daeron. I was staying with her because I was terrified of hurting her further. I hesitated every single day to have "the talk," entirely too scared to break her heart.

  Our life over those three weeks became aggressively, suffocatingly normal. The only major difference was the sex. We no longer engaged in the wild, violent, boundary-pushing intensity we relied on to numb the pain. The adrenaline had completely dried up. Now, we were just two broken people pying house, trapped in a quiet, domestic purgatory.

  Diiiing!

  The sharp, sudden chime of the doorbell shattered the quiet purgatory of the loft. My head snapped up. It was highly unusual for anyone to visit. The doorman in the lobby always called up first to announce guests.

  "Babe! Are your friends coming over?" I called out from the kitchen, wiping my wet hands on a dish towel.

  "No?" Gaby replied, walking out of the bedroom and heading down the hall. "My friends always wait for me down on the ground floor."

  A cold spike of paranoia hit my chest. I threw the towel onto the marble isnd and followed her. As I rounded the corner into the entryway, I stopped dead. Gaby was frozen, her hand still gripping the doorknob. The door was wide open.

  Standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the hallway were Nikoy, Boris, and Andrew. Boris had his massive combat boot wedged against the bottom of the door so it couldn't be shut.

  "Derro. Long time no see, eh?" Nikoy said. There was no booming ughter. There was no vodka in his hand. His tone was absolutely lethal.

  "What’s wrong, boys?" I asked, my voice dropping an octave. I stepped forward, grabbing Gaby by the waist and pulling her firmly behind my back.

  Nikoy pulled down his dark aviator shades. His eyes scanned the pristine, immacute apartment, and a dark, disgusted smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth. "Derro! We just missed you." He stepped forward, aggressively dropping his shoulder to shove past my chest and enter the loft. Boris and Andrew followed him inside like a heavily armed tactical unit.

  Nikoy began slowly pacing around the living room, taking in the sanitized aesthetic that had completely erased my past. Boris and Andrew stood by the heavy front door, blocking the exit. They didn't speak. They just stared at me and Gaby with cold, unblinking judgment. I could feel Gaby’s small hands trembling violently against my spine as she hid behind me.

  "Why did you come up here without calling me first?" I demanded, my ego instantly fring up to mask my panic.

  He didn't answer me. "Very neat pce you have here, Derro. So clean. Not messy like it used to be."

  He walked over to my leather sofa and sat down, spreading his arms across the backrest. "Come sit down. Why are you so tense, Derro? We are brothers, no?"

  "You didn’t answer my question, Broda."

  Nikoy stared at me. The silence in the loft was deafening. Finally, he stood back up. "You are a very interesting man, Derro."

  He began to circle me like a predator assessing a wounded animal. "Sometimes you are charming. Sometimes you look like a genuinely dangerous fighter. Sometimes you act so damn smart." He stopped his pacing, standing just a few feet away. "But looking at you right now... hiding in your apartment... you just look like a pathetic coward."

  My jaw clenched so hard I thought my teeth would crack.

  "I gave you three weeks. THREE. FUCKING. WEEKS!" Nikoy suddenly roared, the sheer volume of his voice making Gaby flinch violently behind me. The veins on his temples bulged. "Initially, I wanted to give you one week to snap out of your bullshit. But Andrew suggested we should give you more space. He said you were hurting. But three fucking weeks of complete radio silence? Coward!"

  "What the fuck do you want from me?!" I yelled back.

  "What do I want?" He let out a loud, manic ugh that sent chills down my spine. "I want to look you in the eyes and tell you that you are a total hypocrite."

  My fists clenched automatically, my knuckles turning white. Hypocrite. The word echoed violently in my skull, tearing open old, unhealed wounds. Tyson had called me the exact same thing right before I ruined my life in high school.

  "But you’re not just a hypocrite," Nikoy sneered, pointing a finger directly at my face. "You are a narcissist. You are completely self-absorbed. You are entirely egoistic. And above all else, you are a fucking coward!"

  My patience completely evaporated. The manic, predatory persona violently seized control of my brain. My muscles tightened, locking into a martial arts stance. Gaby gripped my shirt, terrified.

  "You’re just a little boy spending your old man’s money to py pretend!" Nikoy spat, looking at me with absolute, unfiltered disdain. "Walking around the city acting like an independent, badass man. Hah! You are delusional! And you dared to taint an innocent girl, dragging her down into your sick misery just because you couldn't handle the problems you created yourself! You are disgusting. Maybe that’s exactly why Jessica finally left you!"

  I completely snapped. The mention of her name blinded me. "FUCK! HOW DARE YOU!"

  I pnted my back foot, rotating my hips to unch a devastating, knockout kick directly at Nikoy's head.

  But I never reached him. A massive, vice-like grip cmped down onto the back of my shirt, yanking me violently backward. I stumbled, gncing over my shoulder. Boris had silently fnked me while Nikoy was ranting. His expression was completely dead.

  I instantly shifted my weight, dropping my center of gravity and swinging a brutal, specialized elbow strike aimed right at Boris's jaw.

  It was completely useless. Boris was a massive, highly trained brawler, and he wasn't pying games. Before my elbow even came close to connecting, his huge palm smmed into the back of my neck. Simultaneously, his heavy combat boot swept the back of my legs with bone-bruising force.

  The world spun wildly out of control. My body smmed down brutally against the hardwood floor. The violent impact knocked the air entirely out of my lungs, and I felt my ribs groan under the extreme pressure.

  "Baby!!!" Gaby shrieked in absolute terror.

  Boris's huge body dropped down on top of me. He effortlessly pinned my torso and my arms to the floorboards, applying just enough pressure to completely immobilize me. His massive hand grabbed the back of my head, crushing my cheek against the cold hardwood.

  Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

  I thrashed wildly. I used every single grappling technique, every leverage trick, and every escape maneuver I had ever learned in the dojo. Nothing worked. It was like a toddler trying to wrestle a bear. He had me entirely, fwlessly locked down. I couldn't move a single inch. My physical ego was shattered in exactly three seconds.

  "Bastards! Let me go! Fight me face to face!" I shouted, my voice muffled by the floor.

  I heard Andrew's calm, authoritative voice speaking above me. I couldn't hear what he was saying over the frantic ringing in my ears. A second ter, I felt the heavy vibration of the metal front door smming shut. Gaby’s terrified presence was completely gone. The extraction was complete. Andrew had taken her away to save her from me.

  "Assholes! Where is Gaby?!" I screamed, my throat tearing.

  They remained completely silent. I kept struggling, twisting my shoulders and kicking my legs, desperately trying to fight my way out of the pin. But I was completely trapped.

  "FUUUCK!!!" I gathered every st ounce of my adrenaline for one massive, explosive push. I shoved upward with all my might. I didn't even budge him.

  My energy completely depleted. The fight drained out of my muscles, leaving me entirely limp against the hardwood floor. "Just let it go... please," I sobbed, my voice breaking. "Don’t take her away from me."

  Hot, pathetic tears spilled from my eyes, pooling on the floorboards. The physical pain of the pin morphed into a suffocating, crushing helplessness. I was completely broken.

  I heard the slow, deliberate crunch of footsteps. Nikoy crouched down on the floor, his face coming into my line of sight.

  "Are you crying because she is gone, Derro?" Nikoy asked, his voice a low, devastating whisper. "Or are you just terrified of being alone in the dark again?"

  His words pierced straight through my chest, twisting like a jagged knife. Because the dark, sickening, horrifying truth was... I didn't care about Gaby. I just didn't want to be alone. And as I y crying on the floor, completely stripped of my pride, it wasn't Gaby's face I saw in my mind.

  It was Jessica's.