Chapter 23
LEONORE
Silas visits me at work two more times that week but doesn’t ask to sleep with me again.
The first time, I was relieved; the second time, I grew suspicious.
If anything, it feels very unlike him, as if he’s intentionally holding himself back, and it’s only increased my awareness of how my body reacts to him every time he steps into my space.
Despite it, I’m grateful. I haven’t been able to speak with Tori yet about the youngest Nero brother, but a knowing already sits in my lower stomach.
I just haven’t decided how I’m going to deal with it.
If she let him in so he could take the body, then she’s broken my trust. But I also don’t want to tell Silas that, because I know what he’ll do.
Tori is young, and most likely stupidly infatuated.
But I don’t think she should be killed because of it.
Nessa has refused to speak to me, and I have been so busy that I haven’t had a chance to go around to see her. But tonight I don’t have much on, and although the rest of my life feels like chaos, I want to calm the one thing that’s been consistent since I moved to Boston. Our friendship.
When I walk into the club, the first person I see is Soph. She immediately waves me over, and I take my seat at the bar. She puts a water in front of me without even asking.
“She just finished on stage. She should be out any second,” she says, making a drink for another customer.
“Thanks, Soph,” I say as she walks away to the next person. It seems busier than usual tonight. Then again, I don’t usually notice too much as I pull out my phone.
“Leonore, is that you?” My heart stops as I recognize that voice.
I turn at the sound of my name and come face-to-face with my ex.
I haven’t seen Ben in almost two years. I broke things off with him when I found out he was cheating on me.
Not that what we had was anything serious to begin with, but still, the absolute disrespect that he would do that, without calling it quits to begin with, is vile, really.
“Ben,” I say.
“Small world,” he says, acting pleasantly surprised. He looks the same; he has sandy blond hair, pushed slightly back. He isn’t as fit as he used to be, but other than that, he still looks the same. He’s a banker, and still dresses the same, looking like he came straight from work in a suit.
Just as he goes to speak, a set of hands wrap around his throat and shoulders possessively, and instantly, he turns and starts kissing the person. It takes me a second to realize it’s Nessa, and everything freezes.
What the fuck?
She was the one who caught him cheating on me and told me I had to leave him. Not that I needed her to tell me; I would’ve done it regardless, but I remember her being adamant that I should leave him.
“Nessa.” Her name leaves my lips, and she pulls back. Her eyes grow wide when she turns to look at me. She didn’t see me sitting there. Of course she didn’t. She only has eyes for him. My stomach churns with hurt, and my brain tries to refuse to believe what I am seeing.
“Leo, what are you…”
“You haven’t been answering my calls,” I say to her, gritting my teeth, my hands shaking with anger. So this is why she hasn’t been answering my calls and sneaking around? For my fucking ex?
“I’ve been busy,” she quickly blurts.
“I can see that.” My eyes fall to Ben, then back to her.
I pull out a fifty and leave it on the counter for Soph.
“Call me when you aren’t fucking my ex,” I tell her and walk out.
Ben says something, but I don’t pay him any attention as I keep moving.
The last thing I want to do is listen to him ramble shit.
And I know for a fact he is shit in bed, so what she sees in him I will never know.
When I get to my car, I hear her calling my name.
“Leo, just stop, will you!” Nessa runs out in her heels and the robe still over her shoulders.
“No.” I throw my purse into the car, and when I see a black car pull up not far from us, I curse under my breath, immediately knowing who it belongs to. I really don’t have the capacity to deal with both of them right now.
“It’s new, Leo. I like him. And I didn’t know how to tell you. He came in one night with some work friends, and we got to talking…” Nessa begins. I go to sit in my car but freeze when Ben talks next.
“Don’t be jealous, Leonore. We ended amicably.” This patronizing motherfucker.
My glare is cutting as I look from him to Nessa. She knows why we ended it. She can’t be that dumb to believe what he says. She knows better; I know she does.
