by Alessa Thorn
“Damn, Leo,” Athena whispered, shaking her head. “And they just let you go?”
“With two bullets in me, yes. They learned quickly that I lived, and I sent them a warning that I would still follow through if they ever came after me. They blacklisted me but have never bothered me until tonight,” Leo replied.
“And your fiancée?” Dante asked.
“One of the only survivors of the massacre. She was studying abroad at the time. Her extended family brokered a deal with my mother. She demanded I marry Giana, seeing how I was the one too weak to do the job she had first ordered me to do. The choice was to marry her or kill her. It was another reason I walked.”
“And you didn’t consider what would happen to her if you did?” Athena asked.
Leo laughed. “I didn’t need to. No one was going to kill Giana. She was worth too much money, the sole heir of her family and the only one capable of accessing any of their money. Every boss in Europe wants to marry her. If Rodrigo’s bullshit was anything to go off tonight, it sounds like they have managed to keep her falling into anyone else’s hands. My mother will marry one of my brothers off to her if they get desperate. Giana is not my problem.”
“And what is?” Silas asked.
“Rodrigo asking me to go home. There is no way in hell they would ever want me back unless there was some next-level hell brewing,” Leo said with a frown. “He wasn’t in St. Petersburg for me.”
“You think he was meeting with Gadal?” Dante asked, helping himself to a large glass of vodka.
“I don’t know. There was so much money in that gallery tonight. He could’ve been there for any of them.”
“I like to think he was there because he is secretly nailing the old lady with the dagger cane,” Dante said, and Leo smiled for the first time since they got on the plane.
“When I’m an old lady, I’m going to have a dagger cane,” Athena piped up.
Kon kissed her temple. “Why wait until you’re old?”
Silas smiled, knowing that they were all running with the bullshit to try and ease some of the tension in the plane.
Leo hadn’t exactly been honest with his past, but none of them was very forthcoming in that department. None of it mattered because he was one of them.
“I had always thought you had slipped into our bad company too easily. Makes sense now I know you were raised with an army of mercenaries,” Silas said with a smile. “Do you think your family will be a problem?”
“Not for a while. Rodrigo was giving me a chance. He didn’t shoot me or have any of his men try and take me. It means they aren’t really desperate yet. Doesn’t make sense. They would have hackers and assassins on their payroll. They don’t need me back,” Leo replied thoughtfully.
“Maybe your mom misses you,” Dante said with a shrug.
“Oh, I doubt that.” Leo lifted his glass to his lips. “She was the one who put two bullets in me.”
Silas clicked his tongue. “A problem for another day. Once we get Izabella back, we can get her to hack your family with you and get to the bottom of it.”
“She’s never going to believe you are some big bad assassino. She was so worried about sending you into the club in Scotland,” Dante said.
“So were you. I told you I could handle myself,” Leo argued.
Dante scoffed. “You didn’t handle that.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t prepared to be stripped down, painted in gold, and hunted through a fucking wood when I was high off my face. Nothing could prepare anyone for that!” Leo snapped back.
“Clearly, you haven’t been to Mexico with Dante,” Athena mumbled into her glass.
Silas shook his head. “Not helping, Cub.”
“Now that I’m thinking about it, it makes sense that you grew up a rich boy,” Dante said, ignoring them.
Leo’s eyes narrowed. “Is that so?”
“Yeah, you clearly don’t know how to cook or clean for yourself for a start. You must be a pretty sneaky assassin because your hand to hand is shit too.”
“I was pretending I needed you to teach me.”
“Why?” Dante pressed, getting more pissed by the second.
Leo shrugged. “Why not? You wanted to help. I wanted to let you feel like you were.”
“Yep. Rich dick makes more and more sense. I hope it gave you a good laugh or whatever,” Dante said, getting up. “I’m going to get some sleep. Wake me up when we get there.” He headed to the back of the plane without a backward glance.
