“Thank fuck for that.”
I can’t even be offended. I would never have considered messingwith Zane at eighteen if I was innocent. And I wouldn’t have him in my life now.
I guess some things do happen for a reason.
Chapter 24
Leo
“You saw what now?” I ask Mateo when he sits at the table beside me.
He chuckles. “You heard me. I had the perfect view until that asshole blocked me.”
“Good,” I say, punching his arm. “That’s my girl you were watching. You’re lucky he didn’t shoot you; he’s trigger happy.”
I’ve never seen someone move as fast as I did when that guy grabbed Alessa today. Before anyone even registered what happened, Zane was up and out of his chair.
“Whatever,” Mateo snorts.
I look down to the end of the pool where Zane has Alessa wrapped in his arms, her head thrown back in laughter. I can’t believe the difference between them in such a few short days. After the phone call from Jay, I thought for sure it was going to set her healing back. Instead, it seemed to make her more determined to take him down.
“I have to take a piss,” Mateo announces, standing up.
“You know where it is,” I say, waving my hand. “Unless you need me to hold your fucking hand.”
Mateo chuckles while walking away.
Having both of them back felt damn nice. I worried aboutEvander while he was over there. When Gage and I visited, he didn’t seem like himself. I was just as curious as everyone else about what went down with him and Micah; it was something huge, and that’s all I knew.
Mateo comes jogging back out of the house, grabs my arm to jerk me out of my chair, pulling me into the house.
“What the hell?” I ask, just for him to clamp a hand over my mouth.
“Shut up,” he hisses, pulling me into the kitchen.
He pulls me just outside the doorway, and that’s when I hear Evander.
“That’s because you’re a fucking coward,” Evander says. What the hell?
“I’m not the one who ran away.”
I whip my head to Mateo. “Micah?” I mouth, and Mateo nods his head wildly.
“I didn’t run away,” Evander hisses. As one, Mateo and I peek around the corner. Evander and Micah are in a standoff in the middle of the kitchen, almost nose to nose.
“What are you…?” I don’t even give Alessa time to finish that sentence before I jerk her to me.
“Just listen,” I whisper in her ear.
She raises an eyebrow but nods her head.
“What the fuck do you call disappearing to Cabo?” Micah growls. Alessa looks at me slowly, her eyes comically wide.
“What did you expect?!” Evander almost yells. “You pulled me into your bullshit web of fucking lies and then told me you aren’t ready for anything serious.”
We all exchange an oh shit look before peeking around the corner again. Micah and Evander have moved apart on separate ends of the island. I want to feel bad for eavesdropping, but I am getting more confused by the second. I need answers. Did Micah hurt Evander?
“I said I wasn’t ready for anything seriousyet,and I never lied to you, Van,” Micah says softly, much different from his previous tone.
