Chapter Fifteen
LEONA
Three Days Later
“Have you eaten anything yet, Leona?”
“No.”
“You probably should.”
“Yup.”
Erin and Laurel exchange a look with each other. I know they’re concerned about me, but it’s misplaced. It’s not that I can’t eat because I’m heartbroken or anything.
I’m just so angry. I have been since that day in the Hawk House basement.
Matthew had tricked me so easily, and I could have taken whatever he’d have dished out to me. I can handle myself.
But because I was stupid, Zander got hurt.
“Leona?”
“What?”
Erin frowns at my tone.
“You know we’re here for you, right?” she asks. “You don’t have to be this… stoic girl all the time.”
“We know you’re tough. Hell, we figured that out the first day we met you,” Laurel chimes in.
I stare at them both. I was never really friends with anyone in high school—let alone girls.
But Erin and Laurel became real friends to me.
I force myself to take a breath and let some of the tension ease. They’re probably expecting me to cry. That’s not what I do. I punch things. But I guess I’ll have to settle for something else.
“Can I get a burger? Big fries and a Coke on the side? I’m starving,” I relent. As if on cue, my stomach rumbles, letting everyone in the vicinity know that I’m telling the absolute truth.
Erin gives me a big smile.
“BK?” she says. “They’re the only place I go when my emotions are running so high that I have to channel it into something else.”
“BK sounds great.”
“Cool. I’ll be right back.”
She hurries down the hospital hallway. Laurel shakes her head and sits down beside me on one of the free chairs.
“They’re still not letting you in the room?”
“Nope.”
“Did they get in contact with his father?”
“Yeah, I called him on Zander’s phone. He said that he was too busy to come down but that he’d ‘handle’ the hospital situation and the whole Matthew thing, and that I should take myself home.”
Laurel scrunched up her face. “Of course.”
“Anyway… he was right about one thing. The police came in yesterday to take my statement. Apparently, they found a whole bunch of tapes in that weirdo basement at Hawk House. Let’s just say it’s not the first time Matthew has done something like that—and it wasn’t just Matthew doing it, either.”
Laurel’s mouth drops.
“What the fuck?!”
“Yeah. And here’s the kicker. Matthew can’t even claim it was consensual. The dumbass had the camera recording the whole time he was reciting his villain masterplan to me. It’s a whole ass confession caught on tape!”
Laurel clicks her tongue.
“I guess you can’t be a creep and smart. But at least he got what was coming to him. He looked rough.”
“Yeah, Zan and I fucked him up,” I say.
Laurel gives me a look-over. Then, she smiles.
“You really do love him, don’t you?”
My face heats up.
“I told you he was a bad boy.” Laurel grins. “But I guess you’re a bit of a bad bitch yourself, so you two just go together like peanut butter and—”
He came through for me. The moment he chose to stay with me instead of going after Matthew, I knew it. I had never loved him more.
I used to think I wanted someone good. Someone safe.
But when Zander stayed with me instead of chasing Matthew, something inside me shifted.
He would burn the world down for me if he had to. And somehow, that makes me feel safer than anything else ever has.
“WHERE’S LEONA!”
“Please, Sir, calm down! You have stitches!”
“I DON’T GIVE A FUCK!”
Laurel and I look at each other, startled. Zander’s voice comes through the walls and echoes as if he’s in the hall with us.
“Ten bucks says your boy is awake.”
“No shit!”
I jump up, throwing the hospital door open despite the many times these people have told me I need to stay out. The sight of Zander ignites my rage again. He’s hooked up to every needle, wire, and drip imaginable. His heart rate monitor is going haywire.
A nurse is trying to keep him in bed, but she is half his size and damn near half his height. I’m impressed that she is managing so well, honestly. I’m guessing they don’t deal with this often.
“Zander!”
When my voice rings through the room, everything stops. Zander, chest heaving, looks at me across the room. The nurse glances back at me.
“Ma’am, we told you, you can’t—”
“She can stay!” Zander insists immediately.
“Fine. She can stay, but you have to promise that you’re going to behave! If you do something stupid that ends up hurting you more than you already are, I’m gonna make sure recovery is ten times harder for you, mister!”
Zander falls back into bed, pleased with himself.
“As long as she can stay.”
“Yes, she can stay.”
She shakes her head, muttering to herself the whole time she’s leaving. When she’s gone, and the door is closed, Zander and I are alone.
“Come here.”
He pats the space beside him on the bed. This must be some expensive suite that his father was able to swing for him, because every hospital bed I’ve ever seen has never had room for two.
I sit on the edge, careful of his wires, and scoot a little closer to him. He has dark circles under his eyes and looks haggard—a state that I’ve never seen him in before. Even after the transfusion, his skin is pale.
I reach over and brush my fingers across his cheek. He grips my wrist, holding my hand there.
“Did he do anything? After I was out?”
I shake my head.
“He shot you and then tried to run. But Damien and Shawn caught him and held him down while we waited for the ambulance.”
Zander chuckles.
“Surprised they called one instead of hauling me into a car and chauffeuring me here.”
“You were shot,” I remind him. “It’s a little more serious than just getting beat up.”
“Guess so.”
He sighs, wincing. He grabs his side where he’s patched up—where Matthew shot him.
“He’s a lousy shot,” he hisses out. “If he was any good, he’d have gotten me in the chest. The side, though?”
I quirk a brow and flick him on the nose.
“I feel like now is not the time to complain about Matthew Henderson being a bad shot.”
“I just want effort, you know? To feel like I’m worth the big guns.” He grins.
I roll my eyes, but the corner of my mouth quirks.
“You’re not funny.”
“That smile says otherwise.” He runs his fingers over the corner of my mouth, turning my head to make me look at him. Suddenly, his expression is serious. “When I thought Matthew was going to hurt you, I felt like the world was about to end.”
Silence. I can’t believe he’s actually said this. Everything I never thought he’d actually say.
“I should’ve killed him,” he whispers.
“Hey.” I put my hands on either side of his face.
“Enough of that. The police will take care of him. And we beat the shit out of him—together. We showed him he can’t just do whatever the fuck he wants to whoever he wants and get away with it.
Honestly, it makes him a bit of a bitch, you know.
Bringing a gun to a fistfight.” I grin. “It felt good though, didn’t it? ”
Zander matches my grin.
“Damn straight it did. If he hadn’t hauled off and popped me, he’d have gotten a show that he would have never forgotten.”
“Oh? And what would that have been?”
Zander slips his hand up my throat. His thumb presses against my wind pipe, just so.
“Me tying you up… giving you a good caning as a reward for being such a good girl. And then fucking you until you screamed. He’d never be able to get it up again because he’d always know he could never fuck the way I do.”
A sharp thrill runs through me. It would’ve been the perfect final humiliation for Matthew. Because that’s what he’d wanted. To humiliate me and Zander in front of everyone.
Now he had serious charges hanging over his head, and Zander and I got away clean.
“Damn… really missed out on a great opportunity with that one, huh?”
I lean in, brushing my lips over Zander’s.
“I… for a minute there, I thought you were gone. I was really afraid I’d lost you,” I whisper.
Before I know it, a tear slides down my cheek. When was the last time I cried?
Zander flicks his thumb over the streak, looking at me curiously. Then, he grins.
“Sounds a lot like you love me.”
Something tight twists in my chest.
“And? What if I do?”
“Well. I might have to love you back. Can’t keep you hangin’ after all. Unless you’re into that… We haven’t really gone into full-on choking—”
I smack him on the arm and he bursts out laughing.
“You’re terrible.”