Chapter 26 Rick
Leo and Jade stand in a face-off for what feels like forever. I have to physically grip the table to keep myself from going over to them and pulling her away.
She’s a big girl. She can handle herself.
I tell myself that on repeat, but it does nothing to calm me. Just because she can handle herself doesn’t mean I like it. Leo’s unpredictable. He proved that when he took her and again when he held a gun to Kratos’s head the other night.
The only thing that keeps me in my seat is the fact that he doesn’t look at her with any kind of hostility. Instead, he looks at her the same way Trent looks at Hazel, the same way we all do. He looks at her the same way Dom does, like he wants to protect her. Like she’s someone important.
It’s annoying. He doesn’t deserve to look at her at all, much less like he has any right to be in her life, but if she’s not telling him to leave, I’ll deal with it, for now.
I pull my gaze from them to look at Dom.
He still stands just inside the room, but unlike Leo, he stands staring at Kratos.
I don’t even need to look at Kratos to know he’s watching Dom as well.
I can feel his anger as if it's a tangible thing next to me. His posture is stiff, hands clenched into fists on his lap. I know the only thing that’s keeping him from going over there to beat the shit out of Dom is his conversation with Jade just moments ago.
The day will come when they deal with this, and I almost feel bad for Dom. Almost, but not quite.
He deserves whatever he gets, but I wouldn't want to stand against Kratos. Before Jade, I’d never met someone who could last in the ring with him longer than just a minute, let alone match him.
“So what’s this grand plan of yours, семья?” Leo asks, stepping around her to collapse into a chair at the closest table, the picture of ease.
Asshole.
“Don’t call me that,” Jade says, rolling her eyes as she moves toward him, dropping into a chair opposite him. We sat at the booth to wait for them, but being in it now isn’t the best way to handle business. If something goes sideways, we’d be at a disadvantage.
As if I had spoken the thought aloud, the guys slowly begin filing out, making their way over to stand around the table behind Jade. A silent stand of power, one that doesn’t go unnoticed by Leo.
All those weeks of him acting like he was nothing more than the average guy in school.
Flying under the radar, my biggest concern with him around Jade was that he might catch feelings.
Now I see the intelligence in his eyes, but that’s not all that’s there.
No, he’s seen shit, been through it. Life in the Bratva isn’t something I would ever assume is easy, but the hardness in his eyes also has the promise of violence.
I’ve seen that look on Zan when he’s close to the edge, and Jade when Spencer took her to interrogate her.
He’s not a nobody. He’s dangerous. The only question is, how dangerous? And is he the most dangerous person in the room?
Judging by his easy compliance the other night and now, I’d bet he isn’t, something I think he’s well aware of. But I won’t let my guard down and put any of us in danger to test that theory.
Dom walks toward the table but doesn’t sit or even stand behind Leo the way I expect him to.
Instead, he stands off to the side, bracing his hands on the back of a chair that sits directly between the two of them.
Almost as if he’s unwilling to pick a side.
A little late for that now, if you ask me.
Jade glances his way just enough to see that he will hear her before she turns her attention back to Leo. Everything about her posture is stiff and on edge, and I have a feeling it has nothing to do with the upcoming conversation or the threat that comes with all of this.
Being here with Dom is hard on her, even if she doesn’t want to admit it.
We knew it would be, which is why we tried so hard to get her to do this without them.
But she insisted that we needed them for this to work.
I can’t say I agree, but I respect her choices, and if this is how she wants to do this, that’s what we will do. Even if we hate it.
“Elio said there is a meeting of the families in a few months. Have you heard of it?” she asks Leo, watching to see his reaction.
“Yes, the families are meeting to talk about their successors. One of the Italian boss's daughters is training to take over for him. It’s a pretty hot topic, seeing as women aren’t the usual pick,” he says, wiggling his eyebrows at her in clear amusement at the similarities between this girl and Jade.
“Let’s just hope nobody tries to sell her off, huh? ”
Jade moves so fast I don’t even notice what she’s done until her knife is already flying toward his face. Leo hardly reacts, leaning just slightly to the left, letting the knife come impossibly close to his cheek as a wicked smile curves his lips.
Damn, he’s quick.
