“Eka!”
Roman tore down the hall toward the open doorway at the end. The reddish haze over his eyes, deepened to an inky crimson when he raced through. The room was in shambles, overturned lamps, crushed lampshades littered the floor. Pillows were strewn and a couple struggled atop a tangled bed.
Imani clawed at the spread, trying to get to the other side of the king size bed. She tried to kick out at Kapango Nassor who had one hand around her calf, the other at his bleeding hairline.
Roman moved, inclining his head at the angle needed to crack his neck for relief while he flexed his hands. He wanted to enjoy this. He snagged Nassor’s shirt, smiling grimly when the other man was the one issuing shrill sounds on a high-pitched frequency.
“Get off her, cocksucker,” Roman’s words carried on a barbarous chord and sounded closer to a growl. Effortlessly, he wrenched Nassor from the bed and threw him into the nearest wall.
Nassor did little more than twitch when he landed on the floor. Roman didn’t care, he was already seeing to Imani. She lay shuddering on her stomach. The lovely, coral colored dress she wore was half torn from her back. She flinched harshly when Roman touched her gently to tug the torn fabric back into place.
“Shh...it’s me, it’s Roman, Imani. Shh...I’ve got you, I’m here. You’re safe. You’re safe.”
“Sh-she’s mine. Guinea bastard,” Nassor groaned, his dark face slick with sweat and rapidly swelling from its impact with the wall.
Roman folded Imani into the rumpled spread and kissed her cheek. His expression was pure murder when he looked back at Nassor.
“You should’ve passed out like the fucking bitch you are,” Roman sighed. He dragged Nassor up by the collar and laid into him with a sadistic backhand fist that caused him to howl in agony.
“Uh oh, sounds like something’s broken,” Roman’s monotone observation silenced and he brutalized Nassor’s swollen face with another blow.
The man mewled as blood and snot spurted from his broken nose. Much the same was true for his lip when Roman’s next blow landed. He didn’t stop there, but ravaged Nassor with damaging, dispassionate punches that went on and on and on.
“Roman...Roman? Stop...Roman, stop...”
Her voice was a melody in his head, one with the power to draw him from the abyss where he was happy to dwell.
“Roman?”
He paused before following through with the next blow. The room filled with his heavy inhales. He let Nassor drop back to the floor and used the battered man’s shirt to wipe the blood from his hands.
“Shh...” he urged when he returned to the bed. “It’s okay, it’s okay. I’m going to take you to your father. Easy,” he soothed when she flinched as he drew her close. “Easy, easy Serenita,” Serenity he called her. “It’s okay...I have you.”
Imani shuddered when Roman lifted her. She had an unobstructed view of Nassor then, bloodied and unconscious on the floor. She turned her face into Roman’s neck and cried.
Roman needed to plant his face in her hair. He needed to inhale its scent in order to hold himself back from returning to inflict more pain on the injured man at his feet. Imani’s fingers were curled into his shirt and nothing existed for him then, but her.
***
Chief Hilar Kamande’s suite was cocooned in an almost tangible silence. In the living room, the Chief paced one end, Roman the other. The two men had been rendered to such a state for the last 15 minutes. The sound of a door opening had them both looking to one of the long corridors for the doctor who had been called to see to Imani.
It wasn’t the doctor. Eka had entered through the main door of the penthouse. The Chief’s eldest son was about to address his father when he saw Roman across the room.
There was no time for talking.
Roman charged and Eka accepted the challenge. Both met in a collision of fists and muscle with no care for the furniture they smashed and overturned. Security set in to break apart the combatants, but halted their pursuit when the Chief raised his hand to order them back.
Roman and Eka grappled and punched, leaving a trail of debris in their wake. They tripped on the steps leading up to the room’s private dining area. Roman capitalized by cupping Eka’s head in his hands and driving it hard into one of the carpeted steps. Then, he proceeded to abuse his opponent’s face with the lethally consistent and focused blows that were fast becoming his specialty.
It seemed Eka was well and truly beaten and yet Roman showed no sign of stopping. The Chief gave a wave to security then, urging them to intervene. It took some doing, but the guards eventually relegated the fighters to their individual corners.
“Papa-”
“She was calling for you!” Roman blasted before Eka could share his side of the story. “You had to hear her. You were right in the next room.” Roman’s words entwined with the weighty tufts of air he expelled while he stood restrained between the guards. His blue black hair hung like damp slashes into his deep set eyes. He looked like a living nightmare as discovery bloomed across his face.
“You left her there for that piece of shit, didn’t you? Didn’t you?!”
Eka ignored the accusation. “Papa-”
“Is this true?” The Chief was next to interrupt Eka’s words. “The truth now. I’ve already heard Imani’s side of things. It would be unwise for you to lie to me.”
“Kap is to be her husband-”
“But he is not her husband yet. Why would you leave her alone in a room with a man who is not one of us?”
“Imani seemed alright with it and I thought-”
“You thought?!” Hilar Kamande rarely raised his voice. When he did, the infrequency of the occurrence made the moment that much more visceral.
“She is a child under you, boy. She does not get to make such decisions. She is too smart, too respectful of herself to even suggest such a thing. Are you implying that your sister isn’t smart? That she wanted to disrespect herself?”
“No Papa, I-”
“Then why would you leave her alone in a room with a man who is not one of us?!”
Roman looked on in wonder as Imani’s tough older brother seemed to wilt. That kind of fear only came from past experience of facing similar wrath. He knew, because it was the kind of healthy fear he and his brothers had for their father. Roman spared a moment to pray Hilar Kamande never became angry with him.
“I was only trying to secure a good match for the family.” Eka was still pleading his case.
