Page 12 of Runaway Queen

His silver-gray eyes stared into my soul.

“I’m just happy, Leo Lion. I’m just really happy.”

“You shouldn’t cry when you’re happy, silly!” Leo dissolved into giggles as Chiara tickled him.

“I know, right! Silly Mommy,” Chiara laughed.

“Leo, do you want to come and stay in the children’s ward for a few weeks?” Dr. Evans asked.

Leo shrugged and screwed up his little nose. “Does that mean I’m having my operation?”

“Possibly.”

“After, will I be able to go ice skating?” He turned his excited eyes to me, making me laugh.

“Maybe one day, when you’re all recovered.” I patted his hand.

“Yes!” Leo turned to Dr. Evans. “One day, I’m going to play for the high school team, where my mom works.”

“Are you?”

“Yes. I’ll be good at skating when I finally get to do it.” Leo stretched out the word finally. The room filled with laughter.

I smoothed his hair back. “I’m sure you will be. First, though, let’s work on getting better. Second, world ice-hockey domination.”

* * *

“Mom,can we have burgers for dinner?” Leo was holding my hand as we walked through the parking lot half an hour later. The late fall afternoon was crisp. Maine weather was best described in those kinds of terms I’d found over the years. Crisp, bracing, mysterious. In the seven years I’d lived in Maine, I’d gotten familiar with all its faces.

“I’ll see if we have the ingredients at home.”

“Or, we could go to a diner, like everyone else does?”

I gripped his little hand. “Are you telling me you don’t like my cooking, mister?”

Leo shook his head adamantly. “No. You just look tired, that’s all.”

My heart swelled for the little boy who always thought of me before himself. I didn’t deserve him. No one did.

“I’m never too tired to cook for my best boy.”

“Okay.”

I pulled Leo tightly to my side as a fancy car swung into the lot right before us. It was a small hospital and one our insurance barely stretched to. For that reason, our car was always the most beat-up one in the lot. I didn’t care if the high society of Hade Harbor thought I was a charity case. When it came to Leo, I had no pride. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for him. If I had to, I’d crawl on my hands and knees and beg.

Thankfully, my job as an art teacher at the local high school got me medical care for Leo. It could be a lot better, but it was the most I could hope for. I’d been lucky to get the job when I’d escaped to the tiny coastal town, six months pregnant and terrified, nearly seven years ago now.

“Here, strap in,” I instructed as he got into his car seat in the back.

The sound of a car door slamming shut behind me raked along my nerves, and I twisted to look over my shoulder. No matter how long I lived a normal life, far away from the dark and dangerous lifestyle of my childhood, I couldn’t lose the instinct that an attack might come from anywhere, at any time.

“Sophie! Nice to see you,” a deep voice called to me.

I spied the luxury car that had pulled in and the man now striding away from it toward me.

Ugh. Edward Sloane. Local golden boy, billionaire playboy. Since he’d fucked his way through the entire eligible female population of Hade Harbor, excluding Chiara and me, he’d seemed to have set his sights on me. Of course, I didn’t have a terrifying husband like Angelo threatening to crack his skull if he looked at his wife a second too long.

I was alone, and painfully aware of it.

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