Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 36221 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 181(@200wpm)___ 145(@250wpm)___ 121(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36221 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 181(@200wpm)___ 145(@250wpm)___ 121(@300wpm)
“What’s she got?” I hear the other one say. I start to march down the hallway toward them. I lift the poker and rest it on my shoulder like a batter heading to the plate.
“Listen here, you jerk faces! If you come in my room or anywhere near my cat, I’ll—I’ll…” I stumble to find the right words. “I’ll make you regret the day you were ever born!”
They both take a couple steps back from me, putting their hands up. “You hear me?” I hiss at them, making sure I get my point across.
“We hear you,” the one who hadn’t even made the threat says. I glare at the other one, making sure he knows I mean business.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean any harm.” Funny how he’s suddenly singing a different tune.
“You threatened me!”
“The cat. I threatened the cat!” he rushes to correct me, stumbling back a few more feet. He actually looks petrified. He’s a typical bully, pushing around people smaller than him until someone stands up to him.
“Same thing,” I snap. “Don’t let me catch you in this hallway again.” They both nod before they turn and take off quickly. I stare after them. Maybe I’m fiercer than I ever realized.
I spin around to go back to my room, almost running into something. “Ahh!” I jump back, swinging my poker at the same time. Leone’s hand comes out and catches it easily by the rod. His fingers wrap around it.
“Sorry.” I let go of the handle. “I didn’t mean to–”
“Don’t be sorry.” He smiles at me as he lets it slide through his fingers down to the poker end, offering it back to me. “Take it,” he encourages.
I do. “I might have gotten into it with a few of your men,” I admit.
He doesn’t seem mad, but maybe he didn’t hear it all. Will I be in trouble? Will he kick me out and not help me with my sister now?
“That so?” His smile only grows, making me relax. I hadn’t thought about Leone getting upset with me and possibly kicking me out before I took up arms in defense of myself and Bentley. The idea of never seeing him again makes my chest ache. It dawns on me how much he’s starting to mean to me even though I’ve only know him for a short amount of time.
“They were rude,” I tell him.
“I’ll handle them.” The look on his face tells me that he most definitely will.
“I already did. I think they got the point.” I raise my chin, feeling proud. I stood up for myself.
“Maybe so, but they’re still my men. What did they do exactly?” Leone wraps his arm around me, pulling me into him.
I melt against him, loving the feel of his body pressed into mine. When he touches me, I can’t help but give him what he asks for–which makes Leone a lot more dangerous to me than I ever thought.
9
LEONE
“But boss, we didn’t mean to–”
“I don’t give a flying fuck!” I snarl. “Get out!”
My office door opens, Lenny jerking his thumb behind him. “You heard him.”
The two guards, heads down, tails between their goddamn legs, hurry out.
“Gate duty. Indefinitely. I may decide to kill them later. I haven’t made up my mind,” I grate as Lenny, my top guard, shoves them from my office.
I run a hand through my hair, forcing myself to calm down. I have to. If Zoey senses the rage I’m feeling right now, she might try to escape. But my anger isn’t aimed at her. It’s at the idiots who decided it was a good idea to threaten her cat. Bentley may be a diva, but he belongs to Zoey–which means he’s under my protection, same as she is.
A small chuckle lifts from my throat as I realize I’m fuming over a cat—indirectly, of course. Even so, my decision stands, as does my discretion to bury those guards in the trees behind my house if I change my mind later.
“Is this all right?” Zoey walks into my office, her pink sundress and white cardigan like a lure, along with some little white shoes with rainbow laces. She looks like what a fluffy cloud might have a daydream about.
“You’re gorgeous. You know that, right?” I make it to her in three steps.
She looks up at me, her eyes sparkling. “Really?”
“Are you kidding?” I run my fingers along a lock of her hair, and I’m pleased when she doesn’t recoil. If anything, she leans closer. “A knockout.”
Her cheeks flare with a flush of pink. “Oh, I don’t know. Everyone always thought Xanny was the pretty one, and I was just the–”
“You’re not ‘just’ anything.” I grip her chin and hold her steady. “Don’t ever think less of yourself. I won’t allow it.”
“You won’t?” Her lips part.
“Never.” I release her, then back up a step, needing to get my bearings. Because when she’s close to me like this, when I have my hands on her–I can’t seem to think clearly. Even now, I’m imagining peeling that dress off her and licking along her skin. “Come. Let’s have breakfast while we discuss our deal.”