The Beast Within

Four

Ryland's POV...

I've always been watching her. Ever since I left. I needed her, I've longed for her touch. And now that I'm back, she's never leaving my sight again for a long time.

I'm not a good guy, I never have been. Even when Khiri met me, I wasn't good. I was fucking people up who looked at me the wrong way. I was, and still am, a pretty violent man. I was raised that way, it's in my DNA.

When I left, that was the first time in a long time I've felt true heartbreak. I didn't wanna leave Khiri, I fell in love with her. I know it's a crime for a 15 year old to fall in love with a 12 year old, but I couldn't help it. She was, and still is, too beautiful. That's why I didn't mind her being at my hip. A lot of people questioned it but no one ever said anything because they knew if they did, they were gonna get fucked up.

I never meant to stop talking to her. I knew it would hurt her, I had to do it. I did some things in Italy that I don't even wanna remember. I killed a man for the first time in a year of living there; I was only 17. I fell in with some people who taught me how to kill, steal, manipulate, torture, so many other things that I can't speak of.

When I came back to the US, I was different. I didn't wanna reach out to her, I didn't want her to see how angry I was. I didn't think about her that whole entire time. I feel terrible that I just left her out of my mind for a certain period of time. But I had to. She distracted me from business, she got in the way, and I didn't wanna be angry at her for that.

So I fucked. I fucked women who didn't even look like her so that I could get over her. I think I got a bitch pregnant but she ended up losing it; I didn't do anything... maybe. Other women didn't matter to me. Only Khiri. Only my Rose. Which is why when I was done with business, I went back to California.

When I first saw her, she was with her dingy ex boyfriend. I hated him. I hated him for taking him away from me. So I set him up. I got a nice bimbo to seduce him and his ass fell for it. I couldn't get over how grown up she looked. Her beautiful chocolate skin glowing. Her beautiful brown eyes now full with makeup. Her hair, which used to be in the cutest pigtails, was now full with box braids. My Rose was all grown up, and I missed it. That made me more angrier.

Any guy that stepped foot towards her or flirted with her, I either set them up or I killed them. That Andrew guy from the nightclub? Didn't live to call her back. I was angry at the fact that she even had the urge to call him. Yes, I was watching her at the nightclub. I felt like she knew someone was watching her, she just couldn't pinpoint on it.

It was easy, really. Killing the Andrew guy. All I did was mess with his car so that it couldn't even make it far and if it collided with something, it would immediately blow in a fire. He should've stayed away from what was mine, so he had to learn the hard way.

If that makes me a bad guy, I don't care. I won't let my Rose go away to someone else. She doesn't know and she will never know unless she brings out that side in me, which I sure do hope she doesn't. I love her so much, I can't ever imagine hurting her. But she knows that so there's nothing I need to explain.

I've been in California for four weeks now, I've been staying in my big house that I bought when I first came back. Khiri doesn't know and hasn't been here yet. I want to surprise her. Because right now, this house is just as her's as it is mine.

"Listen, Ryland. I'm not saying now, but at some point, we have to go through with it. Per Boss's instructions." I was on the phone with Ezra. He was one of my good friends back when we were kids. He went to Italy with me along with our other friend, Maverick. We all got some training in. "Come on, Ry."

"You keep forgetting that I am the Boss. Father assigned ME to handle our business when he decided that he was too old to take care of it anymore. He's not at any point of giving me instructions. We stay here. We go through with it when I say, and for now, I say we stay here. Now is that a problem?"