The mafia hunt.

23|I'm Done

Unedited

Nova

23| I'm Done

"Let's just go, I'm not really in the mood." I catch up to Ethan, pulling on his hand lightly to get him to turn the other way.

"Just a couple of drinks, Nova." He ignores me and walks into a pub

"Come on, four shots, vodka!" Ethan sits on a bar stool and pulls one out for me watching the bartender pour our drinks. I look around, slowly sitting down next to Ethan. There are a few groups of people here and a few loners but not many seeing as it's one in the afternoon on a Tuesday. My head snaps to the bar when the drinks are placed down. Ethan slides two towards me and two to him. I nervously wipe my hands down my jeans, feeling the frown weigh heavy on my face. "To one year closer to being in your twenties," He smiles, holding a glass towards me.

"I'm not feeling it, Ethan." I say softly, biting my lip nervously. I push the drink away from me, already feeling my heartbeat erratically inside my chest.

"What? Come on, nova. Its your fucking birthday!" he grips my shoulders and shakes me with a smile.

I laugh lightly and push his hand off from my shoulder. "Look, Ethan. Thank you for trying but I just don't really feel like drinking." He looks at me, confused then seems to see through me and understand me. That's something I'm scared for.

"Oh, I get it." he nods his head with pursed lips downing his and my drink.

"You do?" I ask terrified to hear his answer. He hums and slams the shot glass a little to harshly onto the bar for me to feel comfortable.

"Yeah, I get," he shrugs and turns to me, "You still hung up on Grayson." Although I'm relived about him not knowing about my pregnancy it's the way he says that I'm 'hung up' that angers me.

"I'm what? I didn't just hear what I think I did." I laugh unbelievably. Shaking my head in disbelief.

"It's been months, Nova. Its not like you haven't lost someone before, you know. It's like when a man goes down, you got to step up and lead because one man doesn't make the army fall. The leader does." He doesn't look at me when he says this, most likely because he can see the anger on my face as I stare at him with a harsh glare.

"Do you think that's all he was? Just another one of my men, that he was below me?" I clench my jaw in anger. "You're wrong, Ethan. Grayson wasn't below me in any way, he was my equal and I wasn't the leader. He was. This is his legacy and army I'm running now. How could you say all this?" Ethan spent his days training with Grayson, they were friends. Why is he saying all this?

He clears his throat and picks up another shot and tips his head back taking it down easily. "I didn't mean it like that. How could you love him?" He looks towards me with true confusion.

"What?"

"How could you love him, Nova? When he was alive, how could you stand by him when he treated you like shit?" He turns towards me, shrugging his shoulders in question.

"He didn't treat me like shit." I shake my head, feeling my throat close.

"Really? So, he didn't fuck Elizabeth in the gym when you were crying your fucking eyes over him? Didn't use you for just a fuck?" I feel tears sting my eyes, like he just dug a knife into my back. The more he ticks these mental things off his fucking checklist, each one making that knife dig deeper into me. "If he loved you so fucking much, why did he put a gun to your head? If that's love to you, you need to get your self checked for insanity." The tears have fallen down my cheeks and after he's done, he looks at me and sees them.