C1 Chapter 1

Aziel's POV

“Preethi, come in here for a second!” I shout out my office door.

Hearing her soft footsteps coming up the stairs, I return to the seat behind my desk and a few seconds later I hear the door creak open. She peaks her small head in the room, eyeing my face and slowly approaches the chair on the opposite side of me.

“Did you need something?” She says, sitting down on the chair. The chair making her appear smaller than she really is, but she still puts on a confident expression.

I lean forward on the desk, my arms covering the papers I was previously working on.

“I wanted to talk to you.” My eyes scan her face to see a slight change in her facial expression.

She clears her throat, “About what?”

“Inezz.” I take a deep breath before continuing on. “She's coming over in two hours and I wanted to make sure you were okay with everything before I proceed to talk to her.”

“Well, that depends on what you're going to say to her.” She crosses her arms over slightly glaring at me.

I can't help but I smirk at her response. Damn, do I love a woman attitude.

“What are you going to say to her?” She asks.

I don't say anything for a while because I honestly don't know. She physically harmed I valued member of gang. And yet, I still can't just throw her out of the gang. She would have no protection and would be a vulnerable target to all mine and her enemies. Not to mention she's been with me for a long time and helped me through so much.

I take my eyes off Preethi and focus on my folded hands.

“I can't remove her from the gang, that's definite. She'd be an open target and that can't be happen.” I glance back up to her quickly to her eyes staring hard at me.

“I also can't let her get away with hurting you.”

She search my face for a while until she finally speaks up.

“To answer your question, I forgive her,...but I'm not sure I could ever forget it.”

A knock causes both our attention towards the door and Inezz appears in the doorway.

“Inezz. You're earlier than expected.” My mouth slightly opens in shock.

Taking a full look at her eyes, she looks horrible. She has red circles under her eyes and her face is so pale. I don't think she has even slept in days.

“I couldn't wait any longer,” she says.

Preethi stands up and offers her chair to Inezz.

“Here, sit.” Her hand gesturing to the seat.

“Thank you.” She says quietly. Preethi moves past her but Inezz grabs her hand quickly. “I'm sorry.” Preethi nods her, giving a small smile and turns to me.

“I'll leave you guys alone.” She walks out the room, closing the door.

I look back to Inezz to see her looking down at in her lap.

“Inezz, look at me.” I call to get her attention. She lifts her head up.

“I'm not kicking you out of the gang. O can't do that to you. All of the dedication and work you put into this, it would be inconsiderate and wrong for me to do that. So you're bot leaving the gang.” Inezz releases a breath.

“Thank you so much. You don't know how sorry and ashamed I a—”

“But you will be taking a break for a while.” I can see her eyes beginning to water and that cause me to add on.

I can see her eyes beginning to water and that cause me to add on.

“Not forever jist a month or two. You will remain to have full protection, off course, throughout the whole time period of you being away.”

A tear escapes her eyes and she looks deeply into mine. Her mouth still but her eyes look as if she has so much to say. As if right on cue, she speaks.

“Aziel, do you know why I lost control that day?” She asks, raising her eyebrows.

“I'm assuming, something happened woth you mother again,” I shrug my shoulders.

“No. It's because I was jealous.” I hear her take a deep breath before speaking up again.

“Jealous of what?” My eyebrows scrunch up.

“Jealous of you and Preethi. Jealous of you paying so much attention to her when she hasn't been a part of the gang for even three months.” Another tears roll down her cheeks and she wipes it away, fast.

“Jealous of you're attraction towards her.”

“What are you talking about?” My eyes scrunched up in confusion.

“It's so obvious that you like each other. The way you look at her, the way you talk to her. You even forget about all the rules she's broken. On purpose, I think, cause you don't want to punish her.”

“Inezz, that's enou—”

“I'm in love with you, Aziel. I have been for years.” She cuts me off.

My jaw flew open those five words. I don't even know what to say. I felt like a horrible person for never seeing it.

“Inezzz... I'm so sorry. I don't —”

Her eyes a leaking like a water fountain now. Her face it just covered in tears.

“It's okay. No need to apologize. I figure after a few months, that if you didn't notice it, you probably don't think of me like and I knew I was right.” She stood up from the chair, picked up her bag and walked to the doorway before turning back around.

