Chapter 33
33
LEO
I f there was one thing that the charity event showed me, it was that Briar wasn’t going to budge as long as she had Tony over her shoulder.
I don’t know how much contact they have, and if he’s out of the picture and she still doesn’t want me, that’s okay.
But the fact that she could kiss me like that. The fact that she could look at me like that, and go back to pretending like I don’t exist the next day, just hurt.
But I’m determined to make her see me. The real me. Not whatever bullshit I hide behind to make sure people like me more. No. I want her to see who I really am and fall for me.
I thought she was.
For a second there, I let myself imagine it.
But the woman has gone through so much, and I can’t fault her for being careful.
Which is why I have grown determined to get that piece of shit out of her life for good.
“Have you found anything?” I ask Alana, the detective I hired to find out all the little skeletons Tony hides in his closet .
“I definitely found something,” she chuckles, the sound of rustling paper filling my ears.
“Is it worth anything?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Good.”
A day later, documents and proof on my computer, I call Tony.
“Tony speaking,” he says as he answers the phone, and I can’t help but scowl at his lack of hello.
“Hi, this is Leo Warner, I was calling to speak to you about your relationship with my girlfriend.”
There’s a pause on the other line.
“You don’t have to pretend with me, Warner.”
Ice settles in my bones. “Pretend what?”
“There’s no possible way you’re really fucking that bitch. You? With anyone at your beck and call?” He cackles. “Nope. I don’t believe it. Drop the act.”
“It’s not an act,” I argue. At least not to me. Rage boils in my blood at the way he speaks about her. “and I want to let you know that I know about your little extra curricular activities. I want you to leave her alone.”
“Or what?”
The silence hangs between us.
“Or I’m going public with all of it, Tony. Every single little piece. How you cheat on your new wife. How you have a whole kid no one knows about. How you’ve been scamming the elderly out of money, all of it.”
I can hear my heartbeat. Can feel it beating out of my chest as I wait for an answer.
“And wouldn’t everyone love to know how America’s golden boy is using a poor, sweet, innocent single mom? One who still, for some reason, has her daughter enrolled in a school in a whole different district than where they’ve lived for the past several months? ”
I’ve needed to talk to her about that, and it’s something I may have to move up the list of things to do, and soon.
I know she never expected to be at my home as long as she has been, but at some point someone is going to catch on. We should have realized that it was going to be Tony after he ransacked her home.
“You think I can’t take care of that?” I ask, going insane over what I’m hearing.
“What’s it all worth to you?” Tony asks. “I’ll buy you off.”
It’s my turn to laugh. “ You think you can buy me off? Yeah, no.” It’s at that moment that I decide that I’m done with him. He knows what I have on him, and I’m not entertaining him for a single second more.
“Don’t speak to her ever again, or I’ll end you, you got it?”
And I hang up.