Chapter 49 Leo
Leo
Alessa avoided me all damn day after what she told me on the patio.
I tried to chase her down, but she disappeared from sight.
Hearing her story fucking gutted me; I didn’t even give a shit about her being the Black Demon.
It isn’t what I expected to come out of her mouth, but I just need to know she’s okay.
We’re on our way to The Games, and I’m riding with Dex, just like the first time. The only difference this time is Holden is with us. Alessa, Ryder, and Gage took off on their bikes before us, making me think about the first time I came to The Games. Everything started that night.
“Where’s your head at?” Dex rumbles, and I realize that’s different too. He actually talks to me now.
“Alessa,” I answer honestly.
“What happened today?” Holden asks quietly from the backseat.
“She told me the truth.” I run my fingers through my hair. “About everything.”
Dex glances quickly at me before looking back at the road. “Everything as in?”
“What Frankie did and that she’s the Black Demon.”
Dex whistles. “That’s some heavy shit.”
“I don’t care about any of that,” I say harshly. “I just need to know Alessa is okay.”
Ryder told me she had a panic attack in the garage when he was raving about Zane being at the house. He said after we talked to Alexey and Dmitri, she has more bombs to drop on us.
Holden squeezes my arm. “She’s okay. She just needs a minute.”
I pat his hand, thankful for the comfort. “Thanks, man.”
“That explains the panic attack,” Dex mutters. “Bringing that up couldn’t have been easy.”
“I had no fucking clue it was that dark,” I say defensively.
Dex shakes his head. “I’m not blaming you. I’m just saying it makes sense.” He rubs his scarred cheek. “Some things you can’t forget.”
“Yeah,” Holden agrees from the backseat. “Sometimes memories sneak up before you can stop them.”
“How do you guys get past it?”
“Les,” they both answer at the same time.
Dex chuckles at that. “Now she needs us to get past it.”
“I didn’t say the right thing today, Dex. I didn’t say anything at all,” I admit.
“That’s a lot to process, bro,” Dex soothes. “She will realize that too. Let her get through this meeting with the Orlov assholes and make her talk to you.”
I smile. “You don’t like Alexey and Dmitri either?”
“Fuck no,” Dex says grumpily. “I hate how they look at her.”
“Can you blame them, though?” Holden says dreamily, making Dex chuckle again. “I don’t like it either. Or Zane.”
Dex grunts. “Zane is a bigger fucking problem,” he snarls, his hand tightening on the steering wheel.
He’s right about Zane. He and Les have a history together, which I’m starting to piece together from what the guys talk about.
Dex turns into the abandoned airstrip where they hold The Games and stops beside their bikes. I can see Alessa standing between Alexey and Dmitri with Ryder’s arms wrapped around her waist.
“I see we aren’t the only ones,” I say, nodding to Ryder marking his territory.
Gage runs over and jumps on the brush guard on the front of Dex’s truck, moving up and down so the truck rocks.
“Crazy fucker,” Dex mutters, then jerks the door open. “Get off my fucking truck!” Gage just grins and flips him off.
I shake my head and follow them out of the truck. I walk to the front where Gage is standing, admiring his ass in those riding leathers.
“You like what you see?” he asks, and I’m taken back to the first time he asked me that.
“Yep,” I agree without hesitation.
He slings his arm around my shoulders, guiding me toward the rest of the group. He leans against the side of Alexey’s Lambo and pulls me to stand in front of him with my back to his chest, tucking his fingers into my pockets. “Is this okay?” he asks. I know he means the PDA with him.
“It is.”
“Good,” he breathes. “I like people knowing you’re mine.”
Something about that possessive comment makes me shudder.
“You’re mine too, Gage.”
“Absofuckinglutely, Baby,” he agrees, kissing the side of my neck.
Holden shuffles up beside Ryder with his head down. Ryder leans down and says something, causing Holden to hold his head higher. Ryder slings an arm around his shoulders, pulling him closer to him and Les.
“Isn’t this cozy?” Dmitri comments, looking at all of us when Dex leans beside Gage and me.
Alexey looks at the seriousness on Alessa’s face and runs everyone else off, leaving just us. “What’s going on, Moya sokrovishche?”
“I told you to stop calling me that,” Alessa warns. “Your dad took a shot at me after the gala.”
“You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?” Ryder adds.
The shock on both their faces lets me know they didn’t know. “That was you? We heard someone’s limo got shot up, but no one said whose.” Alexey says.
“It was mine,” Alessa growls, getting pissed off all over again. “He almost took out one of my guys.”
“Motherfucker,” Dmitri explodes.
