Page 72 of Unbreakable Thread

Leo gasps. “No.” He shakes his head violently. “I can do it. It’s me who did this.”

“Then we are set. You fight for me.” Daniel’s face is filled with satisfaction, as if this were his plan all along. “I’ll make sure word doesn’t get out that you are fighting for me.”

How fucking considerate. Mierda. I hate this bastard.

I nod and push through the door. The guys follow behind.

“I’ll keep in touch,” he shouts.

Taking steady breaths, I press the palms of my hands on the hood of my car. I wanted out of this shit. My fists slam down on the already destroyed car with a hollow thud that echoes in my chest. “Why did you get in so deep? You agreed to a year or whenever he wants to let you go. That meant you’d be dead by then.” I grip my hair in frustration. “You have only been sparring for four months. That is, against people who are your match.” When I first started fighting, there had been a slim kid with trembling hands and a split lip who had very little experience fighting. He was knocked out, and the next day he was found dead. He had too many hits to the head.

“I can fight my own fights,” he demands.

I know he can, but not in the Underground where rules do not exist.

“Tell me what you thought after the first fight. Did it have you change your mind?”

Under the parking lot light, Leo’s face looks fucked up. His eye is swollen and completely shut, the surrounding skin purple-black. When he moves to lean against the car, he holds his breath on one side and exhales carefully on the other. He ’s trying not to let me see how much it hurt. He almost pulls it off. “Yes, it’s not how it seems. You and Xander make it look easy.”

“What happened to your windows?” Xander’s eyes widen. “Did that just happen? Here?”

I laugh. What a night. “No, my girl did this. Apparently, jealousy makes her do crazy shit.”

“You really pissed her off.” Leo eyes the broken glass, then gasps. “No.” He shakes his head frantically. “I’ll fight. She…needs…” He shuts his mouth, and it goes straight into a line. “What if they⁠—”

“I know. What if they come after her again, and this time because of me? I thought about it before I agreed to take your spot. I couldn’t let you be there, a punching bag, until they kill you. If I have to keep my distance from Sol for her safety, I will. I’ll do anything I need to keep her from harm.”

“You have to protect the bab…” The word hung there. Leo’s mouth snaps shut like a trap. “I mean dog.”

Something about the way he said it made me look at him. He was already staring at the broken glass.

My brows crease. “Let’s take you to my place. It seems you might have had a concussion. You’re starting to sound crazy. And incoherent.” I peer at Xander, who’s on his phone. “Do you want to go to my place?” I ask him.

“Nah, I have to head home. My dad needs me to help him build something.”

“All right.” I unlock my door. I don’t even know why I locked it; the windows are busted, but out of habit, I did. “By the way, did you end up installing Lana’s surveillance at her home? She had put in an order. You know, the one I was telling you about, Sol’s friend.”

He glances at his phone. “I did.” His lips curl into a smirk. Xander shoves the phone in his jeans pocket. “I made sure to install them right where she wanted them. She wasn’t there. It was her dad.”

“Okay. Thanks, man.” He walks off to his car.

“He’s been acting weird,” Leo confirms what I was thinking. “So, where do I sit? I don’t want to get glass on my ass.”

I toss a towel on his seat. “Before heading home, we’ll stop at the car wash to use the vacuum.”

An hour later, we managed to remove most of the glass. My thoughts go to Sol, like always, as we drive home. Every second of the day, she’s on my mind. Before all this happened, my plans were to tell her it was enough. We can work on everything together. I’d been telling myself I was giving her space. That was the lie I told everyone, including myself. The truth was simpler and worse. I don’t function without her. I haven’t slept properly in the months she’s been away. I work until I can’t see straight, so I don’t have to lie in the dark noticing the empty side of the bed.

Leo fell asleep somewhere on the highway, his head tilting sideways, breath shallow on the side with the bad ribs. The city lights smear across the broken window. I keep the radio off. Every second of quiet is Sol—the way she’d looked standing in the parking lot light with glass on her coat and blood on her hand, and how even then, even furious, I could have stood there all night just looking at her.

Chapter 22

Rainey

I press my palm against the horn outside Leo’s house, the sound cutting through the quiet morning. My phone sits on the passenger seat, the blue text bubbles from last night still visible.

You guys okay?

And Leo’s reply at eleven p.m. Yes, I’m at Max’s. Crashing here. He will drive me home tomorrow.