She disappears into the living room without a second glance, and as soon as she's gone, I turn back to Leo.
"You better have a very good fucking explanation about what the fuck has happened here, Leo. Why the fuck is she covered in blood?"
He sighs, standing up straight with his hands in his pockets.
"She wanted to go shopping. We realised someone was following us, and I thought if we split up and trapped him in an alley, I'd be able to get some answers out of him. After we split up, Jellybean stopped to take a shit, and no matter how much I was tugging her, she wouldn't budge."
He cringes and shakes his head, running his hand through his hair.
"I thought I'd get to the alley before her, and I promise, Dom, as soon as the dog was finished, I picked her up, and ran to the alleyway. He already had a hold of her by the time I got there—his arm was around her neck, and he had a gun at her side. She was screaming, and she looked petrified, so I shot him."
"It's his blood on her?" I ask.
He nods in response.
"Did you make sure she was unharmed?"
His eyes clash with mine, and he scoffs.
"Of course I fucking checked she was okay. It was the first thing I did."
"Okay." I step towards the elevator, hands clenched into fists, and when I'm near him, I rear my arm back and then swing it forward, punching him in the face. "That's for making the stupid suggestion of splitting up. You deserve that."
Rubbing at his jaw, he nods. "I do. That's why I didn't block the shot… we still have some work to do on the speed of those punches, though."
"You can go now," I snap, turning away from him and heading down the hallway into my apartment.
Moving through the living room, I stop at the sofa to stroke Jellybean for a moment, and then make my way upstairs. I go into my room first, changing out of my clothes, considering there's now blood speckled across my top from hugging Alicia.
Once I'm dressed in a fresh T-shirt and jogging bottoms, I move over to the door in my room that leads to our shared bathroom, pressing my ear against it.
When I don't hear the sound of the shower, I open the door, finding the bathroom empty, filled with steam and the sweet aroma of vanilla from Alicia's hair products and body wash.
The door leading into Alicia's room is wide open, so I walk through, stopping at the threshold when I see her lying in bed, bundled up beneath her sheets with the covers pulled up to her chin.
Her eyes are glossy and wide, transfixed on the wall opposite the bed.
I move over to her, crouching beside her and gently cup her face with my hand, rubbing my thumb across her damp cheek.
"What's wrong, little viper?"
Her teary gaze moves to meet mine, and her bottom lip trembles slightly as she speaks.
"My necklace. It's gone."
Frowning, I pull the covers down slightly so I can see her neck. The slight bruising that covers it has my fist clenching around the material in my hand.
Grinding my teeth, I take a deep breath, drawing my eyes away from her injury to look back into her saddened eyes.
"That's what's making you upset?" I ask, confused.
Alicia definitely doesn't peg me as the materialistic type, so I'm not sure why she's been crying because of a necklace being lost.
She nods, and a tear falls from her eye onto her cheek.
"My father gave it to me before the wedding. It has a picture inside of my mother, Eliana, and me. It must've been broken and come off during the struggle. I didn't realise it was gone until I went to reach for it when we were in the elevator."
Understanding dawns on me, and I move the upper half of my body onto the edge of the bed so I can wrap my arm around her and awkwardly bring her into my chest.