“We’re going through with our plan for your mom,” Alessa says, ignoring his outburst. “And it goes down tomorrow night.”
“No. We can’t ask you to do that,” Alexey says. “We’ll find another way.”
“This gives her a clear shot at the guards and your dad,” Dex points out. “Les will make sure your mother gets out safely.”
Dmitri waves that away. “We aren’t worried about that. We know Alessa will, or we wouldn’t have asked her.” He looks at Alessa. “Are you sure?”
She nods. “I am. If you have anyone in that house you want out, you better figure out a way because everyone fucking dies.”
“You guys need to make a big show of not being home,” Ryder says. “You fuckers will be his first suspects.”
“We got that covered,” Alexey says and then sighs. “Tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow night, we get her out,” Alessa says. “And your dad has to die.”
“We understand,” Dmitri says.
We lapse into silence, everyone lost in their thoughts, watching all the action around us. I can’t get over how they put all this together right under the cop’s nose, but as they told me last time, they couldn’t bust it up anyway. Too afraid of who’s just casually standing around.
Gage pulls me close, running his nose up and down my neck, which he loves to do.
“Look at these fucking queers,” some drunk says and then obnoxiously laughs, walking by our group with his buddies.
Holden turns before anyone can react, nailing the guy right in the nose with a mean jab, sending him sprawling on his back. Blood spurts out everywhere. “You broke my fucking nose!”
“Who are you calling a queer?” he growls out. “That’s not very fucking nice.”
All of us are in stunned silence that Holden is the first one to react. Quiet, respectful hacker Holden. Gage is the first to shake off the shock and starts howling like a wolf. “That’s my fucking boy!”
Holden turns his eyes to us, and I realize he’s just as shocked as us. I don’t think Holden has ever hit anyone out of anger in his life.
Alessa gives Holden a look that makes him blush, then walks forward, laying the toe of her boot on the guy’s balls.
She pulls a knife from the sheath on the back of her leathers, twirling it between her fingers.
She adds pressure to her foot, squashing his balls and leaning forward. “Who are you talking to?”
Something in the look on her face makes his eyes widen comically behind his hand, holding his nose. “I... I…I didn’t mean anything by it.”
Alessa points her knife at the three guys with him. “You think he meant anything by it?”
The taller one snorts, shoving his hands in his pockets. “He’s a dick.” He nods his head, and the others follow him, leaving Alessa with their bleeding friend.
“It looks like your buddies didn’t share your thoughts,” Gage comments, pulling me closer.
I’ve never had anything derogatory or nasty thrown at me, but I can imagine Gage has.
I don’t like the idea anyone would ever say anything that might hurt him.
Gage nods his head at Dex. “This guy beat the shit out of my dad for calling me that once.”
I jerk my head around to look at Gage, and he’s dead serious. His own dad? I know they have a testy relationship, but what kind of piece of shit puts their own son down like that? It makes me think of how accepting my mom was, and when I called today, she asked about all the guys.
“I didn’t mean it!” the guy says, panicking, then groans when Alessa applies more pressure.
She twirls her knife again and then presses it to his throat. “Apologize,” she grits out.
“I’m so…sorry,” he stutters.
“I don’t think he means it,” I say. “What about you guys?”
Gage breathes a laugh in my ear. “I don’t think he did. What about you, Ryder?”
“Nah,” Ryder says, pulling Holden to him again. “What about you, Holden?”
“Not at all,” Holden agrees, wrapping his arm around Ryder’s waist.
“Verdicts in,” Alessa laughs. “You’re fucked.”
She steps to the side when Dex starts walking up, cracking his knuckles menacingly. The guy scrambles back so fast to get away he slips several times before he finally gets his feet underneath him, taking off as fast as he can. Our laughter follows him the whole way.
“You guys are fucking crazy,” Alexey laughs.
Alessa finally looks over at me and gives me a slight smile realizing I’m not running away from her. We still need to talk, but I’ll take this over her silence for now.
A familiar BMW Alpina pulls up with Evander, Mateo, and Micah piling out of it. Alessa looks at me with a raised eyebrow before looking back at her uncle and my brothers. “Did we miss curfew or something?” she snarks.
“Ha. Ha. Shithead,” Micah says, leading them over. “I told you we’d be here.”
“Yeah, and I didn’t believe you. This place is not high-class enough for the great Micah Poletti,” she remarks, bowing at the waist to him.
Micah glares. “I’ve been to The Games before.”
“You should have brought your bike, so I could have dusted you on the track,” Alessa challenges with a grin.
“This should be good,” Ryder laughs.
“You think you can take me, little girl?” Micah taunts when Ryder thrusts his helmet and keys into Micah’s hand.