“We all have,” he says simply. “Leo is a big boy. I think he can handle it.”
“I never wanted this for him,” I whisper.
“No one wanted this for any of us. This life sucks sometimes, Les, but he doesn’t need you to protect him. You need to start letting him make up his mind.” He squeezes my hand quickly, surprising me. “He saved Ryder today, and that’s got to give him some credit.”
I bark a laugh. “I’m actually surprised he did.”
“Leo is just like the rest of us, Baby girl,” he says softly. “We will never do anything that will hurt you, even if that means saving the one we hate the most.”
I understand what he’s saying and need to figure out how to handle this. If I yell at Ryder for taking off with him, it will cause him to freeze Leo out again. I just need to figureoutwhyRyder took him. Sure, it seemed like a simple job, but Ryder knows how quickly those jobs can turn into shit. Just like today.
“I need to talk to Ryder,” I say with a sigh.
Dex nods and stands up. “I’ll get him.”
He disappears into the house, and I lean back in the chair, trying to get my thoughts together. The door opens, and I hear the chair scrape against the patio. I lift my head and watch Ryder sit down, still giving me that wary look he was giving me inside.
“You undermined me today. One, for not telling me about Squid, and two, for taking Leo without telling me,” I say as calmly as I can. “Why did you take him today?”
“You said you wanted him involved, Les. So I fucking involved him.”
I sit up and cross my arms on the table, mirroring his pose. “Is that all, or did you have another reason?”
He raises an eyebrow. “What are you asking?”
“Did you take him to scare him off?”
He shrugs. “No. I took him because I knew you wouldn’t.”
“I’ve taken him on jobs.”
“Yeah. The ones you went on so you could watch him. You can’t protect him forever, and he needs to man the fuck up.”
“You realize he’s been involved in this life for a year, and up until a couple of days ago, he’s never even been on a fucking job?” I say, getting pissed again. “He took a life for you today, and I say that makes him pretty fucking manly.” I push back from the table and storm back into the house with Ryder right on my heels.
I hit the doorway to the living room before he grabs my arm, spinning me to face him. “You don’t get to just walk away in the middle of a conversation.”
I raise both brows. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” Ryder says, stepping into my space and still holding my arm. “You said we need to work shit out from now on. So, let’s work it out.”
I jerk my arm away, aware of Leo and Gage sitting behind us. “Fine. You were careless today. You went into a job blind and took someone to go down with you.”
“I go on jobs alone all the time. The only reason you’re fucking mad is that I had Leo with me. What about me, Les? Were you worried about me?”
“You can handle yourself!” I yell. Did he just insinuate that I don’t care about his safety?
“So can Leo. Look at him,Il mio sole. Does he look like someone that’s worried about what fucking happened today?”
I huff and turn around. Leo is sitting there beside Gage, looking cool as a cucumber.
“I’m fine, Baby,” Leo says, standing up and walking toward me. “It was a shock at first, and I might have freaked out in the car a little,” he says with a chuckle. “But Ryder talked me down.”
I throw my hands in the air. “So, you guys are just best friends now?”
They both snort at the same time. “No. But we can work together,” Ryder answers, and I turn back to him. “You just have to let that happen.”
“You can’t go off without telling me,” I say, looking betweenthem. “I thought something bad had happened to both of you, and I can’t handle that.”
