Page 35 of Seeking Salvation

Mal startled but Nico turned slowly, the cocky, arrogant smile on his greasy face falling as he looked at Titan like he’d seen a ghost.

She saw him eye Titan up and down before glancing at her as if she could give him the answers he wanted. Tension crawled over her skin, fear coating her throat, mixing and swirling with confusion over Nico’s reaction to Titan, it was as if he knew him but was looking at a ghost.

“Maya, who the fuck is this man and why are you with him?” Mal’s question snapped her attention back on Mal and away from a shocked-looking Nico.

“Don’t speak to her. You talk to me, asshole.” Titan shifted so she was behind him and Mal couldn’t see her around his broad shoulders.

“Again, who the fuck are you?”

“Your worst fucking nightmare.”

Chapter 11

Titan’s fists clenched as he looked at the thug who’d been threatening Maya, who’d most likely made his son motherless, and rage was like a red mist over his eyes as he fought for a hard-earned control at seeing a face from his past.

“Allen?”

Titan cocked his head at the dumbstruck look in Nico’s eyes as he finally seemed to shake off the shock of seeing him. This man was weak, praying on those he saw as weaker but he was nothing. Titan gritted his jaw, drawing to his full height and towering over the man. “If you’re dumb enough to say my name, maybe you aren’t smart enough to heed this warning but I’m going to give it to you anyway. Leave Maya alone. Forget her name. Forget she exists.”

Nico’s eyes flitted to Maya and Titan couldn’t hold back the growl as he stepped forward and gripped Nico around the throat, shoving him backwards into the wall as the man’s face turned red, his mouth sagging open as he tried to suck in air. The other man, moved as if unsure what to do, before running for the door.

Titan snorted in disgust. Rats, all of them. “Don’t fucking look at her, do you understand?”

Nico tried to nod, his fingers now clawing at Titan’s death grip. How easy it would be to kill him here and now. To end his life like he’d suspected he’d ended Rose’s.

“Nico, you’re in luck. Maya here just saved your life.” He motioned in Maya’s direction but didn’t look at her, afraid of the horror and fear he would see in her eyes. “I’m not going to squeeze the life out of you like you deserve. I’m going to give you this warning.” Titan let his voice fall quiet, knowing his words would be more impactful if they were uttered in a deadly calm tone, which he wasn’t sure he was feeling. There was a time when the violent mask he wore was so natural, so easy to slip on, that it had almost become him.

Maggie had drawn him back, that sweet child cutting through in a way reason hadn’t. Now this persona felt ill-fitting, like wearing someone else’s clothes.

He eased up on his hold of Nico’s neck, allowing him to take a breath before squeezing again. The last thing he needed was for him to pass out before his message was delivered and understood. “Leave. Maya. Alone. Forget you ever met her, and if you ever come within a hundred feet of her, I’ll carve your dick off and choke you with it until you take your last, useless breath on this earth. Do you understand?”

He could see by the terrified look in his eyes that Nico believed he’d do it.

“Yes.” His voice rasped as his fingers clawed at Titan’s arm.

Titan released him and threw him to the floor like the trash he was. “Get the fuck out and forget you saw me.”

Titan’s fury simmered just beneath the surface as he watched Nico skulk away like the rat he was, his threat hanging heavy in the air like a storm cloud ready to burst. His jaw clenched, his muscles tensed with anger as he turned to face Maya, not knowing what horror he’d find etched on her beautiful face. She looked up at him, confusion etched in her features, seeking an explanation for the violent confrontation that had just unfolded.

Stepping closer, he waited for her to turn and run, but she held her position, her head tipping to look up at him with no fear only questions in her eyes. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Titan reached out to gently cup Maya’s face in his hands, his touch tender despite the rage coursing through him. He gazed into her eyes, knowing a storm of emotions swirled within his own gaze—protectiveness, possessiveness, and a deep-seated emotion he wouldn’t name that burned bright and unwavering.

“Maya,” he began, his voice low and gravelly with emotion, “I need you to understand something. I wasn’t always the man you see before you, and what you see during this time won’t always be the real me. The man who adores a child he just met or looks at you and wants something he never has before.” As he spoke, his words carried a weight of truth that resonated through him.

Her hand moved to cover his on her jaw and he closed his eyes, wanting to revel in her touch.

“Tell me. Tell me who you were so I can understand the man who looks at Tyrique with such love.”

Titan sighed, not wanting to have this discussion but he owed her this. If he had any hope of being what she or his son needed, then he’d revisit that pain, rip open those wounds, and bleed for her.

He opened his eyes and nodded. “Okay, but let’s get the food inside first.”

Maya moved to the kitchen and filled a kettle with water, beginning the calming process of making tea. He smiled at that because every British person knew tea and a chat could fix all the wrongs of the world.

As he worked beside her to put everything away, Titan tried to get a read on her. Was she flinching around him, was she afraid of him now? Did she regret ever finding the monster she’d just witnessed? She was so locked down he couldn’t figure her out and, while part of him admired that, another part hated it.

He took a seat on the small beige sofa and she curled up on the other end, tucking her feet under her and cupping her hands around the mug of tea.

“I don’t know how to start,” he admitted, hating that he was so full of nerves.

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