“Preethi is one lucky girl.” She smiled, sadly at me.

“I see you later.” Inezz closed the door and I heard her fade away down the hallway.

A sigh rushed out pf my throat when the door closed and I dropped my head on desk. Inezz has been in love with for years and I've never known. Did everyone else know? I feel like such a huge asshole.

*-*-*-*

And how can Preethi and I be so obvious when she doesn't even like me that way. I mean, at least I can admit to having an attraction towards her but I don't even think she'll ever see me as more than a gang leader.

The room seems so much smaller than it once was and my breathing starts to increase. I make you my way to my office balcony. The cool breeze instantly hitting my face as soom ad I pull open the door. I release a deep sigh and lower my head, trying to catch my breath.

Suddenly I hear the door slide open, but my back is turned so I don't see who it is. I let out a breath of air and lean my elbows and forearms on the railing.

Out of the corner of my eye I see Kendric follow after me, leaning beside me. For a while we just stood there, listening to the sound of the wind and the birds high-pitched chirping. The after what felt like an hour. I decided to say something.

“Did you just get backed?” I asked.

“Yeah, the situation is taken care of. So I'm guessing she told you?” He replied. I heard him take a deep breath before he continued.

“Yeah. She did.” I lifted my head and dragged my hands down my face in frustration.

“God, did everyone know?”

Kendric shrugged his shoulders, “pretty much I still can't believe you really had no idea.”

“It wasn't as though I had no idea, it was more like I couldn't see it being true. So what you're saying is, you saw the hints but didn't want to piece it together?” He glanced over at me.

“Kind of, yeah. I mean, I saw all the signs, ya know. The subtle flirting, and she complimented me a lot——always volunteering to go out on an ambush. I saw it all but, I didn't want it to be true because I didn't know how it would affect our relationship or the gang, if I told her that I knew or showed any interest to give her the wrong idea.”

Silence came again and Kendric looked at me every few seconds. I didn't know what he was thinking but I had an idea by the looks that he gave me.

“Am I an asshole?” I said to him.

“Sort of.” He answered, honestly.

“What does Preethi think about all this?”

“To be honest, I have no idea. She doesn't say anything to me about how she feels. About what happened in the gym and about the decision for Inezz.”

“How do you think, she feels about it?” Kendric asked me, raising an eyebrow.

“I don't know! She's constantly pulling away from me and hiding her feelings. One second she's trying to comfort me and the next she's telling me to leave her alone and pushing me when I go to touch her.” I threw my hands up in the air.

“That's partly your fault, bro.” Kendric and I whip our heads around to see Vius standing in the doorway.

“You don't think she saw you making out with Inezz that night at the club?”

My eyebrows scrunched together and I turned away from railing to fully look at Vius.

“What are you talking about? I barely remember anything from thay night.”

“That's the thing. You were so drunk that you didn't stop Inezz from kissing you and Preethi witnessing it. Hunter was right there by her side and saw it too. Told me the whole thing.”

My mouth was wide open at this point. I didn't remember anything after that I downed by eleventh shot——I certainly wouldn't remember Inezz kissing me. Preethi was acting so weird that day. Right before she went into the gym.

“Wow. I really am a jerk. Don't be so hard on yourself. Sure, you're a jerk and an asshole, but you were black out drunk. You couldn't possibly be in control of your actions. Inezz on the other hand is different.” Kendric patted my back.

“Maybe I should say something to h——,” my eyes shift towards the closed, glass door and take a deep a stop closer to it.

“O-ho-ho, slow down. Preethi doesn't need that right now. She just got attacked by a Aziel-obsessed Inezz. She doesn't need to be reminded of what happened at the club.” Vius interrupts me. He puts his hand in between both of our bodies as an attempt to stop me.

“He's right, bro. Preethi's going through a lot right now. Give her time before you explain yourself.” Kendric agrees.

“Yeah, yeah ok. You guys are right.” I slowly nod my head.

“Aziel, Aziel.” Vius pushes me towards the door.

“I'm always right. Shut up, idiot.” He says to get my attention I look at him with my eyebrows raised. I roll my eyes, smirking.

All three of us head back inside but, I stop abruptly when I hear Preethi scream.

“Ahhhhh, Get away from me!!”