“Shit, you’ve hurt his feelings.” Athena blew out a breath. “You’re in trouble now, Leonardo.”
Leo lifted his glass to her. “When am I not?”
Silas contemplated going after Dante but decided against it. They were grown-ass men who could have their pissing match once they had Izabella back.
He reclined his chair and shut his eyes, going over every breathing exercise he knew to keep his anxiety in check.
I’m coming, Bella. Hold on.
Silas, Athena, and Kon went to sleep with the ease of mercenaries. They were trained to get rest wherever they could on a job. Leo had never been able to do that. His brain was too full of anxiety, frustration, worry.
Being in the plane and surrounded by his old life made his skin crawl. Rodrigo would be frothing at the mouth, wanting revenge on them for taking his precious plane. It almost made Leo smile. He would risk his brother’s wrath to find Izabella. She had welcomed him the first time they met and had been a friend to him since. They all had.
Perhaps you should have told them who you were earlier. None of them seemed to care very much, except for… Leo looked at the closed curtains at the back of the plane.
Rodrigo had a bedroom down there. Was that where Dante had gone to hide? Dante and bedrooms were dangerous things to think about, even if he was angry at Leo.
Go make it right, and stop being an asshole, Leo chastised himself. He drained his wine glass and got up. If Dante was going lash out, it was better to do it before they went into a fight.
Leo pulled open the curtains and found Dante on one of the couches that their bodyguards usually used. He was too big for it, his long legs dangling off the end. He looked surprisingly peaceful, full lips slightly parted.
Looking at them made Leo’s own lips tingle, remembering the kiss at the gallery. Leo hadn’t been thinking straight, Rodrigo’s sudden presence putting him into shock.
Dante kissing him had wiped out every other thought in his head. With a head like Leo’s, that was quite the achievement.
Rodrigo knew Dante’s face, and Leo’s reaction to him threatening Dante would make him a person of interest. His brother had a talent for finding people’s pressure points, and if the family really wanted him back, Dante was where they would hit.
“Are you going to watch me all night like a stalker?” Dante murmured, not opening his eyes.
“I thought you might like to know how it feels for once. Uncomfortable, isn’t it?” Leo said, sitting down on the couch opposite him.
Dante opened an eye. “Not particularly, but if you start touching yourself, I’m going to charge you.”
“What’s your going rate?” Leo tried to joke.
“More than you can afford.” Dante slowly sat up and ran his hands through his hair. “What are you doing back here, Leonardo?”
“I wanted to apologize to you. I didn’t accept your training because I needed to know how to fight. I didn’t do it to make fun of you either.”
“Then why bother?”
“No one has ever cared if I was okay. In my family, you don’t show weakness. You don’t advertise your bad days. You don’t talk about traumatic experiences,” Leo tried to explain. “You gave a shit, and I didn’t know how to take it. You offered to train me, and I accepted because I didn’t know how much I needed someone until you were barging in my apartment uninvited.”
“Really? Because you sure like to fight me every step of the way.”
“Well, you are very irri
tating.”
“But I’m hot too.”
“It’s the most irritating thing about you,” Leo admitted.
Dante smiled a little. “Why didn’t you tell me who you were?”
“Because I liked the way you looked at me when I was Leo Riva. No one looks at you without an agenda when you are a Colleoni. I could be me without the name. And now that’s gone,” Leo admitted, feeling like he had been kicked in the guts.
“You can still be you, Leo. No one gives a shit who you used to be. If we were like that, we would be fucked. We all have shitty pasts and have done things we aren’t proud of. It doesn’t make you special. It just makes you one of us. I meant what I said at that gallery. You don’t belong to them anymore. You belong to us. Get used to it,” Dante replied sternly. Leo risked looking across at his hazel eyes, searching for the lie. There wasn’t one.
“Thank you,” Leo said, swallowing the lump in his throat.
“And in case your mind starts to play tricks on you, I knew exactly who I kissed, and I didn’t do it because of your fancy last name.”