“Shut up, Ben,” she quickly says, still looking at me as if pleading. What the fuck does she expect from me? I thought we were better friends than this. I thought what we had mattered more than some asshole with a cock who doesn’t even know how to use it properly.
“Hang on now, hang on.” Ben lifts a hand and tries to step between us. I step back, and my back hits my car, my nails curling into the car door. Don’t do anything stupid, Leonore. Murder is illegal, I remind myself.
“Move, and get the fuck away from my car,” I growl through a clenched jaw. Don’t do anything crazy.
“No, you are being unreasonable right now.”
I want to throat punch him. Real hard.
Instead, I tell him again, “Move.” Fuck me, I’m turning into a saint as I cling to discipline.
“You should move,” Nessa says to him, knowing I am on my last nerve. Soon my knee is about to be up in his cock—at the very least.
“No, you are being ridiculous right now,” Ben says, then reaches for my arm. I glance at him, shocked that he thinks he can touch me, when suddenly another hand appears over his and twists his wrist at the most unusual angle.
“She asked you to move. What did you not understand?” Silas says. I glance at him to find his dark blue sapphire eyes on Ben, who looks to be on the verge of tears as he stands there with his hand trapped in Silas’s.
“Fuck, man, let it go. You are going to break it,” he screams.
“Good,” Silas says, then snaps Ben’s wrist. Nessa gasps loudly. The crack is loud, and Ben’s screams follow closely behind. Silas removes his hand and shoves Ben to the ground so he’s no longer in my space.
Glancing up at him, I hit him with my biggest “what the fuck was that” stare and find him smirking. “Are you mad, Doc?” he says.
“I didn’t ask you to do that,” I snap at him.
“No, you’re not the forthcoming type…” he says over Ben’s sobs as he stares down at his limp hand.
Nessa has thrown herself beside him, panic in her gaze as she looks between me and her new boyfriend.
But if she’s chosen to sit in the dirt with a piece of shit like him over our friendship, then so fucking be it.
“Nessa.” Her head snaps to me.
“What?” she yells back, tears springing to her eyes as she removes her robe and tries to wrap it around Ben’s hand as if to support it. Though it’s useless because I am sure that Silas broke it.
I realize then that it doesn’t matter what she has to say or what I have to say, for that matter. She’s very clearly made her decision, and whatever I have to say beyond this point is nothing short of vicious. I just hope she still lets me see Larissa.
Silas’s hot hand touches my elbow, bringing me back from that furious, betrayed version of myself that doesn’t entirely have to do with Ben and Nessa.
But of a life I ran away from, of people who hurt and betrayed me more than I care to admit.
I thought I’d buried all those feelings, so I intentionally shove them back down.
“Doc, maybe we should go?” Silas says.
I glare down at the pathetic couple, the hurt still there but numbing as I say, “Yeah, maybe we should.”
What was I expecting? This is human nature. Everyone always looks out only for themselves. I’m no different, but for Nessa and Larissa, I was willing to do anything to protect them. Looks like I’m only the fool once again.
“I’ll get you back for this,” Ben seethes, and immediately, Nessa covers his mouth with her hand. I watch as she leans in and whispers something to him. His eyes go wide, and he looks at Silas. “I didn’t know. I’m sorry, man.”
Ha, that’s a first, watching the victim to the man who just broke his hand. I bet Silas is used to that.
Fuck it, if everyone else is doing whatever the fuck they want, then I should just do the same. Consequences be damned.
“You can come back to mine, on one condition,” I say to Silas.
“What?” he asks, seemingly surprised.
“You let me examine your body,” I say to him with a mischievous smile. He raises a brow in question, and I ignore Nessa’s stare that I can feel.
“Done.” He nods. “Do you want me to drive, or you?”
“You can follow me.”
“I already know where you live.”
Of course he does.
I turn back to look at Nessa one last time as she panics over Ben, who curses under his breath through his sobs.
It’s pathetic really, and I only grow more saddened by the fact that someone as squirmy as him was able to come between us.
But it’s not my fucking problem. I slam the car door behind me and drive away.