28. Leo
CHAPTER 28
Leo
“Why the hell is the prison calling you?” Myles's voice makes me tear my eyes away from the screen. He is leaning over the center console, glaring at my phone. He suddenly gasps and lifts his eyes to mine. “Do you think they want you back?”
“What?” I erupt with laughter. “Myles, I think that if the prison wanted me back, they would send police to my door.”
“True.” He shrugs, sitting back in the seat. “You gonna answer it?”
The phone has already been ringing for a few seconds, and if I don’t swipe to answer now, I’ll miss the call. And knowing how the phones work in there, whoever is calling me won’t be able to call back immediately.
Sliding my thumb across the screen, I answer and tap the speaker button. “This is a call coming from the Washington Corrections Center. If you would like to take this call, please say ‘Yes.’”
“Yes,” I respond to the robot voice, and the line goes silent momentarily.
“And here I thought you weren’t going to answer.” The tone of Reed’s voice is playful, making me grin.
“Knowing you, you’d call me every day after until I answered,” I joke. “It’s crazy that you called. I was just talking about you today.”
“Hell yeah, I would!” He begins to laugh. “Awe, you miss me that much that you have to talk about me?”
I glance over to Myles, staring at me with curious eyes. “Is that your prison boyfriend?”
“Whoa, now!” Reed responds before I can. “Boyfriend? Fuck no. Prison best friend, yes.”
“Leo only has one best friend, and I already claimed that title.”
I shake my head, suppressing a laugh over the fact Myles is having a verbal altercation with a convicted murderer.
“Sounds like Leo didn’t need a prison boyfriend when he has one in the real world,” Reed quips, his voice turning from playful to severe.
It didn’t take a lot for him to flip a switch, which means I have to turn this conversation around before Myles puts his life in danger.
Yes, I know Reed is locked away, but when I was in prison with him, he informed me he has connections in the outside world. So, for Myles’s safety, I have to steer the conversation in a different direction.
“You two need to calm down,” I demand lightly. “Myles is my best friend, has been for years. Reed, I barely tolerated you.”
“Ouch,” he mutters, although he knows I’m playing. We grew close in prison. Not as close as Myles and me, but I could still count on him. “Oh! Walt says hi.”
“Did he speak those words, or are you making them up?” I question.
“I told him I was calling you, and his eyes lit up. I think he misses you.” He sighs dramatically on the other end of the phone. “They haven’t given him another cellmate. He’s scared them all off. You were the lucky one.”
“I feel honored. Tell him I say hi.”
“Will do!” The automatic voice cuts in, telling us the time is almost up. When it ends, I hear Reed rambling about being interrupted, “—fucking thing. I swear, they should extend the time of calls. Anyway, I’ll let you live your life in blissful freedom. Just wanted to see how you were doing.”
“I’m doing good. I have to navigate some hurdles, but I’m getting there. Call whenever you want. It’s nice to hear from you.”
“Oh, you don’t know what you just did,” Reed warns with a laugh. “You are the only person who will answer my calls. Everyone else in my life hates me. I’m going to be so annoying.”
“And that’s different than any other day?” I tease back.
“Oh, you little fuc—” the phone call cuts off mid-sentence.
Laughing, I drop my phone into the cup holder. I can still feel Myles’s eyes on me as I put the car in drive.
“That man is a murderer? He doesn’t sound like one.”
“Yeah, well, some people don’t sound or look like they’d be capable of killing someone.” I turn right out of the cemetery, heading toward my apartment. “That's what makes some murderers so trusting.”
Veronica's door opens as soon as the key enters the slot of my door handle. I pause my movements and lift my head, twisting it around to see her wearing cotton shorts and a tank top that doesn’t fully cover her stomach.
“Were you waiting for me to get home?” I return to unlocking my door.
She grunts. “No.”
“Really?” I swing the door open, glancing at Myles before focusing on her. “It just so happens that you opened your door, wearing next to nothing, right when I got home?”
Veronica shuffles on her feet, crossing her arms over her chest. “I don’t have to explain my reasoning to either of you.”
“Good,” Myles mutters. “Save your breath because I don’t want to hear your voice. Or see you, for that matter. You can go back into whatever hole you crawled out of.”
My head snaps in his direction to find a death stare darkening his face. It’s odd seeing him in this state. He is always happy and looks on the brighter side of things. What Veronica did to me really pissed him off, and he isn’t afraid to show it.
My gaze slides back to Veronica, who is leaning against her doorframe.
Her lips twist into an evil grin, and she says, “That’s funny coming from you. Last I checked, you loved the sight of me. So much so that you were eager to convince Leo here to have a threesome.”
“People change.” He shrugs.
Her eyes move from his to mine. “Yeah, I can see that.”
