Page 32 of Fierce Secrets

CHAPTER 11

LEO

Ilay in the darkness, listening to Meredith's steady breathing as she slept curled against my chest. Her hair was still damp from our shower, and I couldn't stop my fingers from running through the strands, memorizing how it felt to finally hold her like this.

What the fuck had I done?

She was my best friend's sister. The one person who'd always been absolutely off limits, no matter how much I'd wanted her. And I had wanted her – for years I'd wrestled with these feelings, buried them deep where they couldn't hurt anyone. Where they couldn't hurt her.

But tonight, when she'd stood in that bathroom demanding answers, her eyes bright with anger and something else, something that called to the darkness in me... I'd broken. All my carefully constructed walls had crumbled the moment she'd said that she needed me.

Need. Such a dangerous word coming from her lips.

I'd never had control when it came to Meredith. From the moment she'd patched up my hand as a teenager, treating me like I was something more than the monster everyone whisperedabout, I'd been lost. Every smile, every innocent touch over the years had been another crack in my armor.

And now?

She shifted in her sleep, pressing closer to me, and my arm tightened around her instinctively. This was wrong. My world was too dark, too violent for someone like her. Tonight's shooting was proof enough of that. The blood I'd spilled after, handling the men who'd dared to threaten what was mine – she didn't belong anywhere near that kind of darkness.

But as I watched her sleeping peacefully despite everything that had happened, I knew it was too late. I'd crossed a line tonight that I couldn't uncross. I'd claimed her in a way that changed everything.

Grayson would kill me. Or try to.

Grayson and I had made a pact years ago, after that night with their father. Keep her safe, keep her innocent, keep her far from our world. And now I'd broken that promise in the worst possible way.

But fuck, the way she'd looked at me in that bathroom, demanding answers, unafraid despite everything she'd seen today. The way she'd said my name, like a prayer and a curse all at once. The way she'd surrendered to me, trusting me even after she knew how I'd orchestrated violence with the same hands that had touched her so gently.

My phone buzzed on the nightstand – Roman's update about the cleanup at Lion Freight. Four dead, two more who wouldn't survive their injuries, but he was making sure they would make it to hospital. We needed to send a message after all.

No one came at me or what was mine and walked away unscathed.

I'd chosen to have the company wrangled together and brought to one of our warehouses, where I'd then extracted the information I needed, and killed the man who'd shot atMeredith, along with his crew. Did I drag out his death? Of course, but because I wanted to make it back to Meredith, I made quick work of his crew, leaving some gasping for their last breaths. Grayson had texted midway through, saying he'd told Meredith the whole shooting was with a rival company trying to merge with us. It was partially true. He'd just withheld that it was part of a drug and guns movement, and they were wanting to stop the feud we had and join forces. Too bad they were small fry to us, although they'd overplayed their hand with the shooting. Now they no longer existed, their small presence snuffed out after their fatal mistake.

The message should have required my immediate attention, but I couldn't bring myself to move, to disturb Meredith's peaceful sleep.

She had no idea what I really was, what I was capable of. She'd seen glimpses today – learning about Logan's beating, the shooting, my bloody knuckles – but those were just scratches on the surface. The real darkness, the things I'd done to protect her over the years... those were secrets better left buried.

"Leo," she murmured in her sleep, nuzzling closer.

My heart clenched. This soft, pure creature in my arms – how could I drag her into my world of blood and shadows? But how could I let her go now that I'd had her?

The thought of another man touching her, loving her, made my blood boil. Logan had been bad enough, watching him parade around with her for three years, playing at being worthy of her. But now, after having her myself...

I was possessive by nature. It came with the territory, with who I was and what I did. But this – this bone-deep need to possess her, to keep her, to destroy anyone who'd dare try to take her from me – this was something else entirely.

Something dangerous.

Something that could get us both killed.

My phone buzzed again. Grayson this time, and I picked it up from the bedside table. My heart skipped a beat as I unlocked the screen to check the message, wondering if he had any idea of what had transpired just doors from where he'd been sleeping. Had he heard something? Was he wanting me to come out so he could break my nose?

I wouldn't blame him, hell, I'd even let him have a free shot.

Is it all sorted?

I stared at the message, at the implicit trust in those simple words. Trust I'd betrayed the moment I'd touched his sister.

Yes. They won't try another stunt like that again.

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