The words hit a nerve. Before I even think, my fist is in his face.
It’s instantaneous. He drops to the floor, blood in his hands as he tries to hold onto his busted lips.
The room goes still, then chaos detonates. Men reach for guns; Barkovs and Campisis are ready to blow each other up.
Leanna drops to her knees beside him, then shoots to her feet, fire in her eyes as she jabs a finger in my face. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” she spits. “You could’ve killed him!”
I grin, drunk and mean. “I wish I had. Lucky for him, I didn’t.”
“Guys! Everyone, put those away!” Her voice slices through the noise. “It’s fine. Everything’s fine.”
Thankfully, the Campisi men listen well, and once they put their sidearms away, so do the Barkov men. Leanna asks her men to take Trace out of here and get him some medical attention.
Trace. That’s his name.
Fuck, what a pussy name.
After he’s gone, she grabs my arm and says, “You and me. We’ve got beef. Let’s go.”
I stand and try to look menacing at the guys who try to follow her —probably her security detail. She holds them off with a wave of her hands and pretty much pushes me out of the bar and into the hallway.
“What. The. Fuck?” she demands, once we’re on the elevator to the twenty-first floor.
“Back at you,” I sulk.
“You don’t own me,” she says, and not for the first time since I’ve known her. “You are not my boyfriend. You can’t say you don’tcare, don’t want me, and then get in my business when I’m with someone else.”
The elevator doors open, and she shoves me again, this time in the direction of our room. Moments later, we’re inside. The curtains are thrown wide, and the late afternoon sun spills through the space.
“You wrecked me,” I finally say.
“Iwreckedyou?”Leanna asks, incredulous. “You have had me all this time. You took me…I was a…”
“So what?” I snap, bitter and spoiling for a fight. “So you lost your virginity. It had to happen sometime. And don’t pretend you were saving yourself for marriage. Jesus, you rode me until you came the first night we were together.”
She lets out a sound of pure frustration. “I fuckinghateyou.”
“No, you don’t,” I scoff. “You already tried to tell me you love me once tonight. Now you hate me, because I punched some nerd who wasn’t good enough for you by far?”
“You don’t know what you want,” she fires back. “You want to own me, fuck me, protect me, push me away, then drag me back. Nik, this will never work. I made peace with that. But then you—” she stabs her finger at my chest, “—you come in like a fucking caveman. What am I supposed to do with that?”
“You came in and fucked with me on a dare,” I snarl. “Some spoiled rich-girl dare. How entitled of you, that you can come in and make a joke of a man when he’s vulnerable.”
She rolls her eyes. “Vulnerable?You? Please. You’re just as dangerous blindfolded, drunk, or stone-cold sober. You were fine. I was the one in danger every week.”
I step forward until I’m in her space. “You were never in danger with me.”
She knows I’m right. She had a safe word. She used it, and I stopped. I could have hurt her, but I didn’t, and she knows I never would.
“This is stupid,” she mutters, turning away. She stomps into the bedroom, and I follow, only to find her packing her belongings.
“Where are you going?” I ask.
“Nowhere. And it’s none of your business.”
“It is my business.”
“Why? Because we fucked? No, Nik, it doesn’t work like that.”
