Chapter 46: Stay away from Her

Chapter 46: Chapter 46: Stay away from Her

"Who sent you?" Garrett asked.

No hesitation in it, no attempt to dress the question up as anything other than what it was.

Dezny’s smile didn’t move. "Raymond."

Garrett felt something settle into place, the pieces lining up faster than he would’ve liked.

’Of course.’

"So why didn’t he just call me himself?" Garrett said. "Seems like a lot of effort for something that could’ve been a text."

"Raymond doesn’t do texts," Dezny said. "Not for this."

"Then what’s this."

"A conversation." Dezny tilted his head slightly. "Well. Not really a conversation. More like us talking, you listening."

"We’re not here to negotiate anything with you," the second one added, arms still crossed, voice flat. "Just here to make sure a message is passed."

Garrett looked between the three of them, patience thinning with every second nobody actually said anything useful.

He didn’t like being boxed in on a sidewalk two minutes from his own door. Didn’t like three men deciding his evening was theirs to interrupt. And he especially didn’t like the implication sitting underneath all of it, that somebody thought they had the standing to tell him what to do.

"Then stop talking around it," Garrett said, voice even but harder now. "Tell me exactly what Raymond wants."

Dezny didn’t answer immediately.

Neither did the other two.

Instead, something shifted in the way they stood. Small, but Garrett caught it. The second thug dropped his arms from his chest. The third one straightened, his attention settling more firmly on Garrett.

Garrett’s irritation faded slightly.

They weren’t bluffing.

He’d been treating this like an annoying interruption.

It was becoming clear that they hadn’t come here just to deliver words.

Garrett looked at them again, this time more carefully.

"Then be clear," he said.

Dezny finally dropped the act. "Emiliana."

Garrett went still.

"Raymond wants you gone," Dezny continued. "Stay away from her. Don’t approach her. Don’t meet up with her, He doesn’t want to see you anywhere near her again."

For a second, Garrett just stared at him, genuinely thrown.

"What does Emiliana have to do with Raymond?"

"Not our business to explain that part." Dezny shrugged, like the question wasn’t worth the effort of answering. "Our business is making sure you got the message. You have."

"That’s not an answer."

"It’s the only one you’re getting."

Garrett’s jaw tightened, just slightly, the irritation building into something sharper now. Three men, standing in his way, telling him who he could and couldn’t see, like Raymond had any authority over a single part of his life.

"I don’t take orders from Raymond," Garrett said, flat and clear, no room left in it for misunderstanding.

The words landed heavier than he expected them to.

Dezny’s expression didn’t change, not exactly, but something behind it hardened. The second one uncrossed his arms. The third, still quiet, shifted his weight forward, just slightly, the kind of movement that wasn’t casual anymore.

"That’s not really up to you, yunno" Dezny said, quieter now, all the earlier ease gone out of his voice. "This is your last warning, Garrett. Raymond doesn’t give a second one."

Garrett caught movement at the edge of his vision, too late to do anything about it.

A leg swept his out from under him before he could react, and the ground came up fast, knocking the breath out of him on impact. He barely had time to register it before the first hit landed.

Then it was just three of them, all at once.

He got an arm up, took most of the next hit on his forearm instead of his face, tried to twist and get his feet back under him. It didn’t work. Someone’s weight came down across his shoulders, pinning him lower, and another hit caught him in the side hard enough to steal the air out of him again.

’Three on one.’

He knew the math. Knew that trying to fight back properly right now would only give them more to hit. So he covered what he could, took the rest, and waited for it to be over instead of making it worse trying to be a hero about it.

A few more hits followed, each one leaving another sharp reminder that they weren’t interested in proving a point anymore. They were making sure he remembered it.

Garrett clenched his jaw and stayed down.

He didn’t beg. Didn’t shout. There wasn’t much point in either.

It didn’t last as long as it felt like it did.

"Enough," Dezny said, somewhere above him.

The hits stopped. Garrett stayed where he was for a second, on the ground, breathing hard, everything from his ribs to his jaw aching in a way that told him he’d be feeling this for days.

He was angry. Genuinely, deeply angry. But his head stayed clear, no panic in it, no spiral. Just the cold, simple fact of what had happened, kept under things he now knew for certain about Raymond.

This wasn’t a warning anymore.

It was a message.

Dezny crouched slightly, close enough that Garrett could see him without lifting his head much. "Next time we see you with her, this isn’t going to be a warning anymore."

Garrett didn’t answer. Didn’t need to.

Dezny held his gaze for another second before standing again.

Footsteps retreated, three sets, unhurried, like they had nowhere else to be and no reason to rush.

Garrett stayed on the ground a moment longer, letting the worst of it settle before he tried moving anything.

His fingers flexed first.

Then his arms.

Then he shifted his weight carefully, checking what hurt and what still worked.

Nothing felt immediately serious enough to stop him from moving, but that didn’t make the pain any less real.

He took one slow breath and pushed himself up.

He pushed himself up slowly, one hand braced against the pavement, testing which parts of him actually worked before trusting his weight to them.

Everything hurt. His ribs ached with every breath, his jaw felt sore, and several places across his body were already beginning to stiffen. But he could move. That was enough for now.

He got to his feet, unsteady for a second before it held. Bruised, sore, every breath pulling at his ribs a little more than it should. But he could walk. That was enough for now.

He stood there for another second, looking down the street where the three men had disappeared.

They were gone.

He started toward his building, one hand pressed lightly against his side, mind already circling the same questions from before. Emiliana. Raymond. Why any of this mattered enough to Raymond to send three men after him on a sidewalk two minutes from his own door.

He didn’t have an answer. He wasn’t sure he’d have one anytime soon.

All he knew was that Raymond wanted him away from Emiliana badly enough to make the threat physical.

Movement caught his attention, someone running, footsteps fast against the pavement.

He looked up.

For a second he didn’t place her, vision still slightly blurry from everything that had just happened.

Then he did.

Freya.

She was running straight toward him, and even through the ache clouding most of his attention, Garrett could read the look on her face well enough to know exactly what it meant.

She’d seen it.

The three men. The ground. All of it.

And now she was running toward him like she hadn’t stopped to think twice about it.