39. The Unwanted Guest
Chapter thirty-nine
The Unwanted Guest
Moni
The second I saw TT up in the window with Leo and Uncle Song, something inside me snapped.
Panic surged through my veins and I didn’t think—I just moved through the crowd of dancing people, bumping into this person swaying and another person twirling.
“Excuse me.” I weaved through a throng of jumping guys. “Sorry.”
My feet carried me toward the house before my brain could catch up.
My pulse pounded in my ears.
I barely registered the sound of Lei calling my name. All I could focus on was getting to TT.
Fuck. Fuck. She’s young. Don’t do anything crazy around her, Leo. She’s good.
But I knew Leo. He was as unpredictable as a loaded gun, ready to go off at any moment. Sometimes, I thought he was brilliant—a twisted kind of genius with a code all his own. Other times, he terrified me to my core. The kind of man who could kill his own daughter, chop off her head, and offer it up as a gift. And if he could do that to his own blood, there was no way I was leaving TT alone with him.
We’d all been through too much. Lost too much.
Why did you have to show up, Leo? We were finally having a good night!
Without another thought, I picked up speed.
Wind whipped past me.
I glanced up at the window.
Shit.
They were gone.
No sign of TT.
No Leo.
No Uncle Song.
Fuck. Fuck. You better not have taken her away.
I stormed toward the back entrance of the house and entered.
A second later, Lei walked right next to me. “What?”
“Oh.” I shook my head.
Of course he would have come after me.
Of course he would have been worried out of his mind that I just abruptly stopped dancing and headed off.
“I just. . .” I kept my pace and hurried through the massive living room. “I just have to go to the bathroom. I’ll be out there in a minute, Lei. Just—”
“Bathrooms are that way—”
“I’m just going to check on TT too. It’s been a minute.” I got to the dragon staircase and stopped at the base of the grand staircase where the carved dragon railing glowed under the soft lights. The dragon’s head curled around the banister, watching us with piercing eyes. “I’ll be right back, Lei.”
“No. I’ll check with you too.”
“N-no. Stay. I’ll be back.” I got ready to go up a step.
He grabbed my waist and stopped me. “Moni, what’s wrong?”
I stepped down and swallowed hard.
Shit.
I had to think fast, had to play this right. If I told him the truth now, if Lei knew Leo was upstairs with TT. . .God, he’d lose it.
Just this morning, he’d been ready to skip the entire feast tomorrow and kill his father without hesitation.
And that was when he was sober.
Right now, Lei was high.
The drinks had been flowing all night. His judgment wasn’t clear and if he confronted Leo like this, it wouldn’t end well.
For anyone.
This is not the time for bloodshed. Not tonight. Not here.
I kept my voice steady. “I’m fine. Nothing is wrong. Wait for me outside. I’ll be back.”
“Is that right?”
“Yes.”
Lei remained right there and crossed those big muscular arms over his chest, telling me that he wasn’t backing down. His intense eyes were locked on mine, reading me like a book, seeing every lie I hadn’t even said yet. “You know what I think, Moni?”
I frowned.
“Your eyes keep darting up the staircase like there’s a threat. Your breath keeps catching. Your chest is rising up and going down fast like your heart is beating out of control. And your left hand is fidgeting and you only do that when you’re stressed.”
I blinked.
What the fuck?
He gestured for several of his men to come over.
That was when I realized Lei hadn’t just followed me in, but over twenty sweaty, shirtless Four Aces too.
He spoke to one, “Get upstairs and make sure her little sister TT is safe. Don’t startle her, just look in and wait for us in the hall.”
Fuck.
Lei put his view back on me. “You think you can still hide when you’re nervous from me? I love you too much. It’s impossible.”
His words hit me hard, like a flood of warmth and security washing over my fear.
He did know me.
And in these past days, he had clearly been paying attention.
He saw me in ways no one else ever had. And in that moment, I realized just how much I loved this man.
How deep our connection ran.
"Alright.” I watched his men race up the stairs. “So. . .”
But before I could say another word, Lei’s gaze shifted over my shoulder and the warmth in his eyes vanished, replaced by something cold.
