Everyone was charmed by Leo's bright smile but behind it all, he could barely keep it together inside. From taking care of his sick mother to suffering mental and physical abuse from his father to keeping up his perfect grades in school.
King was th...
We left Kiki behind with Olivia as Uncle Ben and I headed home. It was nearly midnight by the time we parked outside the house. Neither of us moved as I killed the engine. The only sound was our breathing.
Once the fire was out, they told us the horrible news of six bodies inside Olivia's building, and they needed to take her in for questioning on who may have been in there, hoping to start identifying the bodies. Olivia wasn't in trouble, so they were nice enough to let Kiki go with her for support. She was so distraught she couldn't speak, leaning against Kiki as they guided them to a car.
I took a deep breath. My fingers squeezed the wheel. "This is so far out of hand," I hissed to Uncle Ben. "All over the fucken docks? They aren't playing a fair game, and THIS needs to end before more people die."
"You don't think I know that?" Uncle Ben said, almost too calmly, as he lit another cigarette. "I didn't want to say it at the meeting, but I have someone on the inside. A dealer that switched over. It's not much, but it's something right now."
"A dealer?" Even I could hear my eyes rolling in my voice. "And how long is this person going to be reliable for?" Dealers were nothing more than about the money.
"As long as I need them to be. I know them and their family well. They are living comfortably because of this. We just need to wait a little longer. It's not like dealers have a front-row seat on the action and are given information from the streets. It's the best I can do right now."
My hand rubbed over my face. I knew Uncle Ben was doing all he could for the time being. "We should head inside. I need to see with my own eyes that Leo is okay." It's not that I didn't trust Dom's text that everything was good there, but my nerves had been shot all day since leaving him.
We exited the car and walked to the door without another word, but something on the porch caught my eye. Looking down at the big round spot where the paint was faded made me step closer. The wind shifted, causing the smell of bleach to hit my nose hard. Uncle Ben held the door open as I turned around, eyes narrowed.
"What's wrong?" He asked, but I ignored it as I pushed past him and marched straight into the living room.
Dom was already standing as I walked in, ready to punch the fuck out of him. "I thought you said everything was fine!" I yelled, looking around for Leo, but he wasn't there.
"I handled it, and you were busy with Olivia. How is she doing? What the hell happened? Kiki said they were going to the station to answer some questions?"
I was seeing red. "Where the fuck is Leo?"
"I'm right here."
Leo's voice hit my ears, making my already racing heart skip a few beats as I rushed to him, cupping his face in my hands. My eyes traveled over his body a few times before I could pull him into my arms. "Are you okay? What happened outside?"
Uncle Ben looked confused as I looked behind me at him and Dom. "I'm fine. I'm okay. I swear. Dom got here just in time." I was holding him so close I could feel him shake a little as he said Dom's name, and it only made my blood hotter. The need to get him away from Dom was making me want to take him back into our room.
"Two guys were trying to get into the house when I got here, and I killed them. I cleaned up the mess. What's the big deal?"
"Tried to what?" I yelled.
"Do you know who they were? What did they want?" Uncle Ben asked, thrown off guard.
"If I knew who they were, I wouldn't have attacked so fast and maybe chatted a bit, but I didn't, and they were trying to get Leo to open the door, so I had to move fast."
"What were they saying?" Everyone looked at Leo, making him tense against me.
"They... well, one said he forgot to get a signature after the delivery guy dropped off the packages, but I remembered seeing the guy drive off before I opened the door to bring the boxes inside, and you would have told him if they needed a signature, so I knew something was off. I wasn't going to open the door. I didn't even know there was another guy out there."
"So they were watching the house," Uncle Ben stated before walking over and turning on his computer.
My brain was overloaded by what could have happened if they got to the house before Leo closed the door. Why were they here? