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Leo looked me over once more and nodded.
Chapter Seventeen
It had been a week since the meeting with Frolos regarding the London slip and the deal memo finally came in. I had about three weeks left before my job with Leo would come to an end and Cathy would be back. Leo had gotten more and more distant these past few days and it was eating me up inside. Something was clearly bothering him, and more than anything else, I wanted to help.
It was late, almost three in the morning, but Leo was adamant about finding out the moment the memo came in. Which meant when my tablet had dinged with an e-mail twenty minutes ago, I woke up, smoothed my hair the best I could, and threw on my long khaki trench coat over my thin cotton pajama dress and a pair of heels. I was only trekking across the massive lawn to let Leo know about the memo, then back to go to bed. Surely this would suffice as business casual in the meantime.
The Main House was quiet as I let myself in and my heels clicked on the marble floors. Up the stairs and to Leo’s private room, I stared down the massive door I’d seen only once before.
Knocking lightly, I was surprised when Leo’s gruff voice told me to enter. I had figured he’d be asleep.
I opened the door and stepped through. He was near the bar and, judging by the glass in his hand and the slight red around his eyes, that wasn’t his first drink he was holding.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” he said, looking me over with an expression I couldn’t quite identify. For a moment I thought it was like awe. He shook his head and took the last swallow of his drink. “You’re like some angel from hell.”
“Ouch. Sounds like you need to brush up on your compliments.” If I didn’t know before, I was sure now, Leo was drunk. And not the fun kind from the bar the night I met him. Something sad marred his face.
He placed his glass on the bar and looked at me. The black T-shirt and worn jeans he wore looked comfortable. But his blue eyes were lit like a freshly blazing fire had just passed over them.
“That was a compliment, Red. Every time I see you, you bring the darkness and the light.”
I didn’t know how to take that so I just stuck with my purpose. “I came to let you know the deal memo is in.”
I swiped the screen of my tablet and opened the e-mail. Walking toward him, I held it out. He glanced at it and nodded, then placed it on the bar next to his empty glass.
“Is there something I can do for you?” I asked.
He looked at me, the tie on my jacket, then back to my eyes.
“Yes.”
And like the day I’d met him standing outside the governor’s office, that was all he said, letting my imagination fill in the blanks.
“And what can I do?” I whispered.
“Make today better.”
“Why is today so bad?” I racked my brain but nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Leo had been mostly MIA but no big issue with the company or anything.
“It’s my son’s birthday.” His voice was so soft I almost missed it. My heart stopped. Everything I had overheard, all the mystery regarding Leo’s past, not once had I thought of a child. And the sudden admission sent a strike of shock through every nerve.
“You have a son?”
He nodded, then shook his head. “I did. Thought I did. But not anymore. He was never mine. Nothing I can do . . . should have known . . .”
His broken sentences were tough to follow but the pain was there, on his face. And my heart split in two for him. I reached out and touched his chest.
“What happened?”
His hands fisted at his sides. “She cheated. Took him when she left me. I fought for him but had no ground since biologically he wasn’t mine.”
His eyes met mine. Pieces were coming together. “Leo, I’m so sorry.”
“I didn’t know living through a betrayal like that was possible,” he growled, and looked at something in the distance.
Everything in my body was reaching out for him. Wanting to console him.
I gripped his shirt in my fists, wishing I could take that haunted look from behind his eyes away. I knew all too well what deep betrayal felt like. It was life changing. Left you empty. Hollow. Especially when you lost something or someone you loved in it. Someone you thought loved you back.