“Is there something you want, Veronica? Myles and I are about to have a drink after the day we had.”
“I want that spare key you have to my apartment," she demands.
That key is burning a hole in my pocket, attached to the ring that holds my apartment and car keys.
“Mmm…” I hum, pretending to think about my response. I also ignore the daggers that Myles is shooting my way. “No.”
“I’ll just get my locks changed then.”
“Won’t keep me out.”
Veronica growls and stomps her foot. “You are so infuriating!”
“You didn’t seem to think that this morning when my tongue was between your thighs.”
“Jesus, dude,” Myles mumbles and pushes past me to enter the apartment.
There is silence between us. We stare at one another, neither of us backing down. Veronica makes the first move and strolls over to me until her breasts are touching my body. Again, she doesn’t have the contacts in, so I stare into her jaded brown eyes.
“Stay out of my space.”
“But you love me in your space.” My fingers brush against the inside of her thigh, trailing upward to the seam of her shorts.
“I mean it, Leo. Stop barging into my place unannounced.”
“Or what?” I tilt my head to the side, awaiting her response, but she refuses. Poking the inside of my cheek with my tongue, I bring my hand up and wrap it around her neck. “What will you do if I don’t listen, huh?”
“You know what I’m capable of.” The threat slides off her tongue with ease.
Shaking my head, I dig my fingers into her skin until her lips part in search of oxygen.
Tugging her forward, I let the tips of our noses touch, and then I say, “Let’s get one thing clear, Vee, you don’t get to threaten me. You don’t get to tell me what I can and cannot do. And you sure as hell don’t want to know what I’m capable of, but if you want to find out, keep it up.” I move my face to the side, bringing my lips to her ear. “Because I’d love to show you just how fucked up you made me.”
Shoving her backward, I spin on my heel and march into my apartment. Slamming the door shut behind me, a lengthy sigh falls from my mouth as I toss the keys onto the counter. When they hit, Myles shuts the fridge, placing two beers on the island.
“I can’t believe you.” Myles opens a drawer, pulling out the bottle opener.
The snapping sound of the lid popping off the bottle echoes through the kitchen. He takes a long swig before he talks.
“Of all the girls you can mess around with, do you think she is the best option?”
“She is the easiest option,” I state, reaching over the counter to grab my beer. “We talked about this before. There is history there. Just because I hate her guts doesn’t mean I can’t rearrange them.”
The bottle's rim pauses at his lips, and he smirks. “Damn, Leo. What crawled into your body and took over? I’ve never seen you this… spiteful.”
“The Devil herself.” I sit on a bar stool, my elbows resting on the counter.
“You haven’t had sex with her again… right?”
“No.”
“Do you plan on it?” he questions, leaning back against the sink.
As I take a drink, the idea of sleeping with Veronica rolls around in my head. I’ve thought about it, of course.
How could I not?
And if I’m being honest, when we have been intimate, it takes all of me not to throw her down and sink myself inside of her.
That thought alone has my jeans growing tighter. “I’m not sure yet. We are taking things… slow.”
“You make it seem like this is a relationship,” Myles tuts.
“It’s not,” I reassure him. “This is all part of the plan.”
Don’t lie to yourself, Leo. Her temptation is strong and is making you weak.
“Ah yes, sleeping with the enemy. How could I forget that is on every villain’s list of things to do while seeking revenge?” His head shakes, he pushes away from the sink, and his hips meet the island. “I know you won’t let me in on the details of your plan, but you do have one? Like this isn’t all just a ploy to sleep with her again?”
My jaw rolls, and I drop my eyes on the bottle in my hands.
Do I have a plan? Yes.
I want to ruin her life worse than she has ruined mine. I already seem to be getting on her nerves with how I’ve acted, but is it enough? Is what I’m doing enough payback for what she has done?
“Because if you don’t, I suggest you work something up. Veronica is… well, she is Veronica—a killer, a sociopath. Your plan has to be bulletproof. She may be crazy, but she is smart, Leo. Don’t forget that.” He empties his beer in his mouth, then grabs another one. “You have to out-villain the villain.”
“Trust me, I know. I have it handled.”
For the first time since devising this revenge plan, I’m not sure I've handled it.
Myles is right.
Veronica is dangerous, and my games seem like child’s play to her. Maybe I have to go back to the drawing board. Or, I can keep this going and see how it plays out.
Maybe, just maybe, telling Myles what I have going on in my head wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
While in my thoughts, I hear the uncapping of another bottle. It slides my way, stopping next to the one still half-full. He flashes me a smirk. “Seems like you’re going to need more than one.”
And just like that, we drink. One beer after the other until Myles is getting drunk and decides to call an Uber home. When he leaves, I climb under the sheets, ready to plot the rest of my revenge.