Page 69 of The Piece You Stole

“But I can—”

“Sit the fuck down, Aden,” Kade murmurs. “Dariel has this well in hand.”

At the doorway, I slow at the lazy amusement in his voice and angle my head to face him. He’s stopped typing and is using the black wireless mouse beside him to scroll. “Who?”

Kade peers up at me over the lid of his heavily encrypted laptop. Three years old and that thing is still worth more than a brand-new car. “Looks like Leandro wasn’t ready for the family reunion to be over.”

As the security alarm continues to shriek, I wait for Kade to tell me he’s joking.

But he’s not smiling.

He’s serious.

Leandro tracked us down from the police station.

“How would he have found us?” Aden yells over the shrieking alarm, pressing his hand on the side of his head as his eyes tighten with pain.

Kade moves the mouse around a little more, taps a few keys, and then the alarms fall silent. “He’s knocking on the back door like he’s a neighbor begging for a cup of sugar.” He raises his eyebrow. “He couldn’t have found this address in a directory. It’s not listed anywhere, which means either he followed us, which is doubtful given it’s been four hours, or he must have spoken with someone who knows where we live. Got any ideas who that might be?”

I swing around, clenching my jaw so hard I’m grinding my teeth. “I didn’t tell him.”

But it wasn’t as if I didn’t know the family was keeping tabs on me over the years. They knew about Monica, so they would have known about this house. I don’t see Father giving Leandro that info if he called him, but Mother would. Leandro was always her favorite child.

“Tell him we’re out of sugar,” Kade yells as I stalk through the front entryway and head for the backdoor where, just as he’d said, Leandro has his face pressed against the glass which he’s rapping with increasing force.

If I didn’t think he was on his way to smashing the glass, right when our priority is making the house even more secure than it already is, I’d leave him there.

I unlock the bolt on the door and swing it open. “What are you doing here?”

He edges around me. I shove him back a step, giving him a look that dares him to try again.

“Just here to help,” he offers, pasting what he must think is a helpful smile on his face. From his brand-new shirt and dress pants, Gucci from the looks of it, he must have taken the time to do a little shopping before he came back to provoke me into snapping his neck.

“Go. Home.”

“And spend the next twenty years having Father prepping me for all the family responsibility?” His snort tells me exactly what he thinks of that. “This sounds like a more interesting way to pass the time.”

Until he gets bored.

He moves to step around me. I grip the door, hold it closed, and continue to block him. “You wanted to be alpha.”

“I did,” he agrees. “But that was before I realized just how little free time it would leave me. And a house full of alpha babies? No thanks. I’d rather stick here with you.”

I’m growling at him to fuck off when Kade whistles low. “Dariel. My inbox just exploded with info. Get in here.”

I remind myself that getting rid of him is easy. All I have to do is rip his throat out. Yet I’m strangely reluctant to do it. “Go. Away.”

I take a step back into the house. He inches forward, making his eyes wide as he wheedles. “But I can help.”

“The only time you’ve been helpful is—”

“Dariel!” Aden interrupts. “You need to see this.Now.”

I spin around. “I don’t want to hear a word from you, Leandro. Not one word.”

“You won’t even know I’m here,” Leandro promises, following me into the house and closing the door behind him.

Why don’t I believe you?

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