Page 183 of Her Wicked Plan

“What if things could be different?”

“They can’t. We’ve talked about this.”

I swallow hard. I hadn’t expected this next question to be so difficult to ask. I mean, this has been the plan all along. “What if we could leave here?”

His eyes scan my face, confusion etched into his expression. The thumb caressing the side of my neck pauses. “Veronica, we have also discussed this. You are not being released from this place.”

My jaw ticks. “I never said anything about being released.”

The touch of his hand lightens on my skin and my waist. He tilts his head to the side, taking a step back. His mind was working a mile a minute, and I saw the exact moment it clicked for him. “You want to escape?”

“Leo, I don’t want to be here anymore. I don’t want to sneak around with you.” I take a cautious step forward. “I want to be with you every minute of every day. And not as my doctor.”

His face twists, hands running through his hair. “I can’t, Veronica. Do you have any idea what you’re asking me to do?”

“Yes. I completely understand, but I am willing to risk it for you. Can you say the same for me?”

“I care about you, Veronica, I do.” He takes my hands in his.

“Do you have feelings for me?”

“I shouldn’t. God, I shouldn’t feel the things that I do for you.”

“I feel the same.” That catches his attention. His eyes stare deeply into mine, unsure how a diagnosed sociopath can have feelings. “I don’t understand it, given how I am, but I know you make me feel. You’re the first person to reach into my black soul and find the hidden light. I didn’t know that my feeling things was possible, and trust me, when I say I’m not much of a fan, but I’m getting used to it because I have you to thank.”

A light shines in his eyes.

Pride.

Achievement.

He was the one to break through.

To fix me.

“We’d have to run,” he mutters quietly, more to himself than me. But it’s fine. He is considering the idea. Then he looks at me. “We’d be on the run and still hiding.”

“But we’d be hiding together, Leo. We’d have all this time to truly be together.” I squeeze his hand.

“I can’t run, Vee. Not with my mom sick.” That light dissolves in his eyes.

“I’m not asking you to drop everything right now,” I tell him. “I mean, we’d still have to plan it out, but we won’t do anything with your mom still fighting. And I don’t need an answer right now. Take your time and think about it. Think about whether whatever this is between us is worth it.”

His eyes hold mine. A million questions are hiding behind them, but all he does is nod in response to the fact that he will think about my idea. Lifting on my toes, I kiss him lightly.

CHAPTER 47

Leo

One minute we were having sex, and the next, she was asking me to run away with her. To escape the asylum that has trapped her and then me.

She left me alone in my office, shocked by her proposal and confused by the emotions that ran through me in a swirl of chaos. A tornado had touched down in my brain and made a complete mess of my thoughts.

I needed a distraction again.

I needed Veronica.

Then the need for her turned into anger since she wasn’t listening, and that anger burned the fire brighter when Scarlet let herself into my office.