Mikhael wanted to go to his favourite haunt, a brothel named Roses, when the night ended. Nik accompanied him, deciding to pay his friend Kalani a visit.  She was also a fellow member of the gang and a hidden member of Nik's crew, usually working as an informant for him.  Immanuel owned Roses, but not a lot of people other than the staff knew about it. Thus, a lot of the White Tigers' members frequented there. It was a good location to gather information.

The main sitting area of Roses was crowded, as usual. Mikhael sat on a couch perpendicular to the one Nik was on, and a bunch of girls joined him. He lit a cigarette and put his arms over the back of the couch. The girls pleasured him and Nik glanced away. There were girls on the couch he sat on as well, but he didn't glance twice at them. He wasn't interested.

Presently, she entered the room. He stood and she turned as if sensing his gaze. The girls who'd been sitting with him on the couch muttered amongst themselves in jealousy, but he couldn't care less.

Kalani walked to him, hips swaying. Her azure eyes darkened as they met his own and she wrapped her arms around his neck, red lips curling into a smirk. "Hello, dearest," she said, soft and sultry. "How are you tonight?"

"Good, now that I've seen you." He gripped her waist, keeping up the facade, and let her pull him down into a kiss. Her lips were soft and moist.

"Come." She took his hand and led him upstairs, down a narrow, familiar hallway, opening the faded brown door at the end and pulling him inside.

Nik latched the door and lounged back against it, watching Kalani as she opened the sole window in the room, knowing he hated rooms with closed windows and doors.

"How are you?" she asked again, sitting on the bed.

He walked over to the window, looking outside. There were no passerby on the street down below. "I've been better."

He heard her sharp inhale of breath and the silent padding of her feet as she walked to him, slipping between him and the window and sitting on the sill. "What did he do?" Her blue gaze was full of concern.

Nik sighed. He unbuttoned his shirt, letting it fall open. She took in a sharp breath, running her finger over the bruises marring his chest. "Oh, God." The words, breathed into the space between them, carried pain and sorrow. "Why?" A sad, mournful look filled Kalani's eyes as she looked up at him.

Nik closed his eyes. He couldn't stand looking into the face of her pity. "Mish," he said, curling his hands into fists. "He promised he wouldn't hurt her for a week if I took it without making a sound."

"Oh." Kalani's voice was small as she pulled him down into a gentle embrace. The feel of her arms around him soothed Nik and he let out a breath against the soft skin of her neck. "Run away with me, Nik." Her words, whispered into the silence, made him tense. "We'll go somewhere far away from here. You can even bring Mish. I can't stand seeing you hurt like this."

"I know," Nik said, but he pulled away. "I can't, Kalani. You know I can't."

"Why?" Her voice rose in volume and he flinched. "Look at what he's doing to you! Will you keep on enduring this until he beats you up so bad that you won't be able to pull yourself to your feet again? Are you going to blindly keep your eyes shut until something happens to either one of you, like last time? Or is that you are aware, but plan to endure this all your life?"

"It's nothing like that!" Nik punched a wall and his knuckles split. She cried out as if it were she who was injured, hurrying to him and grabbing his arm. He pulled away from her grip, turning away again and running his hands through his hair. "You know it's not like that, Kalani! You know I have a plan!"

"Plan?" Kalani laughed, the sound so bitter he flinched. "Do you think you're going to become Grandmaster in a week's time?"

"I don't!" Nik pulled at his hair, gritting his teeth. "I know it's going to take time, dammit! What do want me to do? Even if I flee, there's no place that he won't be able to track me down! The only place I can go to is out of this goddamn country! Do you want me to leave everything here and run like a coward?"

"What do you even have here?" Kalani asked. "What life do you have here? The only life you have here is with him! Can't you see that?"

Nik whirled and strode to her, grabbing the front of her dress and yanking her to him, eyes narrowed. His knuckles dripped blood onto her dress, but neither of them paid it any heed.

"Do you even know what you're asking of me, Kalani? You're asking me to rip Misha from all that she knows to spend a lifetime on the road, always looking over her shoulder! Look me in the eye and tell me how good an idea that is, Kalani. Tell me that it's a good future for my fragile little sister."

