Page 178 of Ruthless Claim

I catch up to Leo just in time to see his throat bob. “I’m only staring because you’re so ugly it hurts to see.”

“Big words from someone who hasn’t seen a comb in thirty years,” Valentina shoots back, but there’s a small smile on her face. Leo shoves the bottle at me before he crosses the room and pulls Valentina off the couch and into a tight hug. There’s so much emotion on both of their faces that I have to look away, suddenly uncomfortable.

“Where’s Emma and the baby?” Valentina asks.

“Em wanted to come,” Leo says into her hair. “She’s super pissed she isn’t here. Seraphina has napped like shit all day and Emma decided to stay home to try and get her to sleep.”

Valentina frowns. “Why hasn’t she napped? Is she sick?”

“Nah. Sera slept over four hours last night and got us excited so she’s just resetting expectations for us.” Leo pulls back and looks at Valentina’s face carefully, cataloguing damage. “You’re all right?”

“I’m all right,” Valentina tells her brother.

He looks at her for another second like he’s deciding whether to believe that. Then he gestures to me. “You going to get those glasses you were talking about?”

I grab the glasses and pour while Leo drops onto the couch next to Valentina and subjects her to the kind of close-range older brother scrutiny that I imagine she’s been enduring her entire life.

She tolerates it for about forty-five seconds before she announces she’s going to bed.

Leo’s eyes track her as she pushes herself up off the couch, and I can see the concern move across his face before he covers it with a mockingly shocked look.

“Already?” he says, making a big show of looking at his watch. “It’s eight o’clock. What are you, ninety?”

Valentina turns around and flashes her brother a saccharine sweet smile. I hide a smile behind my glass.

“I’m pregnant and I got caught in a drive-by shooting today,” she says pleasantly. “But sure, Leo, tell me more about how I should be powering through.”

She tilts her head to the side, looking her brother up and down. “How’s your therapist, by the way? Still working on that hero complex, or did you two give up?”

Leo blinks. I snort a laugh and cover it with a cough when Leo glares at me.

Valentina looks at me and there’s a small, warm smile on her face. Something in my chest unfurls at the sight of her smile. After the day we’ve had, after everything, she still brings me joy.

“Goodnight,” she says and heads down the hall.

Leo watches her go before he picks up his whiskey glass and looks at me. “She gets meaner every time I see her.”

“She really does,” I agree.

“It’s my best quality,” Valentina calls from somewhere down the hall before we hear the door close.

Leo shakes his head, but he’s almost smiling. He takes a drink, sets the glass down, and the almost-smile fades. “Tell me everything,” he demands.

So I do. I tell him every little detail, from the phone call to Claire, to what we were discussing moments before the shooting took place. Leo listens, his frown deepening the more I talk.

Once I get to the part where Claire starts her sob story, Leo gets up and begins pacing, one hand rubbing his jaw.

When I’m done, Leo sits back down and leans forward. There’s a gleam in his eyes that concerns me.

“It was the Corsicans,” he says. “It has to be.”

I blink, thrown by this. “The—the Corsicans?” I ask in disbelief. “The ones you think were behind the car bomb?”

“And the ones who gave the intel to Connor about my estate,” Leo adds on.

I frown, irritated. “You mean when you kidnapped Emma on her wedding day and held her hostage?” I correct him, remembering how wrathful Connor was after that. I’ve never seen him in such a rage before. “We didn’t get our fucking information from the Corsicans, Leo.”

Leo scoffs, clearly disbelieving that. “Then how did Connor know how to get into my estate, Cillian? Maybe Connor didn’t want to tell you about where he got his intel.”