The cast was gone for some reason, and she managed to look even more frail than she had with it on. Hair a disheveled mess, with wispy strands floating around her face, she appeared lost and adrift.
He wanted to anchor her. Tether her back in the here and now where her eyes lit up and her cheeks grew rosy as her color ran high.
Just as her fury did as he snatched her arm, tugging her to a stop. He hadn’t meant to pull so hard, her body colliding with his as she teetered off balance for a precious moment. Leon took another deep breath, taking her in before he remembered himself and growled at her for confusing him in the first place.
“What do you think you are doing,” Leon demanded in a quiet snarl, mindful of all the stares they were garnering with this display. He should have followed her into the elevator, caught her within the confines of the metal box where other ears wouldn’t hear them, but it was too late now. She did this. Forever throwing him off balance just when he decided to put her out of his mind.
“Returning to my room,” Elena said, all the color draining out of her as something too close to terror flickered in her warm hazel gaze. Gone before Leon could say he really saw it, her anger replaced it in a molten flash. “Not that it is any of your business.”
“Get your hands off of her,” the guard snapped, making no effort to keep his voice down despite the many heads that turned their way.
“Jamie, it doesn’t matter,” Elena whispered, her skin cold where Leon still held her. “None of it matters anymore.”
“What is that supposed to mean,” Leon demanded onanother growl, frustrated with how much he wanted to sooth the tremble from her voice and throttle her for being so uncaring of her image. Especially now.
“It means I’m already ruined, so what does it fucking matter,” Elena hissed.
He almost released her, she’d become so vehement, but her stammering curse had Leon’s grip tightening, pulling her into the protective warmth of his shadow as his brows crashed low.
“And how are you ruined now?” Scoffing at the very idea that her clandestine dinner with his brother and their argument last night had amounted to so much, he still rubbed a slow arc against her chilled skin with his thumb. Willing his heat into her as she slumped within his hold.
“As if you didn’t know,” Elena snarled, wrenching her arm from his grip only to stumble several paces before she caught her balance and rounded on him.
Working herself into a fine temper if the spots of rose at her cheeks were of any indication. Unwilling to allow her to embarrass herself further, Leon grabbed her arm again, hauling her after him towards the bank of elevators. He ignored her sputtering as he shoved her into the machine, making a rude gesture at the guard when he inserted himself between them. Let him come. The bastard did little else to protect his charge.
“What game are you playing at, Miss Costanzo,” Leon demanded as he crowded her into the corner, growling at the Beta guard when he tried to block Leon’s path. Leon stopped short of touching her. Remaining far enough away he wouldn’t give in to the urge to gather her against him. To wipe away the layers of makeup hiding her from him.
Something clicked in his thoughts. Elena never wore such heavy makeup, the pasty layers caked to her soft skin all down her neck and chest. Something had happened.
“What is wrong with you?” Leon’s hand came up, intendingnothing more than to indicate the trembling of her lips, but she reacted as if he’d swung his fist at her.
“As if you didn’t know after what you did,” Elena shouted as the doors opened on the floor the guard had selected.
“I’ve done nothing to you,” Leon snarled, hauling Elena to tip toe as he walked her backwards out of the elevator and into the long hall. He gave a withering glare to two males further down, sending them rushing off in the opposite direction.
“No, I suppose you wouldn’t see it as anything of importance. Not to a man such as yourself,” Elena ground out as she struggled within his hold.
The insufferable guard was there again, daring to touch Elena as he growled low in his throat at Leon. “Let her go, damn you. You’ve done enough to her as it is.”
“I have not even begun,” Leon said with a cruel twist of his lips, more for the guard’s benefit than Elena’s, but both acted as if they’d been slapped. “You would dare draw a gun on me?”
The guard, Jamie, didn’t even pause, shoving the nose of the pistol into Leon’s ribs. Glancing down, Leon saw the gun already cocked, the safety released. What in the name of the Gods had happened here that he would risk so much?
So surprised by this turn of events, Leon lost his grip on Elena. Allowing her to extricate herself from the middle of things to turn and stalk down the hall towards a door where she shoved a keycard into the slot and disappeared inside.
“You’ve done enough to her,” Jamie said, even and calm despite the alarm deep in his eyes. “Now leave her be.”
“I haven’t done a damned thing,” Leon snarled, and he was after her. Chasing Elena down the hall to slide into the room and close the door hard behind him.
Locking the guard out as he hammered his fist against the panel.
Elena’s shrill sound cut right down to his core as shestumbled backwards to get away from him. She wedged her back into the corner, shaking her head with arms outstretched in a pitiful display to keep Leon back.
“What is the matter with you,” Leon demanded while wrenching her arms down, tired of her hysterics when there was no reason for them with him. Frustrated and furious in turns as she continued to treat him like some kind of monster. “My brother is good enough to be alone with, but not me, is that it?”
“Please, just get out,” Elena sobbed, crumpling in on herself to make a smaller target.
“Not until you tell me what’s going on here. Did Anthony do something to you?”