Leo’s chest went hot, and he shifted in his chair. “It was to stop my panic attack.”
“Worked, too,” Dante smirked.
Leo cleared his throat. “Are we good? I don’t want you pissed off when we are walking into another fight. I need to know you’ll still have my back when people start shooting at me.”
“Of course I will. I happen to be really fond of that side of you.”
“Mio Dio, do you ever stop flirting?” Leo said, exasperated.
“With you? Nope. I like how irritated you get.”
“That’s a weird kink.”
Dante sucked on his bottom lip. “And not my only one.”
“I bet.” Leo laughed softly and got to his feet. “You can go back to sleep, now I know you’ve forgiven me.”
Dante’s leg shot out, blocking his path. “I never said you were forgiven. You haven’t even tried to make amends.” He looked up at Leo with his big hazel eyes, and that did it.
Leo’s dick twitched, and his feral side reared its head. He lifted Dante’s chin with one finger.
“Bold of you to think I’ve ever made amends. Be grateful you got an apology at all,” he said, the threat in his voice whisper soft.
“Where I come from, it’s customary to kiss and make up,” Dante said and tapped his cheek.
Leo grabbed him around the throat, and Dante’s pupils blew out. “Where I come from, it’s customary to kill a man who disrespects you after an apology.”
“Well, it’s a good thing you’re on my turf then, isn’t it?” Dante replied, unafraid and undeterred.
Leo’s other hand twisted in Dante’s hair, pulling his head back with a snarl. “Why do you have to be such a pain in the ass?”
Before Dante could reply, Leo bent down and licked his full bottom lip once before kissing him hard and deep.
Dante made a sound of surprise deep in his throat, but Leo didn’t give him the chance to pull away. He held Dante in a tight grip and took and took until he was breathless.
After such a shitty night, he needed this. For a few precious seconds, his mind was silent and swamped with sensation.
Leo finally pulled back, both of them panting softly. Dante’s mouth was so red and wet, Leo wanted to fuck it right there.
“O-Okay, you’re forgiven,” Dante stammered, eyes still wide.
Leo smirked and ran his thumb over Dante’s shining lip. “That’s what I thought, gattino. Now, do as you’re told and get some rest.” He let Dante go and got out of there before he really did something stupid.
Too late.
Leo shook himself. Teasing Dante would have to wait. He needed to find Iz.
He hadn’t told Silas that the phone they had been tracking had gone dead not long after it got to Toulouse.
He hoped that its signal went live again by the time they landed, but in the meantime, he would find out why a man like de Tremelay would go there at all.
There had to be something, a home base, perhaps? Leo poured himself another glass of wine and got back to work.
28
Iz woke to the musty, itchy smell of straw and dirt. She opened her burning eyes and slowly sat up. Her head was full of cotton wool, and there was an acrid chemical taste in her mouth.
Where the fuck am I? Iz tried to remember what the hell happened. Images of the gallery, Silas’s smile, strange markings—all swirled about in her mind’s eye.
Iz looked around in the low light. A torch was burning on a stone wall outside of her cell. She rubbed at her arms and realized she was no longer wearing her red dress. In its place was a tunic shirt made of rough fabric.
Someone had stripped her when she had been knocked out. Iz fought not to vomit. With a grimace, she put her hand between her legs and felt for any soreness or bruising. There was none, but that didn’t mean much.
It’s going to be okay. Just breathe. You’re still alive, which means there’s still time.
The memory of de Tremelay injecting something into her neck came rushing back. She had been awake long enough to get loaded onto a plane, and then there had been nothing but blackness.
Think, Iz. What would Athena do? She would be trying to find a way out. Iz got up to shaky feet, the cell tipping as her head spun.
She stumbled to the bars and shook at the door. Running her hands through her hair, she searched for a stray hairpin that they might have missed, but there was none. There were three walls of rough stone around her and no windows.
