Page 72 of Explosive Prejudice

Kai’s condo wasn’t particularly big and had shitty acoustics, meaning Shay-Lee better keep quiet, or Andrei would find out he was hiding half naked in the other room.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, scratching my jaw while walking into the kitchen to make myself a shot of espresso.

“I wanted to talk to you.”

Looking over my shoulder, I narrowed my eyes at him. “About what? And how did you know where to find me?”

“Kai told me you were here.”

“He did?”

“Yeah,” Andrei said, shifting his weight on his heels.

“Did he say anything else?”

“What do you mean?” He looked confused.

Assuming Kai didn’t sell me out by telling Andrei I was with Shay-Lee, I stretched my neck. “Nothing. Anyway, what’s so important it was worth coming all the way here?”

“It’s about Miles.”

“No shit,” I snorted. When wasn’t it?

“I don’t like the way you treat him.”

Taking my espresso, I turned around and leaned against the counter. “And I don’t like his face. You don’t see me complaining.” I sipped my coffee.

He pressed his lips together, and his stare hardened. “This is what I’m talking about.” He pointed at me. “When you disrespect him, you disrespect me. You realize that, right?”

God, he was so dramatic lately. What was his point, anyway? Of course, I knew that, but since he stopped giving a fuck about me the moment he shoved his dick into that bitch’s ass, why should I give a crap about him?

“That’s fancy, coming from you.” Putting my cup aside, I crossed my arms over my chest. “I mean, talking about respect. What the fuck do you know about it?” Now I was starting to get pissed, and from the way he ground his jaw, so was he. “Don’t know what to say? I’m not surprised.” I snorted. “You’re so used to people kissing your ass that you keep forgetting where it came from.” I spoke to him in Russian, reminding him of the time he taught it to me in prison. “So I’ll remind you. Respect is earned, not given, and until Miles earns it, he’ll get none from me.”

Clenching his jaw, he stepped closer. “You keep crossing the line.”

“Am I? From where I stand, it looks like it’s the other way around, chica.” I almost never called him that anymore, and the sudden use of it made him flinch. “You were so quick to toss me aside the moment he stepped into your life. And now look at you, standing here, blaming me for shit.” I could have gone deeper into the subject, telling him off for being a complete asshole for the past few months, but remembering Shay-Lee was in the next room, I didn’t. “Anyway, it’s pointless to talk about it, and I’d rather just end this annoying conversation and go back to sleep.” Moving my ass from the kitchen counter, I started to walk back toward the bedroom, hoping it would end with that. Sadly, it didn’t, and what Andrei had just said pissed me off beyond words.

“What was that?” I asked, turning to face him.

“I said that the way you protected Shay-Lee last night in front of Miles was insensitive. And you should apologize to him.”

Apologize to… Miles? For fuck’s sake. Andrei seriously needed to pull his head out of his damn ass.

“Insensitive?” I hissed, the muscle in my jaw twitched. “You shitting me?”

“He’s the reason Miles almost died, Diesel. And there you were, defending that despicable creature in front of Miles. That’s fucked-up.”

Too stunned to speak, I gaped at him. “What’s fucked-up is how deluded you are.”

Anger rose in the pit of my stomach, making my knees weak with how much I wanted to punch him. Yet, I held myself back from doing so because I needed Andrei’s full attention to what I was about to say. “How arrogant can you be to shake yourself off from all responsibility and so bluntly put it on someone else? The only one responsible for what Miles did is Miles.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“The only bullshit is you thinking Miles’s suicide attempt had anything to do with someone else,” I snapped, finally raising my voice at him. “And if you knew anything about suicide, you’d know it’s the act of cowards. Blaming someone else is just so fucking twisted and repulsive that looking at you makes me sick.”

Swallowing hard, Andrei still had the nerve to answer me. “What are you saying?”

Gritting my teeth together, I stared at him. “I’m saying that if you don’t get the hell out of my face in the next five seconds, I’ll pound your head into the fucking wall.”

---