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Chapter 4
Leo
This isn’t the firsttime I’ve been shot at, believe me. A man in my position, you get used to it.
It’s the first time I’ve ever been turned on by it though.
I mean, I was hard already. I’ve been hard as a steel meat skewer since I first saw her out in the hall, looking so lost and unsure of herself. I wanted to enfold her in my arms, drag her inside and kiss every inch of flesh from the tips of her blue-painted toes to the tips of her ears where the blond hair curls so enticingly.
I probably would have, if not for the fact that it would have sent her running for the hills.
But seeing her sitting there, in that scandalously short dress, holding a fuckingsmoking revolverlike some sort of femme fatale straight out of a forties private investigator movie?
JesusmotherfuckingChrist. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything sexier.
It was a terrible shot though. Missed by more than a foot.
In my heart, I’m hoping that’s because her subconscious wouldn’t let her kill me and not just that she doesn’t know how to use a gun, which she clearly doesn’t.
“I’m sorry!” Her scream cuts through my thoughts and I watch the gun drop from her trembling fingers with a dull thud onto the thick carpet. “Please don’t kill Cody! Please...please... You—you can kill me. J—just me. I did this, it was all my idea. I planned it. My brother has nothing to do with any of it. Please! Just promise me that you won’t kill Cody and I won’t even fight you.” She’s grabbing handfuls of beautiful long hair, pulling at it, not even shedding a tear. She’s too far over the edge for that. “Please, Mr. Brickhouse!”
Mr. Brickhouse.
My jaw clenches tight. She shouldn’t be calling me that. Degenerate assholes call me that when they’re begging for their lives. Employees call me that. Not her. Never her.
Fuck, why am I just standing here? She must think I’m a fucking monster. I’m so stunned by her outburst I have to consciously work to raise my hands, trying to calm her, trying to show her that there’s nothing to be scared of, but she isn’t seeing me because she’s not looking my way.
Say something, Leo fucking Blockhead.
“Baby, no.” It’s the best I can come up with as I cross the room, heading for her, wanting to hold her and tell her it’s OK. But she pulls back like I’m going to hurt her. “Atlanta, stop. Stop. Dammit!” I grab for her, but she’s around the other side of the couch, putting it between us. “Nobody’s going to hurt you. I wouldneverlet that happen.”
She shakes her head. “I know you have to kill me. And my dad. Y—you’re going to kill my dad, right? Just please, not Cody. Promise me you won’t hurt my brother and I’ll let you do whatever you have to do. He relies on me, he’s all I have.”
“Atlanta, you’re not listening. I couldn’t hurt you. I could never hurt you. It’s tearing me apart just seeing you upset.”
“No. I know! I know you have to! You...”
She pauses, just for a second, perhaps just to take a breath, and her eyes come up to meet mine. So wide, so innocent. Blue and beautiful and glassy.
Take it slow, Leo. She’s frightened. Liable to run at the slightest noise.
I make a cross over my heart. “I promise, baby. Nobody is going to touch youoryour brother.” The image runs through my head of someone trying to hurt her, or anyone she cares about, and a ball of fury rises in my stomach. How dare he? I’ll fucking kill him, whoever he is. I’ll bury him so deep they’ll never find the body. I growl and shake my head. “Nobody.”
“But I shot you!” she says, her chin trembling, and finally the tears start to flow. Her voice is slurred with them. “I shot you...and...and I’m sorry. I didn’t want to do it, you have to believe me. I thought...”
“You thought you had to, to protect your dad, right?”Fucking scumbag, putting her in this position. It doesn’t take a genius to work it out. “You didn’t shoot me, baby. Look.” I hold my arms out to my sides, then pull at my shirt, demonstrating that there are no holes. No blood. “I’m fine. And I’m glad you didn’t want to do it, that means a lot. First person that’s shot at me that didn’twantto kill me.”
I grin and she laughs, spluttering a little through the tears. But she still looks uncertain. “You’re really not going to kill me?”
“I’m really not. I’d let you have another go if it would make you happy, except if you succeeded I wouldn’t be here to help you deal with the body. That would be unacceptable.”
Atlanta wipes at her eyes. “I don’t think there’s much danger of that. Turns out I can’t hit a target at point blank range. That’s the first time I’ve ever used a gun.”
“I can see that, baby.” I take a chance and come around the couch, and finally get hold of her. She stiffens for a moment, as if I still might hurt her, and that breaks my heart. I need to prove to her that nobody is ever going to harm a hair on her head. Never. Not while I’m around. “It’s OK. You’re safe,” I say as I pull her in to me, and finally feel her soften, almost collapsing into my arms.
“I’m so sorry,” she sobs, but I kiss the top of her head, taking all her sorrow.
“Please stop crying. It’s killing me.”
