Chapter 20
TWENTY
Saturday morning’s breakfast was another incredible spread, and Amelia decided to exercise restraint by only eating one of Camilla’s pastries instead of three. She’d indulged enough over the past twelve hours. Leo’s shoulder brushed hers, and she couldn’t help the heat that singed her cheeks at the innocent contact.
She was in so much trouble.
Finding a seat next to Cora, Amelia smiled at the older lady who gave her a knowing look. Amelia blushed harder. Apparently, their night of hot sex was written all over her face. Whoops.
Leo settled next to her, then got up and poured them both coffees. He grabbed the sugar and cream from the center of the table and moved them in front of Amelia’s plate without her asking, then dug into his food. Amelia blinked at the little jug of cream and the pot of sugar with the cute little spoon like they were aliens from another galaxy.
He’d noticed how she took her coffee? Not only that, but he’d made sure she had everything she needed without her even asking?
Leo’s hand dropped onto her thigh as Trudy sat across from him and started a pleasant, casual conversation. Leo drank is coffee and spoke to the other woman while his hand warmed Amelia’s thigh, as if that touch were the most natural thing in the world.
Meanwhile, Amelia’s world listed like a boat about to capsize.
Maybe it was pathetic to be so rocked by casual touches and the fixings for her coffee, but she’d never been with a man who’d paid attention to her needs or cared enough to fulfill them. That little jug of cream with the cheery spout and swoopy handle was knocking on Amelia’s heart and demanding to be let in.
With shaking hands, she picked it up and poured a dollop into her coffee. She watched the cream create puffy clouds in her coffee, her spoon suspended above it while her heart thundered.
“This morning is volleyball,” Trudy told Leo after he asked about the schedule for the day. “Now that the dud prize is out of the way, I’m sure competition will be fierce.” She winked at Amelia.
Amelia responded with a bland smile. It was all she could manage. Finally dipping her spoon into her coffee, she stirred the clouds of cream away.
Leo shifted his hand away from her thigh, propping it on the back of her chair. He ate a bite of his scrambled eggs and picked up a rasher of bacon, like having his arm around Amelia’s shoulders while he ate breakfast was an everyday occurrence.
“You any good at volleyball?” Leo asked her, eyes shining.
“Shouldn’t you know that about the woman you’re about to marry?” Cora interjected.
“We haven’t covered volleyball yet, but I still feel confident we’re a good fit.” Leo grinned at the older woman, sounding, to Amelia’s ears, like he meant every word.
Or maybe that was just what she wanted to hear?
Trudy barked a laugh. “Funnily enough, in twenty-two years of marriage, Rob and I haven’t covered volleyball either. You any good, babe?”
“I can spike like the best of ‘em,” Rob boasted as he took a seat next to his wife. “Just don’t count on it getting over the net.”
Laughter rang around the room, and Amelia sipped her coffee, trying to make everything make sense. It was pleasant, easy conversation, and she felt like she was losing her mind.
She wanted this. She wanted it so badly it felt like a demon scrabbling at the inside of her skin. She wanted a man’s arm around her shoulders while he laughed with friends and acquaintances. She wanted someone who knew how she took her coffee without having to be asked. She wanted to wake up with a pleasantly sore body, confident in the knowledge that it would happen again and again and again.
No, Amelia realized with dawning horror, she didn’t want a man; she wanted Leo . She wanted this man to sit beside her and make her feel seen. She wanted him to take her to bed, to wake up next to her, to spend his life with her at his side.
“You okay?” he asked, proving that he could see through every wall she’d ever erected.
She nodded, then lied through her teeth: “I’m good.”
“Good.” He squeezed her shoulder.
Ari sat down diagonally across from them and nodded to the group. Leo stiffened beside her, and Amelia remembered what they’d done the night before. So much had happened, she’d forgotten that Ari was trying to break away and start his own company. She’d forgotten about the ring, and Ari’s watch, about the library’s rare coins. She’d forgotten that Fred knew she and Leo were lying about something and that this whole mess might explode in their faces sooner rather than later.
Maybe the detonation had already started. Last night, they’d lit the fuse that would destroy them both.
Vanessa entered the room with her boyfriend Mark hot on her heels. She waved like a queen to her subjects. “Morning, everyone,” she said as she glided toward the buffet tables.
Mark boomed behind her, “Morning! Did everyone see the cop car outside?”
Air was sucked out of the room as everyone inhaled at once.
“The cop car?” Trudy asked.