Dangerous.
I followed his line of sight and saw them—the men standing by the front door.
Dressed in blue monk robes, they had their heads bowed slightly as if they didn’t want Lei to recognize them.
Uncle Song’s men.
Then, Lei slowly lifted his view to up the stairs and it all came together in his head. “Goddamn it.”
“I-I will deal with him, Lei.”
He moved fast around me, I didn’t know how I did it but I got in front of him, blocking his way to the stairs.
“Wait.”
He gazed down at me. “My father is up there with your sister?”
“Y-yes.”
His jaw clenched so tight I could hear the grind of his teeth. “How did you know that?”
“When the fireworks happened, I glanced over my shoulder and saw him in the window eating food with your uncle and my sister.”
“Eating food?”
“Yeah. They both had plates.”
“So, they’ve probably been up there with TT for a while?”
“Maybe.”
“That’s not fucking good.”
“I know, but. . .” I placed my hands on his chest, desperate to make him understand. “I’m going up there now to get her, but I need you to stay down here. If you go up there like this—”
“I’m going up—”
“You can’t. You’re not in the right state of mind. You’ve been drinking—”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not, Lei. If you see him, things are going to escalate. You’re high, you’re drunk, and Leo is—”
“My father is what?”
“He’s sober—”
“I doubt it.”
“Still, I can talk to him. I can get TT away from him without this turning into a fight.”
Lei fisted his hands at this side. “That’s dangerous thinking, Moni. No one can talk my father into anything. He does what he wants when he wants. He’s not going to let you walk up there and take TT without a game plan in place. You don’t know him like I do.”
“But I—”
“No.” Lei’s voice was final, a low rumble of warning. “You don’t know him. You think you can reason with my father, but you can’t. No one can. And if you go up there alone, I won’t be there to stop him from taking you away.”
“Why would he take me away tonight?”
“The bigger question is why is he here now?”
“Maybe, he wanted to celebrate with everyone—”
“There’s a plan. Do you understand me?”
My bottom lip quivered. “Y-yes.”
“You don’t go up there by yourself. No matter what you say, I’m not letting that happen.”
“But—”
“We’re in this together.”
Pressure built in my chest.
“I can’t lose you, Moni. I can’t fucking see you hurt or. . .bothered or fucked with in any way and my father plans to fuck with us tonight. Do you understand that?”
My heart ached.
I swallowed hard. “Yes.”
“He didn’t come here for the fucking ribs or Chef Foo’s cooking. He has a plan and he’s about to execute it.”
“Fuck.”
“Fuck is right.” Lei glanced up at the stairs.
One would have thought that his men would have least yelled down that everything was fine, which told me all I needed to know.
Leo probably had them or there were more of his people up there stopping them.
And more important what was going on with TT?
In the window, she seemed to be having a good time with Leo and Uncle Song. I hoped that remained and she had no idea what the fuck was happening around her.
Lei let out a long breath. “We go up together and deal with this bullshit.”
“Should we get Chen or Duck?”
“Duck saw us run in. I told him to get people together. He’ll have the house covered making sure no one leaves.” Lei sneered. “I didn’t even know what was going on I just saw the fear in your eyes and knew there was threat.”
"H-hopefully, he doesn’t harm her or—”
“He won’t hurt her.”
Unfortunately, those words didn’t ease the tension in my shoulders.
“But you have to be prepared that we are about to walk in to bullshit.” He checked the right.
More of Lei’s men entered, telling me that Duck had probably sent them in there.
“Okay.” I steadied my breaths. “Let’s go.”
As I turned, I could see the stairs looming before us.
Tonight, it would be a dark and daunting climb with unknown dangers waiting at the top.
Lei's determined expression and the tense set of his jaw mirrored my own fears and hesitation.
Goddamn it, Leo. I just needed tonight to not have your craziness.
My mind shifted to a whirlwind of fear.
Lei grabbed my hand and squeezed. “It will be fine. We just need to get TT away from him, so he doesn’t use her in whatever he’s about to do.”
“O-okay.”