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I haven’t yet begun to broach the subject of him raising his hands on the women of my family.
“I want what’s mine!” Leon says… his words hold a ring of truth and greed, but they still don’t seem enough to make him pull all of this.
I let him conduct his little play. “And what would that be?” My voice is dangerously silky.
“Your mother is living in glory while you can’t even fund one casino for your father! I am just as much of your father as she is your mother! You owe me!”
“We don’t owe you jack shit,” I snarl. “You left her pregnant and alone. She gave birth to us in a seedy hospital. She skipped her own meals in order to let us eat. She put us through schools while cleaning other people’s toilets. What did you do?” I almost growl the last sentence. “Oh, I know. You gambled the money that you stole from our pregnant mother after you knocked her out. You stole all of her savings and emptied her bank accounts in one night. You lived lavishly off of her life’s earnings while you then knocked up a rich heiress and you blackmailed her for money because you had something on her.”
I let him glimpse the cruel darkness that lurks inside of me, “Who do you think arranged for that tape to be stolen?”
Leon’s face tightens as fury and understanding clash in his eyes. “You bastard, son of a –“
I smoothly interrupt him. “You bled that woman dry for years, and I decided to cut off your means of income. It didn’t take much. All I needed was to know the right people. I’ve known who you are since I was seventeen years old.”
His eyes widen fractionally.
I tilt my head. “Why are you backing away? You were so quick to hit my mother and my sister. Try it with me. Go on.”
Leon looks uncertain. He doesn’t seem to have thought this through.
I can imagine that he just walked in here for the express purpose of ruining Debra’s wedding day to the best of his abilities and he probably forced my presence to the back of his mind. But I still sense that there
’s something more to it.
“D-Don’t be ridiculous,” he stammers out, stumbling back. “I was just trying to protect myself from Debra. She was getting too excited, out of control.”
I choose not to pick on that, instead of saying, “And my mother? Was she out of control too, that you had to put her in her place?”
The idiot thinks I’m agreeing with him, and he nods, rapidly, relief in his expression. “Janie always needed to be knocked around a bit to know who’s master in the—?”
My bunched fist arcs upward, clipping him in the jaw.
He barely has time to let out a startled cry when the second fist makes contact with his abdomen, making him wheeze.
My father is not a weak man, physically. His vanity has ensured that he maintains himself. However, compared to me, he’s nothing. His belly is softer, his reflexes slower.
He crumples to the ground, gasping out.
My hand goes to his hair and I twist my fingers into it in a painful grasp, pulling his head back, letting him see the savage look in my eyes. My voice is calm and low, and all the more chilling in its intensity as I speak, “You come near my family again, and I will toss your ass in jail. The FBI owes me a favor and they’re very eager to clear their debt. We owe you nothing. In fact, you owe my mother reparations for everything that you stole from her. So, either you walk away or I will make your every breathing second, a living hell.”
Leon is trying to pull free, his eyes watering from the pain.
“Are we clear?” I ask, coldly.
He doesn’t answer me and I tug even more roughly, making his teeth grit. A swift kick to his gut has him keening in pain but it’s not enough to satisfy my heart which is stone cold after seeing my the bruise on my mother’s face and the misery on Debra’s, on what was supposed to be the happiest day for her.
“Lucas.”
A soft voice from behind me has me looking over my shoulder.
I let Elise see the savagery in my eyes, the bloodthirst, and I wait for her to step back in fear.
However, she doesn’t flinch from me. Instead, she ignores the way I’m holding Leon and instead, steps forward. “I need the keys for the car. I have to get my sewing kit out of Sophie’s bag.”
“They’re in my pocket,” I say, evenly.
She understands what I’m saying and without hesitation, she comes over and retrieves it.