“Oh, someone’s touchy,” he says, holding his hands up in surrender. “I meant no disrespect. I just couldn’t help but point out the similarities. But I’m sure with whatever you have planned, my father won’t have the chance anyway, correct?”
Jade lets out a sigh of frustration before she once again sits back in her chair, deciding not to kill him, yet.
“Your father,” she spits the word with disgust, but Leo says nothing in his defense. “Has no reason to even try. She isn’t a threat to him getting anything he wants, and unlike Elio’s sister, she’s loved by her father. He wants her to take over,” Jade explains through gritted teeth.
“Ah, yes, but is everyone else happy about it?” Leo questions, and I catch his meaning a moment before he explains.
“From what Dom’s found, my father has been in the business of selling girls off for a long time.
Just because it doesn’t benefit him doesn’t mean he won’t do it for a pretty penny. Take Elio’s sister, Emma, was it?”
At this point, he’s simply talking to hear himself. He knows exactly who she is.
“Her own father paid him to sell her off. Now, what would happen if another high-ranking family wanted their son in that seat? Do you think they can’t pay him off to make her disappear?
Just because Uncle Mikhail and a few others seem to think a woman can run the families doesn’t mean everyone will agree with that,” Leo says with a shrug, kicking his feet up on the table.
He folds his arms behind his head as if he’s simply talking about the weather and not the fact that some girl might find herself the next victim of his father. “I’d dare say, most probably don’t.”
Jade is practically vibrating in her chair now. I don’t think it has anything to do with Leo’s easygoing nature for the situation, though. Jade’s spent her life saving girls from this exact fate, and now it might very well start all over. Be some new nightmare for some other poor, innocent girl.
Watching her like this is painful. No matter how strong she is, I know this is something that tears her up inside.
Stepping forward, I drop my hand to her shoulder and give a squeeze.
Neither of us says a word, and she doesn’t even acknowledge I’m there, but I feel her shoulders rise as she takes a deep breath before she lets it out.
With it, some of her anger and tension seem to melt away.
It’s not a fix-all, but it feels good as hell knowing I could offer her some peace, even if it’s only for a moment.
“Stop it, Leo. Kyn can handle herself, and you know it,” Dom finally speaks up, shooting Leo an unamused look. “If I’m not mistaken, she was laying you on your ass at just twelve years old.”
“She was a child. I didn’t want to hurt her!” Leo shouts, dropping his legs from the table to turn and face Dom with a look of shock. Apparently, he wasn’t expecting Dom to throw him under the bus like that.
Dom lifts a brow in challenge but says nothing as Leo tries and fails to think of a better excuse. “Whatever. Either way, my father has to be put down. Kyn might not end up a target, but anyone else could. Nobody’s safe until he’s dead.”
Dom’s face falls before he turns to look at Jade, and I can see the sadness and regret in his eyes.
“Agreed, which is why we have a party to prepare for,” Jade agrees before jumping into the plan we put in place.
Dom and Leo don’t have much to contribute to our plan.
The basis of it is we’ll show up at the party and take Ivan out, but that’s so much easier said than done.
We won’t be going up against the average person with this.
No, we’re facing off against people who have trained their whole lives to fight and kill.
We might be some of the best in this city, but Jade takes us out with minimal training. Something that didn’t go unnoticed by Dom as we discussed possibilities late into the night.
“We need to work on training them,” Dom says as Leo and Jade argue about who will get to kill Ivan. Over the last few hours, her anger and annoyance seem to have thawed with him, and their arguing has taken an almost playful nature. If they weren’t related, I would think he was flirting with her.
Zander seems to be on the same track of thinking, if his angry glare at Leo is anything to go by.
I guess he doesn’t trust him not to flirt, even with blood ties.
However, that’s not the craziest thing someone could suggest, with everything else that’s happened lately.
And just like that, my annoyance with him climbs, and I, too, am watching his every move.
“I’ve got them,” Jade says, waving off Dom’s concern as if it’s not a big deal. But Dom isn’t letting it go.
“You're going to train all six of them in less than two months?” His disbelief is clear. Jade turns in her chair, looking at him dead on for the first time since we started this discussion.
“You worry about your part in this, and I’ll handle my own, and they are mine.” Jade sweeps her arms wide to each of us without breaking eye contact.