His eyes flicker with lustful mirth, and I know he’s remembering it too.
I pour him a coffee and sit across from him in a feeble attempt not to touch him. “Tell me what you know,” I demand after he has eaten two muffins and swallowed half of his coffee. “Brando didn’t say much.”
He fills me in on what they found at the house in Mott Haven and what Joshua said. “Oh, God.” I bury my head in my hands, fighting tears. “I knew something was wrong. He’s been so moody and irritable for months. I should have pushed him to tell me. I should have—”
He walks over, taking the seat beside me, circling his arm around my shoulders. “Don’t do this,dolcezza. It’s not your fault. If you had pushed, he probably would have just pushed right back. At least you know now, and we can give him the help and support he needs.”
“Why, Leo?” I pick up my head. “Why would he do this? Is the pressure of what he’s expected to do responsible? Is it me and his father? Gino being so far away?”
“There’s no point second-guessing the reasons. You need to talk to him and try to get him to open up.”
He gets up, refilling our mugs. “I don’t want to overburden you, because I know you are upset and worried about Caleb, but some other things have come to light you need to be aware of.”
I welcome the distraction. “Tell me.”
I don’t say a word as Leo tells me it all. The Colombians. The Russians. Gino’s double agenda. That they suspect Gino and Maximo Greco are working together against us. “Fuck.” I get up. “I need something stronger than coffee.” The situation is far more dangerous than I perceived it to be. My husband now has another reason to want me dead. I stride into the living room, toward Gino’s liquor cabinet, needing alcohol to take the edge off my frayed nerves.
“I’m sorry,” Leo says as I pour two glasses of Macallan.
“For what?” I hand him a glass.
“For everything.”
My brow puckers in confusion. “I don’t follow.”
“This is my fault,” he blurts. “All of it.” He waves one hand around the place. “You being forced to marry Gino. Having to put up with his cruel and shitty treatment. The fact your life is in danger now.”
“Stop it.” I set my drink down, lacing my fingers through his. “None of this is your fault.”It’s mine, I want to say, but that would open a whole other conversation, and we have enough shit to deal with.
I know I will have to tell Leo.
If I want to be with him—and I do—I will have to tell him about the baby at some point. I don’t relish the conversation, because it’s going to hurt him so badly, but I know he has a right to the truth. “You saved me from a worse fate, remember?” I quietly remind him.
“But did I?”
I know it’s a rhetorical question. Like I know he knows Carlo Greco would have broken me and ruined me for life. Hell, he probably would have killed me, or I’d have swallowed a load of pills to escape him. No matter how neglectful and hurtful Gino is or how dangerous the current situation is, it is not as bad as my life would have been if I’d been forced to marry the monster.
Leo drains his drink and takes his hand from mine, pacing. “I would do it again, Nat, I swear I would, but it’s hard to reconcile that sentiment with how I’m feeling now because you are married to someone who wants you dead. Gino wants to make us all pay because Mateo and I killed Carlo.”
The clicking of a gun sends my blood pressure sky high, and I freeze as Leo’s alarmed eyes meet mine. He slowly turns around, keeping his body in front of mine.
“We wondered if Mateo acted alone or if you had helped him,” Gino says. “Thank you for clearing that up.” He points his gun at Leo’s head, and blood thrums in my ears.
“How are you here?” I ask, carefully reaching for Leo’s gun, which is tucked into the back of his waistband.
Gino must have entered the building via the rear entrance and used the staff elevator to avoid Brando and Nario because they would have warned us otherwise. His goons still keep watch outside, so I am sure they have clocked Ben’s men and made Gino aware. A horrible thought races across my mind as I consider he got hissoldatito take care of the problem, but I shake it from my mind to consider later, as I need to focus on the here and now.
Gino smirks. “Keeping tabs on me, darling wife?”
Leo growls. “You removed your tracker.”
He must have found the bugs Ben planted in his car and his place too. I have been monitoring his whereabouts on the tracker every day, and it shows movement, so I’m guessing he took out his tracker and implanted it in one of hissoldatito throw us off the scent.
“Did you fools really think you could demand I end things with Marcella and I would just comply? Ben thought he could sic a PI on both of us and I wouldn’t find out. I used to respect him, but he’s getting sloppy. Love can do that to a man.”
Shit. He’s aware of the PI too, which probably means the man is bound and gagged in a derelict building someplace or he’s lying in a pool of blood with a bullet in his brain. Slowly, I remove Leo’s gun, hoping it doesn’t fall from my sweaty palm. “Is that your excuse?” I snap, needing to distract him.
He smirks again, cocking his weapon a second time, and I freeze as he comes closer, aiming it at Leo’s chest. “Give me the gun, Natalia. Don’t do anything stupid.” He keeps the gun trained on Leo. “Or I’ll be forced to kill your lover right in front of your eyes.”
