Chapter 37 Gerald
Aiyana's P.O.V
The room still smelled like gun smoke and fear.
It clung to the walls, to my skin, to the back of my throat.
My hands were shaking, even though the danger, at least the immediate kind, was over.
Two bodies lay just outside the door, masked men who had almost taken everything from me. From Noah.
From Jerome.
Jerome stood in front of me, close enough that I could feel the heat radiating off his body. His gun was gone now, handed off to someone else, I didn’t know who, but the violence hadn’t left him yet. I could see it in the tensing of his shoulders, the clenching of his jaw and the way his chest rose and fell as his eyes still lowkey scanned the room, knowing very well that all threats had been eliminated.
I was sitting on the edge of the bed. Noah had been taken away moments ago, carried gently by one of Jerome’s men to another secure room, kicking and crying until Jerome promised he’d be right there.
That promise had steadied the boy, but I was unraveling.
“I’m sorry.This is my fault. They came because of me. Because I…”I whispered, the words spilling out before I could stop them. Even though he had already explained this to me, I couldn't help but think that even though he had haters before, I added one more.
Jerome dropped to one knee in front of me so suddenly I flinched.
His hands closed around my wrists, firm but gentle, grounding. He forced me to look at him.
“No.” He said quietly. “This is my life.”
The words didn’t sound like an excuse. They sounded like a confession, from the way his eyes held pure sincerity, to the way his expressions looked like they were pleasing with me even before he spoke.
“This is what my life is like.” He continued, his voice low, stripped of its usual edge. “Every day. Every month. Every year. Men trying to kill me. Hurt people I care about. Take what they think I don’t deserve to have.”
His thumbs brushed over my pulse points, as if he was counting the frantic beat of my heart.
“I’m not going to act cool and pretend that I’ll be fine if you leave.” He said with his eyes locked on mine, still pleading with me.
My breath caught.
“Because I won’t.” He whispered looking down at our hands.
The honesty in his voice unravelled me more than the guns had.
“But I will never ask you to risk yourself unwillingly just to be with me. If you decide this is too much, decide to walk away, it would be hard but I’ll let you.” He went on, leaning closer, his forehead almost touching mine.
My chest ached again at the raw emotions and vulnerability he was showing me right now.
“It will destroy me,but I’ll let you.” He added softly and it felt like something broke inside me then.
All my life, people had wanted something from me. My body. My silence. My obedience. Even kindness had always come with a price I couldn’t afford, but this man, this supposedly terrifying, ruthless man, was offering me a choice.
My hands slipped from his grasp and rose on their own, fingers brushing his jaw. He inhaled sharply, like he hadn’t expected that. Like he didn’t trust himself if I touched him.
“I don’t know how to exist in a world like yours,” I whispered. “But I know I don’t feel safe when you’re not here.”
His eyes darkened.
He leaned in.
Slowly. Carefully, as if giving me time to pull away.
I didn’t.
Our breaths mingled. His nose brushed mine. My heart pounded so loudly I was sure he could hear it as I struggled to keep my breathing under control.
I could see the faint scar near his eyebrow, the tension in his lips as he fought something feral and desperate.
Just before our lips touched…
“Holy shit.”I heard Gerald exclaim.
The voice hit the room like a gunshot.
Jerome froze.
I gasped, my hand falling from his face as I turned sharply toward the door.
Gerald stood there.
Completely still.
His mouth was slightly open, his usual lazy grin nowhere to be found. His eyes flicked between us.
Jerome on one knee, me flushed and breathless, the space between our mouths too small to explain away.
For a moment, no one spoke.
The silence stretched, thick and suffocating.
Jerome rose slowly to his feet, placing himself subtly in front of me, not aggressively, not protectively in the way of weapons, but in a way that said this is private.
Gerald swallowed.
“Well.” he said finally, forcing a chuckle that didn’t quite land. “Guess I picked the wrong time.”
His eyes lingered on me for half a second too long.
Something in his expression shifted, not anger, not amusement.
Shock.
And something else.
Something sharp.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt…” Gerald added, backing toward the door. “I was just checking in. Making sure you were okay.”
“I am, thank you” I said quickly, though my voice wavered in embarrassment
Jerome didn’t take his eyes off Gerald.
“We’re fine.” He said flatly, making me frown in a bit of confusion as it felt like something was wrong.
Gerald nodded once. Too quickly.
“Right” he said. “Good. That’s… good.”
He turned and left, closing the door behind him with careful precision.
The moment he was gone, the air changed.
Jerome exhaled slowly, dragging a hand down his face. The vulnerability from moments ago vanished, replaced by something guarded and unreadable.
“I should go check on Noah.” He said, standing up with a sigh and I nodded, suddenly unsure of everything again.
He paused at the door, glancing back at me.
“For what it’s worth…” he said quietly, “nothing I said was in the heat of the moment.”
Then he was gone.
I sat there alone, heart racing, mind spinning.
And somewhere deep in my chest, a terrible certainty settled.
Gerald hadn’t just walked in on something intimate.
He had seen something he hadn’t known existed.
Whatever it was…
It wasn’t going to be ignored.
That night, as I lay awake replaying Gerald’s frozen expression over and ove
r, I didn’t see him standing in the hallway outside my door silent, watching, fists clenched, long after everyone else had gone to sleep.