Saints and ancestors, help me, she prayed. Iz took an unsteady breath as the cool, unsettling feeling of ghosts rushed over her.
There was no doubt that people had died in the cell she was standing in and died screaming. Iz went back to the bars and tested to see if any were loose.
“Excellent. You’re awake,” de Tremelay said, coming into the light. He was wearing a deep red robe like a priest’s cassock.
“What do you want with me?” Iz asked, stepping back from the bars.
“Answers. If you give them to me, I might be persuaded to let you live,” he replied, gesturing at the door. Magic fizzed in the air, and the door swung open.
“So you are Gadal?” Iz said.
His brows rose in surprise. “I knew you were good, Izabella, but not that good.”
“Sorry, but your secret identity? Not so secret. Which fake name do you prefer, de Temelay or Gadal?”
“You can call me Gadal. I like it the most,” he said and gestured at her. “Come with me peacefully. I would like us to act like civilized people while there’s opportunity.”
Iz forced herself to nod. She needed to buy Silas and the others enough time to figure out where to find her. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that they were coming. Silas wouldn’t give up on her.
“Where are we?” Izabella asked, following Gadal through a tunnel to a room with a wooden door.
“We are at my castle in Lastours,” he replied, opening the door. Inside were a plain wooden table and chairs, as well as a platter of food and a decanter of wine. There was also a tray covered in a white cloth, and Iz knew that there would be instruments of torture underneath them.
“This is one of the four Cathar castles, I’m assuming,” Iz said, taking the seat he offered her.
“Yes. I purchased it a while back and have been restoring it. It’s important to preserve the past and the legacy of such fascinating people.” Gadal sat down opposite her and poured the wine. “I’m not an uncivilized brute like the men that took you five years ago, Izabella. I would prefer not to torture you for information if I don’t have to.”
“You seemed to have no problem stripping me when I was knocked out or torturing Athena when she was a girl,” she snapped. Iz didn’t know how he knew about Ruslan, but she wasn’t going to let him play mind games with her.
“Firstly, I had women take your clothes and search you for anything that could be tracked. I can guarantee you weren’t touch
ed in any way that was inappropriate to the task.” Gadal sipped his wine. “And Athena was always more creature than a girl.”
“She’s not a creature,” Iz hissed.
Gadal’s lips lifted in amusement. “Liddell must have told you nothing when your people killed him. Surprising, considering he was always such a weak coward.”
“He didn’t get the chance to talk before Athena and Kon destroyed him. Have you ever seen a man killed by having all his life ripped from his cells? There were only ashes left of him. The same fate awaits you if you don’t let me go,” Iz replied. She had barely finished speaking when invisible hands gripped her, holding her down to the chair. She snarled, fighting against the force restraining her.
“I will ask you only once not to threaten me, or it will be you that will be ashes before this night is through,” Gadal said, voice as calm as ever. “Liddell was a fool. For years, he had Konstantius Zalam under his nose and couldn’t see him for the child he lost years beforehand. He was sloppy when he killed his parents. They had been smart enough to escape the Aurora, and he still underestimated them, the fucking fool.”
Kon’s parents were a part of Aurora? It made sense in a way, but Kon wasn’t going to take the news well if she managed to tell him.
“That’s a bit hypercritical of you, considering you were the one that lost Athena,” Iz said, trying to keep him talking.
Gadal’s mouth lifted in a sneer. “I underestimated the power of what we had created, and it cost us greatly. We thought the winter and the wolves would’ve killed her, and now fate will bring her back to us, with Konstantius as well. I thought after Liddell, she would return to Russia, to where she was lost.”
“So you put cameras there because you were waiting for her?”
Gadal nodded. “Indeed. Within a month, there she was. Some things in this universe really are inevitable. She belongs to us, and nothing will change that. Tell me where they are hiding, Izabella.”
“They were both at the gallery last night. Your security really is shit,” she said, pulling at her invisible bonds again.
