“What have you been keeping from me,” he snapped, jerking his arm away as he followed Anthony into the hall. The windows from downstairs didn’t reach this part of the house, setting it in a gloomy cast year-round. Catching Anthony’s shoulder to turn him around, Leon stepped into his space. “Tell me.”
“What’s it to you?” Anthony laughed outright, waving away Leon’s growl. “He beat her, you dolt. Apparently she had to goto the hospital and everything. Had a cast on, most of her bruised.”
“Where the hell did you see her? You just?—”
“Got into town a couple of days ago. I was with… a friend. He told me what happened between you two. Shocking really. Golden boy ruining a poor Omega. Guess I’m not quite the rotten apple you think I am, hm?”
“I didn’t savage her!” Leon fisted the front of Anthony’s shirt, jerking him off balance.
“No, but you might as well have put a gun to her head and done her the favor of a swift end,” Anthony said with a cold calm that irritated Leon all the more.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, after Valente got done with her, he went and got killed, didn’t he? She has no family, Leon. Costanzo is the only name she has.”
“So? She can find another mate. Someone suitable.” Shoving Anthony away, Leon’s lip curled in disgust.
“Ah, but who would take her on, golden boy?” Straightening his shirt, Anthony looked up through a fall of his dark hair to meet Leon’s eyes.
“Why wouldn’t they?” Leon gave a terse shake of his head. “She’s a blooded Omega, wealthy enough, young.”
“One dead Alpha. Another wiped his hands clean of her after you were finished with her, and might I remind you how very public that display was. And now no family,” Anthony said, counting them out on his fingers.
“I have nothing to do with her.” Leon’s brows crashed into a hard line as he advanced on Anthony. “What are they saying about her?”
“Nothing that can be proven, but all the best gossip is that way, isn’t it?” Anthony’s dark eyes swept over Leon, taking in his bunched fists and the tension vibrating through his shoulders. “For someone who has nothing to dowith her, you’re awful interested in what’s going on with her.”
Refusing to be baited more than he already had been, Leon snarled, “Where did you see her?”
“I went to see Bianchi. From what I gathered, she’d just left Lamberti’s office.”
“Tell me what she said to you.”
“Not much. Mostly about our family having done enough damage. Something about three days.”
“Three days?”
“Yes, that no one could fix it in three days.”
Leon spent far more time at his father’s house than he’d intended. Hours lost with his own businesses and dealings. Wasted over Anthony and his bullshit.
The Irish their father sent Anthony to might have been skimming the profits, but Anthony had laid waste to them before boarding a plane and scurrying back home. Any connections the Marchetti family had in that security tech were gone. Blown up, quite literally.
Shutting the door to his home, Leon engaged all of the locks and pressed all the right buttons for the security system. His small fortress held every technological gadget it could, with old fashioned physical fail safes should someone try to get past them. There were of course the sensors in every room, cameras that could be called up with a tap on his phone, night vision, heat vision. All the bells and whistles. Every window was also bulletproof. The exterior walls had metal plates. His basement was fully stocked with semi-automatic weapons and a trap door that led out into the garage.
It was deadly and cold as hell.
Loosening his tie, he poured a generous measure of whiskeyinto a glass at the bar then headed for the private deck. The roaming guards would know his whereabouts, but when he opted for the smaller space walled in by greenery, they knew to leave him alone.
Leon threw his tie and jacket down on a chaise, working the top button of his collar free. The sudden loss of the restriction felt so damn good, he undid three more and settled his large frame in an oversized chair.
Sipping the rich amber whiskey, he watched the lightening horizon. He needed to get his head on straight. To stop thinking about the damned girl, but that became more difficult each time he thought of her.
He remembered her best in the lacy dress that started the evening as the purest white with a wide red ribbon at her waist. Costanzo’s Omegas must have spent hours primping her for the event, every inch of her neat and tidy. When he’d found her in the dark library, it’d been torn and muddy from the gardens. She’d snuck out of the party and then it’d begun to rain. All of thirteen and she’d been trying so damned hard to be brave as he demanded to know what she’d been doing and who with. Leon only meant to scare her a little, remind her of her place, but someone overheard. All the Costanzo males came rushing in, shouting and pointing. Laying blame at her feet.
She’d been carted off by the women after that, and Leon never saw her outside of a formal function again. Forever surrounded by cadges of adults and guards. Anthony told him they’d even taken her out of school.
Of course, she blamed him for all of it. As if he had some control over her father’s wishes. If that had been the case, Leon never would have stumbled into that restaurant intent on apologizing and found her with that fucking Russian.
