Chapter 49 Struck a Nerve
Jerome’s P.O.V
The house still smelled like smoke.
Concrete dust clung to the air, sharp and bitter, settling into my lungs every time I breathed. I stood in the main hall, listening to reports come in from every corner of the estate, my mind splitting itself into a hundred sharp angles at once.
Perimeter breached, but contained.
No casualties on our side.
Explosives placed with precision.
Target unclear.
One thing was clear though.
This wasn’t random.
Aiyana wasn’t leaving my sight and yes, I would never accept that Gerald would do something so terrible to me. We might be at odds right now, but I knew that it was more than impossible for him to betray me to the extent of wanting to kill me.
I’d stationed twice the number of guards outside her room, rotated every hour, all personally vetted. I’d stripped access codes, changed routes, burned three safe paths just to make sure no one could retrace steps.
I was halfway through ordering a complete shutdown of one wing when I felt it.
The shift.
The air thickened, instincts screaming before my mind could catch up.
“Boss.” One of the guards said, tense. “Gerald’s here.”
I turned slowly.
“What?”
“He forced his way past the outer gate. Said he needs to see Aiyana now.” The guard said hurriedly with some.
My jaw clenched.
I moved before the guard finished speaking, long strides carrying me toward the front hall. My hands curled into fists at my sides, not in fear, not in doubt.
In fury.
Gerald stood in the center of the room like he owned it.
Dust still streaked his clothes, eyes sharp, wild, scanning the space like he was already counting threats. The moment he saw me, his gaze locked on.
“Where is she?” He demanded, walking in like an angry lion, but I willed myself to breathe and lose my temper.
I didn’t answer.
I stepped closer.
“You don’t barge into my house after an attack.” I said coldly. “Especially not demanding anything.”
His jaw tightened. “I heard there was an explosion.”
“So did half the city.” I responded, walking in front of him as he tried to walk into the house despite my words.
“I don’t give a damn about the city.” He snapped. “I care about her.”
That did it.
Every muscle in my body went rigid.
“You don’t get to say her name like that.” I growled.
He laughed once. A short, sharp, humorless.
“You don’t get to decide that.” He responded with such fire in his eyes than I had ever seen in my several years of knowing him.
This Gerald was different, and I didn't like it one bit.
I closed the distance between us in two steps. Guards tensed instantly, hands hovering near weapons.
“She’s safe, and you’re leaving.” I said quietly
Gerald stared at me, disbelief flickering across his face before something darker replaced it.
“No.” He said. “I’m not.”
That word ‘no’ hit wrong.
“You think you can keep her locked up here while bombs are going off?” He continued. “You think wrapping her in guards makes you a hero?”
I leaned in, voice low. “Watch your mouth.”
“You don’t get to play protector now,” Gerald shot back. “Not when your life brings this kind of blood to anyone who gets close to you.”
The room went silent.
I felt the weight of every man watching us, felt the tension coil tight as wire.
“I said she’s safe,” I repeated, slower now.
“For how long?” he challenged. “Until the next explosion? The next traitor? The next message sent through fire?”
I didn’t respond.
He took that as permission.
“You ever think,” Gerald said, stepping closer, “that maybe the reason she keeps getting targeted is because she’s standing next to you?”
Something sharp twisted in my chest.
“You think I don’t know that?” I snapped. “You think I don’t calculate that every single day?”
“Then let her go,” he said immediately. “Before she ends up like…”
He stopped.
Too late.
I saw it the second the words formed in his mind.
And then he said them.
“...like your sister.”
The world went red.
“Your sister died because of your gang enemies,” Gerald said, voice rising now, fueled by anger and something dangerously close to grief. “And now you want the woman I love to bear the same fate?!”
The sound that left me wasn’t human.
In one movement, I slammed him back into the wall, forearm crushing against his throat. The impact cracked stone.
Guards surged forward.
“Stay back” I roared, freezing them in place immediately.
Gerald’s eyes burned into mine, defiant even as he struggled to breathe.
“You don’t get to say her name,” I said, each word carved from rage. “And you never say my sister’s.”
He coughed, but still smirked.
“Hit a nerve?”
That was it.
I leaned in until my forehead pressed to his, my voice a lethal whisper.
“Do not forget,” I said, “that despite the fact that we’re friends—”
I tightened my grip just enough to remind him how fragile bone was.
“I’m still your boss.” I continued making his smirk falter in less than seconds.
“I saved you from the dirt you were rotting in.” I continued.
“I pulled you out when you had nothing. No future. No name.”
I released him suddenly, shoving him back hard enough that he stumbled but didn’t fall.
“You think you love her?” I went on, breathing hard. “Love isn’t showing up after explosions and demanding access. Love is burning the world down so it never reaches her in the first place.”
He straightened slowly, chest heaving, eyes blazing.
“You don’t own her,” he said hoarsely.
“No,” I agreed, surprising him. “I don’t.”
Then I stepped closer again, voice dropping.
“But I will die before I let her be collateral.”
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Years of blood, loyalty, brotherhood, resentment. Everything between us stretched thin.
Finally, Gerald looked away.
“She deserves a choice.” He muttered.
My hands curled again at my sides.
“She has that, and she chose to stay.” I said and could immediately see the hurt in his eyes.
Good.
“She doesn’t know everything.” Ye said quietly. “About you. About what being near you costs.”
I didn’t deny it.
Instead, I said the truth that tasted like iron.
“She knows enough, and I’m still standing.”
Silence swallowed the room.
I turned slightly, signaling the guards.
“Escort him out.”
Gerald looked back at me one last time.
“This isn’t over.” He yelled out dramatically as they calmly escorted him out, knowing that I would never want them to harm him in any way.
I me
t his gaze without blinking.
“No,” I replied. “It isn’t.”
As the doors closed behind him, the anger drained just enough for something worse to take its place.
Fear.
Not for myself.
For her.