Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 88447 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88447 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 354(@250wpm)___ 295(@300wpm)
I was going to argue with her, then I saw the taser in her hand pointed in my direction.
Since Mrs. Cordova never bluffed, I sat my ass back down on the couch.
Being tasered fucking hurt like a bitch and left me feeling out of sorts for days afterwards.
Plus, it would be hard to beat Leo’s ass if I couldn’t feel my arms.
“Excellent,” she said in a dry voice as she neatly placed the taser on the desk next to her. “Now, Leo, please show Mark the recording from last night. Mark, hold all comments until the end of the video.”
The urge to punch Leo was still strong, but I managed to contain myself as he set the laptop on the table in front of me.
After fiddling with it for a minute, he pulled up a video that was taken at his house, I assumed from last night. On it, I listened to their conversation, to Layla asking Leo for help, and my heart fucking hurt as I saw the pain I’d caused her. Sure, it pissed me right the fuck off when Hannah said Layla should forget about me and move on, but I understood why.
When Layla drank the hot chocolate on the screen, I gritted out, “What was in the mug?”
“Just something to relax her,” Leo said in a bland voice.
I wanted to question him further but managed to bite my tongue. When Leo began to hypnotize Layla, my stomach clenched. Nausea churned in my gut, but the more I listened, the more I realized I was wrong. He wasn’t hypnotizing her; he was asking her questions. They seemed random to me, but I know in Leo’s brilliant—if twisted—mind he had some reason for the way he did things. He asked her about her childhood, her art, and about what made her happy. When she responded that I made her happy, my chest felt like I’d been kicked. And when Leo asked her how she felt about me, she replied without hesitation that she loved me.
After Leo was done questioning her, he began to tell her that she was beautiful, that she was strong, and smart, brave and compassionate. He said again and again that her birthmark wasn’t ugly, that it was uniquely attractive, not something to be embarrassed by. He assured her that I could be trusted, that I really was attracted to her. My anger lifted further as he tried to repair some of the damage done to her by the past, to ease the stress of her memories. The video abruptly ended when one of Leo’s men interrupted them to say he needed to speak with Leo right away.
Sitting, looking down at my hands, I tried to process what I’d seen.
“Mark,” Leo said in a low voice, “I promise you, I didn’t do anything to hurt her.”
I let out a sigh, the weight of the world sitting on my back. “I know you didn’t, but I’m still fucking pissed because you did it behind my back.”
“In Leo’s defense,” Mrs. Cordova said as she wrote something down on a piece of paper before her, “you made it abundantly clear to everyone that you didn’t want Layla. And she made the choice of her own freewill for Leo to hypnotize her.”
“I—”
“Don’t.” She held up her hand, the black pen gleaming between her fingers. “I don’t want to hear whatever excuse you have, however valid it may be. I like you, Mark. You’ve been loyal to our family and a good friend to my sons, but that does not mean I will suffer through your bullshit. You screwed up with Layla, but you have a chance to make it right. Do you love her?”
“With everything I have.”
“Do you plan to keep her in your life?”
“Forever.”
She studied me for a long moment, her face a cold mask. “Then you need to protect her. Right now, she’s a liability. Her mental issues make her weak, vulnerable to our enemies. Yes, she’s safe at your house, but you cannot keep her there forever. It’s not fair to Layla or you. At some point, she’ll want to go out into the world. If an attempt on her life was made in a public place, I fear she would freeze and become an easy target.” She set her pen down slowly as she said, “I saw her last night. While you and my son acted like common thugs and made a spectacle of yourselves like a couple of idiots, I kept my eye on Layla. I saw a glimpse of what happens to her when one of her panic attacks hit. It was…distressing. I do not like seeing such a sweet young woman brought low by the demons of her past. More importantly, in her current state, she is a liability to the safety of my family. A weakness that could get us all killed. I cannot allow that.”