"What else do you plan to do, huh? Hug her every night after she's raped by him? Let her watch you die while taking a beating for her? Or is it that you're waiting for the day that she's killed at his hands so that you can finally end your misery?"

"Shut up!" Nik screamed at her, so loud that she jumped. "Shut the fuck up, Kalani!"

Her words cut him so deep that tears poured forth from his eyes. He had to turn away, shaking as he raised a hand to his mouth and tried to stop the loud sobs that made it to his lips.

No one understood him. No one understood the trauma he'd felt when his sister had been ripped away from him, how it haunted him for years after. All of his friends asked him to leave, but they had never experienced the sheer strength of his grandfather's hands.

They could never understand. Never be able to imagine sheer terror, every time Romanov even looked Misha's way, or the crippling fear that she would be ripped away as well, leaving him alone, lonely, with nothing to fight for and no reason to live.

They would never stop asking him. Leave, flee, run away - not when they didn't know how truly terrifying Romanov could be. No, to them he was just an old, pervert alcoholic, like most of the men in their society. They didn't understand what a monster he truly was, and no one ever could.

With that thought racing through his mind, Nik wrapped his arms around himself, shivering, shaking, sobbing. Fear made his knees weak. He'd never be able to free himself. Never be able to defeat Romanov. Not when he was so weak, hopeless, desperate, pathetic. Not when he froze up every time he saw the face of his tormentor.

"Nik," Kalani whispered and pulled him into the warmth of her arms. He didn't have the strength to resist her hold. He could never keep himself together. Not when all he knew was falling apart.

"Nik, I'm sorry." Kalani's voice was soft, carressing the edges of his ragged soul. "I'm so sorry. That was totally uncalled for. If I could take back what I said, I would. I'm so sorry I got carried away. I just can't stand seeing what he does to you." 

He nodded, understanding her reasons, even if he didn't quite forgive her.

"I don't doubt you for a second," she said, kissing his shoulder. "But it might take you months to reach that position, Nik. After all, your chess matches aren't going to be scheduled with only quick intervals. There's no guarantee of the things Romanov can do to both you and Misha in that time period. So unless you can find a faster way to attain that title, you really should start thinking about other alternatives to gaining power. Otherwise, you might just be too late. I know the thought of a riskier second option terrifies you, Nik, but just think about it and remember that my offer still stands."

Nik pulled away with a nod, wiping at his eyes. He swallowed hard before pulling himself together. "Understood. Is there any new dirt on the White Tigers?"

"No, boss." Kalani held his shoulders and guided him to her bed, sitting him down on it. "Now, take off your shirt. I'll give you a massage. You'll feel much better, trust me."

He nodded again and took off his shirt, lying down. Kalani pulled out a bottle of honey-scented oil from her nightstand. He closed his eyes and relaxed as she rubbed it over all his bruises and cuts. Then, she moved to his back, massaging all the knots out of his shoulders until his muscles became putty beneath her nimble fingers and his breaths evened out, sleep consuming him in seconds.

Kalani smiled when he let out a small snore. She pulled a blanket over him and closed the window.

Turning, Kalani watched Nik for a moment. He had new scars every time he paid her a visit and she hated it. She'd known him for longer than she could remember, and it had been the same story each time. First, it was Kimani's death, his shuddering sobs lasting late into the night, then it was his broken leg and the bones sticking out in his body as he came over to get a few morsels of food for his sisters. Sometimes, he came over when he couldn't sleep and didn't want to wake up his sisters.

Then, Mira died and she didn't see him for a long time. When he returned, late one night, there was an emptiness in his eyes she'd never seen before, a defeated slump to his shoulders as if he couldn't hold up the weight of the world any longer. He hadn't cried, no, but had hugged her so hard it was as if he wanted to crush all the bones in her body.

Between all those long nights and the empty nights with strangers she didn't know, Kalani fell for him. The thought, absurd and painful, made her scoff and turn away from him.

