Page 10 of Jonathon, After All

“Leo! He was just some…boy!”

“Some boy?” He would have hit her if she had been a man. “Get out!” he pointed at the door, too disgusted and betrayed to look at her.

“Leo!”

“Hold on!” Markus interrupted. “Did Mr. Hawthorne ever try calling or writing?” he asked carefully.

“Did he?” Leo asked Sabine. “You told me he wasn’t answering whenever we tried to call, but you take most of my calls unless they’re from Max or my brothers and you answer most of my mail.”

She gulped loudly, earning an exasperated groan from Markus as he took several steps back, exiting the conversation and the blast radius.

“You were so busy, Leo! And it was such a precarious time for you as Margrave. The Foundation was still reeling after Maximilian and Ella,” she said quickly. “You remember how frantic we all were!”

“No! I still wouldn’t have turned my back on Jonathon!”

“Please, Leo! You’ll give yourself a migraine or you’ll get sick again,” she attempted but he didn’t care. He wanted his skull to crack open and hoped his ulcers would erupt. He deserved all the agony his body could muster.

“Get out!” He swung wildly at the air, needing to vent his rage while she ran from the suite.

“Leo, please,” Markus said firmly. “You’ll make yourself sick.”

“I should have checked on him!”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I thought I had! I asked Sabine to call him and he was always busy.” Leo swore in horror as he recalled her holding up the phone while a recording told him to leave a message. “She told me he had moved on and I didn’t want to stand in his way. I thought I was giving him space. I didn’t want my life to swallow his, the way Max’s had swallowed Ella’s and destroyed her. But I promised I’d be there if he ever needed me.”

“You didn’t know about the calls or his letters,” Markus argued and Leo nodded at the phone.

“I would have gone to him if I had known about the roses. I shouldn’t have given Sabine that much control over my communications,” he said, earning an eye-roll from Markus.

“She’s your assistant. It’s her job to screen your calls and messages because you’d never get anything done if you answered every one of them yourself. And Sabine might not have known that Mr. Hawth—” Markus started but Leo cut him off with a glare.

“She was the only one who knew about us. I trusted her to make sure he woke up to white roses every morning and she knew he—” Leo’s voice crumbled and his legs felt weak. “She knew how much he loved me. He wouldn’t have done any of this if I hadn’t abandoned him and I would have known he needed me if she had simply told me about the roses.”

“I’m sorry. I’ll do everything in my power to find him,” Markus assured Leo in his deep, even rumble. “I’m sure that once you explain, he’ll see that it was a misunderstanding.”

“What if it’s too late? What if he hates me or doesn’t care anymore?” Leo asked him and Markus made a thoughtful sound as he studied their feet.

“I don’t see why he’d bother wasting a perfectly good gin and tonic on a man he doesn’t care about.”

“How do you know it was a gin and tonic?”

A wry grin curved Markus’s lips. “I can still smell the gin and a hint of citrus.”

“That’s uncanny,” Leo said, not entirely in approval.

“It’s part of the reason you hired me,” Markus said as he tapped the side of his nose. “I can smell cocaine or gunpowder from a mile away. And I enjoy a good gin and tonic when I’m off the clock.”

“No,” Leo said, staring at him. “I hired you because you’re 6’6’’ and have hands the size of my head. And because you can kill a man with just those hands in the time it takes me to duck and cover my worthless head. I think this is a good time for you to clock out, actually,” Leo said as he checked his watch. “I’ve had you on your feet and hunting since the gala.”

“I’m fine. I’d rather monitor the situation while you rest,” Markus replied, earning a knowing hum from Leo.

“I know you would. But I give you orders, not the other way around, and I’m telling you it’s time to clock out. I’ll see you in six hours,” he stated with a taunting lift of his brows, daring Markus to push back.

Leo was still in the mood for a fight, if Markus was willing to take the bait. Thankfully, Markus saw the trap and bowed, taking his leave.

“Where are you hiding, Jonathon?” Leo whispered as he turned back to the view outside the window and braced a hand on the glass.

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