“Yeah!” Mark grabbed a plate and opened one of the silver food warmers. “It was unmarked, but I saw the police light sitting on the dash! Just like the movies when they stick it on the roof to catch the bad guys. Crazy, huh? Wonder what that’s about? Hope one of you didn’t steal Nadia’s ring.” He chortled while Vanessa glared at him. “What, babe?” he protested as he caught her look. “That thing’s worth like twelve mil. I looked it up.”
“Mark,” she hissed. “Not now.”
Amelia flicked a gaze around the room. Robert seemed nonplussed, focused on buttering his toast. Was he too casual? Trudy’s brows were drawn. Gregory and George were in deep conversation at the far end of the table. Ari looked positively green.
She frowned at him. Leo followed her gaze, and the weight of their combined stares must have drawn Ari’s attention. The other man stiffened across the table, his hands gripping his silverware so hard they shook.
“Ari?” Leo asked quietly. “You worried about the cops?”
“What?” Ari asked. “Are you accusing me of something?”
“Someone in this room hasn’t been honest,” Leo continued in a low voice.
Amelia sucked in a breath. Was he accusing Ari? Sure, they suspected he was trying to screw Fred over business-wise, but that wasn’t the same thing as stealing a woman’s ring right off her finger.
Ari’s eyes blazed. He clung to his utensils for a moment, then visibly forced himself to relax. He set his knife down, then his fork, then smoothed the front of his shirt as if he were smoothing a tie. Unease trickled down Amelia’s spine. Something was going on here, and she didn’t understand what it was. Beside her, Cora shifted in her seat, then stilled. No one else moved.
In the silence, footsteps sounded down the hall. At least two people, probably three. The drumbeat of their steps rocked through the room like gunshots. Leo tensed beside her, and Amelia tried to quietly fill her lungs in an attempt to calm herself down.
The steps drew closer. And closer. And closer.
The whites of Ari’s eyes became more visible as his eyes widened. A bead of sweat trickled down the side of his neck. He was nervous. Tense. About to explode.
Without warning, Ari lunged . His chair clattered to the ground as he sprinted for the door on the far side of the room. Leo leaped from his own seat and tore through the door behind him, screaming, “Stop! Ari! Stop!”
Chaos exploded. Cora made a noise of dismay. Amelia jumped out of her seat and ran for the doorway, only to be jostled out of the way by Rob, who sprinted faster than she thought a man his age would be able. Utensils clattered. A glass broke. Screams and murmurs competed for attention.
“Leo!” Amelia screamed.
From the opposite doorway—the one where the footsteps had echoed—three men appeared. Fred and two gruff, grizzled men who could only be police detectives. They wore slightly oversized suits and deep scowls.
Amelia hugged the wall as Gregory and George froze halfway to the door, caught between stopping for the police and following the action.
“It was Ari!” Mark yelled, thrusting his hand toward the door where Leo had chased the other man. “He heard you were coming, and he bolted.”
The detective to Fred’s left took off like a shot. His brown blazer flapped around him as he ran, reaching for the gun holstered at his waist. Holy freaking moly. Amelia’s eyes were wide as saucers, her palms flat on the wall. There were guns here now. Sure, they were in the hands of the police, but the danger of the situation had just ratcheted up a thousand notches.
She stepped into the hall to see the detective disappear around a corner, quickly followed by his partner. “Stay here,” the man barked at her, then followed his partner into the bowels of the house. They were headed toward the backyard.
“Don’t shoot Leo!” she yelled, like some kind of hand-wringing miss who didn’t know what to do with herself. She realized she was, indeed, wringing her hands, and forced herself to hold her arms by her sides.
A stampede followed the second detective, with everyone from the breakfast room tearing down the hallway after the men, clearly unwilling to stay where the detective had told them to. After a brief hesitation, Amelia followed. She made it to the French doors at the back of the house in time to see Leo let out a gargled scream as he made a last, desperate leap toward Ari.
Leo’s arms clamped around the other man’s torso. His lungs burned as he threw all his weight into the tackle, his muscles screaming from the long sprint. He yelled as he brought Ari to the ground, using the full force of his lunge to make sure the other man didn’t get away.
They were halfway across the lawn when they landed in a heap. Ari screamed, his eyes wide with panic, and threw an unexpected right hook. It caught Leo in the eye socket. Pain bloomed across his temple as he yelped, loosening his hold on Ari’s waist.
Ari punched again, but Leo turned his shoulder to block the hit. He jabbed at Ari’s kidney, trying to get the other man to settle.
“You piece of shit!” Leo yelled, incensed, hitting Ari again.
Ari, in a feral rage, clamped his teeth around Leo’s forearm and bit down hard. Leo shrieked, trying to fling the other man off.
