Chapter 2 #2
The memory came back to me with uncomfortable clarity.
“I heard him moving through the house. He went into the bathroom, and then he started throwing up, and after that, he was crying. He sounded… broken. It was awful. I’ve been in this business for so long, and I’ve never heard another man cry like that. As if his world had ended.”
“I get that. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost Jess or Darius.”
“But the worst part was, he was completely alone. Even as bad men, we have people around us when we lose someone, but there he was alone, grieving. Why wasn’t there anyone present for him?”
His sobs still haunted my dreams, made me wake up in the middle of the night, sweating. “I felt sorry for him. I’ve never felt sorry for anyone before. Not like that. I don’t know what the hell that was.”
Leo’s car turned onto a quieter residential road ahead of us, and I followed.
Although I maintained my distance, there was no other car between us now.
He probably saw the truck, so I didn’t bother to hang further back to disguise my presence.
He might hate my guts, but at least he knew he wasn’t alone.
“Since then, I’ve been making sure he gets home safely.”
Nik said nothing.
I also bought him coffee because he stopped going to Ground Theory after our last confrontation there.
Since it was all my fault, I delivered his coffee to the nurse at the station, but this morning, when I got there, the nurse told me not to bother because Dr. Cavanagh was abstaining from caffeine.
More like he’s abstaining from anything that has to do with me.
Nik rubbed a hand over his face and turned his head toward me. “You know it’s normal to feel sorry for someone, right?”
I didn’t answer because what did you say to that?
“You’re not a robot, Sergei. You’ve spent years with one job in your head. Keep Maxim safe. That’s it. That’s been your entire personality.”
“That’s my job.”
“Yeah,” he said. “It is, but your job is the only thing you do. Look at Maxim. He was just as bad as you in how much he put into his job, but now he has Wren, he’s doing way less.”
“What are you saying?”
“Fuck if I know. Maybe that it’s understandable you feel somewhat responsible for the doctor after you witnessed his meltdown. As long as that’s all this is, it’s fine, I guess, but don’t get too involved. That man will never feel anything for us but hatred.”
Leo’s BMW turned into his street lined with tidy lawns. Porch lights glowed warm against the darkness, and the whole neighborhood had a peaceful stillness to it. He slowed as he approached his driveway, and I didn’t bother hanging back anymore.
Nik noticed immediately. “Oh, we’re not even pretending now?”
“No. I’m sure he knows I’ve been trailing him. He’s really intelligent.”
“Well, don’t you sound like a proud parent?”
Leo pulled into the driveway and killed the engine. His garage door remained closed, the piles of boxes that housed his husband’s things growing higher every day, which forced him to park on the outside. Not exactly safe.
I rolled to a stop across the street and parked along the curb.
Nik leaned forward slightly, peering through the windshield. “This is bold, even for you.”
Leo opened the car door and stepped out.
If he noticed my vehicle, he gave no indication, but he was good at that, ignoring me and getting on with whatever he was doing.
He moved more slowly than he had at the hospital.
Maybe tonight he would be too tired to walk around his house for hours before he was finally able to sleep.
He grabbed his briefcase from the back seat and shut the door with a dull thud before heading up the short walkway toward the front porch. He stopped at the door and unlocked it. With the door held ajar with one hand, he turned his head slightly toward the street.
Toward my truck.
Nik inhaled sharply. “Are you sure he won’t call the cops?”
“He won’t.”
If he hadn’t yet, he didn’t plan on it.
Leo raised his arm and fired a very deliberate middle finger straight in my direction. My jaw fell slack, and I blinked as if the image was somehow a figment of my imagination. But nope. He was definitely flipping me off.
Nik burst out laughing so hard he shook the cab of the truck. “Oh my God,” he wheezed, slapping the dashboard. “I love this guy.”
I kept my eyes on Leo, but he didn’t linger to see what I would do. The door opened, and he stepped inside and closed it behind him. A moment later, the porch light clicked off.
Nik was still chuckling beside me. “Now I understand your obsession. Your doc’s got balls. You think he’ll let me buy him dinner sometime? Maybe it’s just you he hates.”
A hot and unfamiliar feeling twisted low in my chest, and I curled my hands into fists, but if I punched Nik in the mouth, Darius would get involved, and we couldn’t handle infighting among us right now.
I let out the breath I was holding silently and let the corner of my mouth relax into a grin. For the last two weeks, I’d wondered if I’d pushed Leo too far. If the constant presence, the pressure, the surveillance finally broke him.
That small, defiant gesture told me otherwise.
My doc still had fight left in him.
And for some reason, that made me feel a hell of a lot better.