They'd never slept together, never except for that one time she suggested it to distract him and ended up having the most empty, broken experience of her life. There were too many scars on his soul for him to be able to invest in it, for it brought back too many emotions and too many memories. He'd cried, admitting afterwards that it just hadn't felt right to do something like that with a willing partner when his sisters were raped every other night. She'd understood, still did.

He didn't love her. She was a dear friend, she knew, but would never be more than that. And somehow, she was okay with that, too. She understood where he came from, knew him well enough to know that he was too broken to make a good lover. And that was okay.

Kalani sighed, glancing back at the serene expression on Nik's face. How long had it been since he'd last slept? How long would it be before a nightmare had him screaming awake, and he'd pull on his shoes and leave? She didn't want to know.

Turning, Kalani pulled off her dress and looked at the tattoo on her shoulder. He'd insisted she join the Shadows with him. They'd keep her safe, he'd promised. No one would hurt a bone on her body after seeing the tattoo, he'd said, and he'd been right.

Kalani pulled on a nightgown and glanced at Nik again. He was still asleep, would probably be so for another hour or two. She'd ensured his mind was relaxed enough. He'd want her to be around when she woke up, though.

Shrugging, Kalani walked out of the room, locking the door after her. She was starving.

Mikhael was in the foyer still, lounging back on a couch with a bottle of diamohjin, his eyes half-lidded as he stared up at the ceiling. His lips were pink, hair ruffled and shirt unbuttoned, but there were no girls around him. He'd probably been so aggressive that he'd scared them off.

"Hey," he said upon spotting her, flicking his gaze to her for a moment before looking up again. "How's he?"

"Sleeping." Kalani stopped in front of the couch.

"Hm." Mikhael's gaze was troubled as he took a swig of his diamohjin. "Did you see?"

"Yeah." Kalani ran a hand through her hair.

"Any idea why it happened?"

"He said that Romanov promised not to hurt Misha for a week if he took it without a sound."

Mikhael swore, sitting up and running a hair through his short hair. "What did he use?"

"A flogger," Kalani said, and he swore some more before grabbing her hips and yanking her onto his lap.

Knowing what he wanted, Kalani leaned in for a kiss. He was passionate and fierce, as always, but his hands lacked his mouth's desire, empty in their movements as they moved over her. When she ground down she found that he wasn't aroused at all, and when she pulled away he was already staring at her, grey gaze hard enough to pierce her heart but as empty and distant as the soul of the man she'd left upstairs.

"What's the matter?" Kalani whispered, running her palms over the hard contours of his chest. She knew now why all the girls had left.

Mikhael's eyes still held their troubled edge, his thoughts far away under a cloud of alcohol.

"Mikhael." Kalani cupped his face between her hands and his eyes focused on her. "Did something happen with Immanuel?"

At the sound of their gang leader's name, Mikhael's hands, which had previously hung loosely on her waist, tightened with rage. His eyes lost their unfocused edge and regained the sharp clarity he was known for.

"Yeah," he said, his expression terrifying and his voice a low snarl. "Bastard thinks he can get rid of me, that he still has the power to hurt me. Said he wants me dead - as if."

Kalani leaned back. She'd known him for years, but his temper was something she'd never get used to.

"I'm gonna kill him," Mikhael said, the words a low promise. "If it weren't for Nik, I'd have done so already."

"Why, what did he say?" Kalani was surprised, just like she always was when she heard of him listening to something Nik said. Before Nik, he hadn't bowed down to anyone, hadn't bothered listening to either warnings or pleas. The fact had made him a terror on the streets and was still whispered about in the darkness of the night. She'd even heard the other girls talk about him sometimes, about how dangerous a man he was.

Mikhael rolled his eyes, but there was respect for Nik's words in his gaze. "He said I won't be accepted in the gang if I kill Immanuel, 'cause he's the boss. I gotta wait for the right moment."

Kalani had to smile at that. Good old Nik — always the voice of reason.

Mikhael sighed. "He's asleep, right?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Okay. Great. Tell him I went home when he wakes up."

"Sure." Kalani stood, and so did he.

"Good to see you well," he said and left. Kalani watched him go. 

Both he and Nik were complicated men. If Nik had his scars, Mikhael had his demons. They weren't men who trusted easily, and she was glad they trusted her.