It was only when strong arms clamped around his shoulders and pulled him off that he realized they had an audience. Panting, he looked up and saw every staff member, every guest, and Fred himself jogging toward them. Leo collapsed on the ground, breathing hard, and the world spun around him.
Ari had clocked him hard.
“What the hell is going on here?” Fred demanded.
“He did it,” Leo wheezed, pointing a shaking hand at Ari. “He took the ring. The coins. Everything. He’s trying to start a rival company by taking all your clients.”
“ What? ” Fred’s entire head turned flame-red.
Ari, who had been struggling against the policemen’s hold, suddenly stilled. “What?” he demanded, eyes wide. “I didn’t steal the ring! I didn’t take anything! Someone stole from me . My watch is gone!”
“Cut the bullshit, Ashfield,” Leo spat.
“I’m not a thief.”
“You were stealing clients.”
Ari’s eyes narrowed. “You took my list.”
“What kind of moron brings that to a company retreat? And on paper? It’s the twenty-first century. Ever heard of a computer?” Now he sounded like Amelia.
“Didn’t want to get hacked,” Ari gasped, his body jerking as the detective pulled him up to his feet with a rough tug.
“Hacked?” Leo scoffed.
“If one of you doesn’t shut up and tell me what’s going on, I’ll have you both thrown in jail.” Fred’s voice was deep, and dark, and utterly terrifying.
Amelia approached, brows drawn. Sunlight glinted on her pale hair. Her quicksilver eyes were filled with worry. She cleared her throat. “We believe Ari is planning to launch a rival company and take some of your clients with him.”
Fred gave her a heavy stare, then swung his head to face Ari. Ari shrank back against the police detective who held his arm, throat bobbing thickly as he gulped. “Is this true, Ashfield?”
“I c-can explain,” Ari stammered. “It’s not what it looks like.” His gaze flicked from Fred, to Amelia, to Leo, then over to the gathered crowd. “I only wanted to make a bit more money, Fred. You take such a big cut of the fees, and we only get paid a salary, and?—”
“And you thought you could turn around and stab me in the back by stealing all my clients ?” Fred’s roar sent birds flapping from the nearby trees. Amelia took a step back from him, her eyes darting to Leo.
Leo stood slowly, worried that a sudden movement would draw Fred’s ire. His temple throbbed and when he darted his tongue out, he winced. His lip was split and bleeding.
Ari bristled. “You’re a fucking billionaire, Fred. You can’t pay your staff a decent wage?”
“You make multiple six figures! I offered you stock options in the company when you started, and you refused . Now you’re trying to steal from me to make up the difference?”
“How was I supposed to know the company would do so well?” Ari protested. His eyes darkened. “You’re just a greedy old man, Fred, and your time is done . I’ve already talked to three dozen clients, and they’re done with you too. Done!”
“The only thing that’s done is you , Ari. And as soon as you give me Nadia’s ring back, I never want to see you again.”
Confusion flittered over Ari’s face. He shook his head. “What? No. I didn’t steal the ring. Dumb bitch probably dropped it in the Blue Ro?—”
For the second time that morning, Ari was tackled to the ground, except this time it was by a two-hundred-and-twenty-pound former linebacker with a receding hairline. Fred took Ari down, tackling both detectives in the process. Leo jumped in to try to drag Fred off and got a mouth full of knuckles for his efforts.
Vaguely, he heard Amelia cry out. He felt her hands on his arm and let himself be pulled away while Percival heaved Fred off the other man. The police officers turned Ari over and held him to the ground while they barked orders at everyone around.
Amelia’s hands were patting his chest, his arms, his face, as if to make sure everything was still attached. Her eyes were full of concern…and maybe something more. As the chaos slowly abated around them, Leo found himself staring into her eyes.
“Are you okay?” she asked, voice soft.
“I’m fine.” He reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
“You scared me.”
“Sorry, baby,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to her forehead. He winced as pain splintered out from his lip and pulled away.
“Stop doing things to hurt yourself,” she chided, clicking her tongue as she turned his face to inspect his lip, his temple, the bruise forming on his jaw. “That was so supremely stupid. He could have hurt you!”
“But then I wouldn’t have you fussing over me like this,” Leo noted.
Her smile was slight, but he saw it. Behind her, the men were hauling Ari to his feet, and Fred was calming down. Amelia turned to follow his gaze and set her hands on her hips. Her frown was beautiful, but Leo still wanted to kiss it away.
“If he didn’t do it,” Fred asked, jabbing a thumb at Ari, “who took my fiancée’s ring?”
Amelia froze as a gasp crossed her lips. Leo saw her eyes widen as she scanned the assembled crowd. Under her breath, she whispered, “Holy shit.”
Then she took off like a shot.