Page 144 of A Lethal Game of Trust
Leo was silent in the car, staring out the passenger window, so I couldn’t even see her expression. Was she crying? Smiling?
All I’d seen since the shots was her whole body stiffen, her eyes glaze.
She’d done it, though.
We’d got to the bottom of all this shit and she’d done what she needed.
“I like your hair,” I complimented, scared to reach out to hold her thigh as I craved. Those curls she had lost in her teens were back with the shorter look, the waves far more pronounced than before.
“Thanks,” she said, not looking back at me. “There’s less for you to grab, though.”
I chuckled, if somewhat awkwardly, trying to diffuse the tension.
“I’ll find a way, Leonie Lion,” I promised. “There’s enough there for me to hold onto.”
She turned to look at me so slowly that I couldn’t look away despite the turn in the road. Her eyes were heavy, but there were no tear tracks that I could see.
“I’m sorry,” she croaked, her bottom lip wobbling as tears finally started to fall.
I spun the wheel for us to pull up on the curb, cutting the engine before the car stopped.
“Don’t,” I begged, cradling her face with my hands. I wiped her tears with my thumbs as my eyes started to shed. “Do not apologise for what is not your fault.”
“I should have just let it go. I should have just let it go. I can’t ever let it go,” she sobbed. “Even now… it just—it doesn’t feel done. I have wrecked your family and I still don’t feel done.”
“It’s so new, baby,” I told her softly. “Please don’t think you’ve wrecked my family. It was broken long before you were involved, clearly. And, if you’re not aware of what just happened,Ikilled him, not you. He’d planned to have me murdered; I think he was owed the pleasure.”
“If he hurt you…” she started through gritted teeth and looked up at me with those big, blue eyes.
“You would have fucked him up as badly as you did Firdman?”
“Yes,” she said through her teeth. “You let him off easy.”
“Aiming a gun at you hurt me. I don’t think I’ve ever acted so fast. I don’t think you have ever acted so slowly.”
She shrugged.
“Roc’s going to have to up your training,” I warned, leaning forward to kiss the tip of her nose.
Her nod was small, still half lost to her thoughts. “I did it,” she said as I turned the car back on.
“You did it,” I echoed, pride dominant in my voice as I finallygained the confidence to place my hand on top of hers, resting on her leg. “You did it.”
She breathed a little easier after that, even smiling softly as I used her hand under mine to change gear.
“Where are we going?” she asked, her voice finally her own again.
“Well,” I started, suddenly nervous, “we need to talk. I thought we might have this conversation where we should have eleven years ago.”
She only narrowed her eyes in confusion until I pulled onto the dirt road to the cove.
“I didn’t bring my swimming costume,” she grumbled.
“It’s January,” I reminded her with a small laugh.
Not that she needed the swimwear. She always felt the cold, apart from in the sea. The excitement of getting in the water was thrilling enough for her.
“Hasn’t stopped me before,” she said, placing her other hand atop mine.
