Chapter 27
Mason
I’m goingto kill my brother.
All right, maybe I’m not going to actually murder him, but I’m seriously tempted.
Charlotte is trembling against my back, the screams she’d let out had turned my blood ice cold. The feeling that she’s mine to protect has been swelling for a while, building into this near unstoppable force.
No man is going to touch her ever again. And Leo is going to answer to me.
“Explain?” Leo says, scratching his chin. “I’ll start with the fact that I created a giant calling card that had Vendetti frothing to end me.”
All those incidents at the casinos, the last one being the Italians. Leo knew that the Italian hit men would be waiting for him. “Go on.”
But Leo shakes his head. “You first.”
“Me first what?” I ask, reaching an arm behind me to gently wrap around Charlotte. She needs to know she’s safe.
One of her hands flattens out on my back, her cheek pressed between my shoulder blades.
Leo gives me a cold smile. “Your confession first.”
My lip curls. “And what is it you think I need to confess?”
“How you promised all of us that you’d sacrifice Charlotte to our new competitors if it meant you got your revenge. Come on, man with a plan, tell Charlotte how she was just another tool for you to use.”
I feel the shiver that runs through her, the soft rush of her breath.
“Leo.”
“She’s in love with you, you know,” Leo practically snarls. “And I think she ought to know the sort of man she wants to give her heart too.”
“How would you even know how she feels? How I feel?” I ask, my chest growing tight. Charlotte tries to push away from me, but I keep her in place with a very light pressure. She’s safest pressed to my back.
“She made you a book,” Leo shakes his head. “I’ve got to hand it to you, Mason. You are a winner.” He points a finger at me. “I wanted to get Vendetti to prove to this family that I’m a winner too. And I will succeed. It’s practically done.”
“And trying to take Charlotte against her will. Does that make you a winner too?”
“Can’t blame a guy for wanting to take you down a peg or two.” He smiles again. “I’ll tell you the rest after you tell Charlotte the truth.”
My heart is slowing as I spread out my fingers, trying to keep her close. “I did not say I’d sacrifice Charlotte for revenge.” I know I’m trying to find a loophole here.
“What did you say you’d sacrifice her for then? For what reason would you give her over to the Dukes?”
I feel a shudder run through her as my own temperature drops. I’ve promised Charlotte protection, but how will she trust me to keep her safe when she hears this.
Maybe she shouldn’t, except everything is different now and I’m not sure how to say that. I haven’t even told her how I feel about her.
I’ve armed Leo with this information and he’s going to use it to drive a wedge between me and her. I seriously doubt I’m winning this one. Not with her.
I feel my heart cracking as Charlotte’s soft sobs fill my ears.
I turn my back to my brother, wrapping my arms around her. Her face is too pale, it’s almost chalk white. “Take Leo downstairs. We’ll finish this conversation?—”
“We’ll finish it here,” Charlotte speaks for the first time since I heard her on the phone. Her voice is barely a whisper but it’s resolute. “We’ll finish it now.” She notches her chin.
“Charlotte,” Roman says. “Don’t listen to Leo. He’s not trying to help you, he’s?—”
“I know what he’s doing,” Charlotte says as she steps to the side. That’s when I notice that her arm is hanging at an odd angle. Red blurs my vision.
“What’s wrong with your arm?”
She barely looks at me. “I don’t know.”
“How did that fucking happen?” It’s a snarl of words as I look back at Leo with my fists locked into two anvils.
“Leo—”
But she only gets out the name when I spin and in a single motion land a fist right in Leo’s nose. Blood spurts from the wound as Leo takes three steps back but I’m on him before he can recover, hitting him several more times.
“Mason!” Charlotte screams. “Stop.”
I do, taking three steps back but my hands are still clenched at my sides, my feet in a wide stance. “He hurt you. I’m going to do far worse than break his nose.”
She steps between me and him as she turns to Leo, his face mangled from the blows I’ve landed, blood streaming down his chin. “You’ve made your point, Leo,” she says quietly. “But I have one to make too. One I should have said two years ago.”
She draws in a deep breath as she moves to the counter and, one-handed, gets a wad of paper towels, handing it to Leo.
He holds it against his nose. “What’s that?”
She shakes her head. “I was trying to find a way to end things that night at the club.”
Leo drops the paper towels staring at her as his lip curls. “You think I don’t know that? I’m aware you chose him from the moment you met him.”
She shakes her head. “If you’re aware, why were you trying to get me to run away with you?”
“Because…” Leo presses the paper towels to his nose again. “Of all the men in my family, I’m the fuck-up who is exactly like my dad. Everyone knows it. Even you.” His eyes close. “You understood from the second date, didn’t you?”
A moment ago, I hated my brother, but those words make something soften. I can understand feeling like I was going to fall into the same trap our father had, that I was cut from the same cloth.
It’s been tearing him up inside just like it was me.
Charlotte shakes her head. “I don’t know anything about your father, Leo, but I do know you’re not going to get very far fighting against your family. Going it alone is a point of great weakness. Trust me on that.”
Leo’s shoulders droop. “I’m getting advice from you now?”
She turns to me then, and my stomach drops. I can see her face hardening.
“Charlotte,” it comes out like I’m begging. I am.
She shakes her head. “I don’t want to hear whatever Leo wanted you to say, but I don’t think I can stay here either.”
I glare at Leo, any understanding or sympathy gone. “You can’t leave. I told you, if I do one thing it will be to keep you safe.”
“I can’t stay with you,” her breath catches, pain pulling at the lines of her face. “I was only ever…” She grimaces in pain.
I step closer, reaching out a hand, but she winces away.
“She can come stay in the apartment with me and Luke. She’ll still be in the building,” Roman offers. He’s dropped the pistol, but he’s still giving Leo a hard glare.
“And me? Where am I going with the all-families meeting set for tonight?” Leo asks.
“Know about that, do you?” I ask, my fingers itching to pull Charlotte close. She’s drooping, I can see her back curling, her body weakening. I reach for her, but she steps to the side, avoiding my touch. Apparently, she still has energy for that.
“Roman,” I say, my voice hoarse. “Take Charlotte to the couch. She’s in pain.”
“I’ll call the doctor.”
“What are you going to tell him?” Jake asks. “There’s a woman surrounded by four men with a broken shoulder?”
“Broken,” I growl out, losing my focus once again.
“More likely dislocated,” Roman offers as he takes her hand and brings her over to the couch. “I’ve seen it before.”
She sits, wilting to the side. “I’ll tell him we were practicing for our wedding dance,” she says closing her eyes. “I just want it fixed.”
The other men nod, but I’m not satisfied. Not even a little. “I would never hurt?—”
“You’d just give me to your competitors.” Her tone is so bitter, I’m taken aback.
But Roman is looking down at something on the coffee table before he looks up at me. There’s a message in his eyes I don’t understand.
“Leo can go with Jake, who will keep an eye on him.” Roman punches some numbers into his phone. “And I know a doctor who is discreet.”
“I’m going with Jake?” Leo grunts. “Are you taking me out to the desert, Uncle Jake? Is that how this ends?”
Jake doesn’t answer, he’s looking at Charlotte too. “You know something? I like her. I don’t say that about many women.” And then he steps close to me. “Make it right.”
I shake my head. Jake is the last person I expected to hear words like that from. “Jake?”
“Roman might have had a point. We could use a bit of softness around here, and I can’t deny that she’s got the right temperament for our work.” And then he pulls out a cigar, lighting it in my apartment. “But I think you’re going to need to grovel.”
Grovel? Is that even going to be enough?