Page 100 of Revenge & Ruin

“She wasPREGNANT!”

Leon’s voice breaks. “I didn’t know. She wasn’t supposed to be there. It was an accident.”

“YOU’RE A MONSTER.”

“I KNOW,” he roars back, devastation echoing on every feature of his face. “But you can’t go in there. I won’t let you die for any of them.”

I clasp my hands over my mouth before another sob comes out. “Teo.”

“He’s ourenemy,Issy.”

“No,” I croak. “Leon, he’s not. He’s…she lied to me, Leon. She killed them.”

“Slow down. What do you mean?”

I grab at his arms. “You have to call off the war. You have to save them.”

“You’re not making any sense.”

“Mother lied!” I all but scream. “She killed the Vitales. She set fire to their home.”

Leon looks at me like he’s entirely bewildered for a beat before his expression sours. “What did he do to you?”

“Nothing—”

“If he so much as touched you?—”

“Jesus CHRIST, can you just listen to me? Teo’s sister died in that fire, and his parents died trying to save her. Your mother lied. She lied and told us they did it to themselves so that shecould carry on pretending she didn’t have the blood of an eight-year-old on her hands.”

Leon visibly recoils. “What?”

“He doesn’t want the casinos, Leon,” I cry. “He just wants her. He just wants peace for his sister. She was innocent.”

He looks back at the flaming inferno that is now the brownstone as the truth settles hard and heavy on his shoulders. It pulls him right down to the ground. And there, crouched against the burning backdrop, he screams, “FUCK.”

I take a tentative step forward to put a hand on his shoulder, but he recoils again at the touch. His eyes are ablaze as he stares right past me, slack-jawed.

Then he stands up suddenly, abruptly, and reaches for my arm again.

“Issy. She’s the one who told me.”

“What?”

“She’s the one who said the wife would be occupied,” he closes his eyes. “Cassandra. Mother said she had her covered.”

I think I’m about to be sick. “Loose ends.”

But before either of us can dwell on that terrible thought, there’s a cry from the building.

We both turn around and see, through a break in the smoke, two bodies stumbling blindly from the building.

My heart begins to race, but Leon springs into action faster, launching himself toward the building without a second thought. He’s there in an instant, propping up the person in the middle as they begin to move toward me at pace.

It takes a moment for the smoke to clear enough for me to make them out.

But there my brother is, with Cassandra’s arm thrown over his shoulder. The woman looks worse for wear, covered in soot with her swollen belly close to bursting, and sobbing uncontrollably.

My heart restarts at the sight of Teo at her other side, filthy and limping but alive. His dark eyes instantly search for me, and the relief on his face when he does must mirror mine.

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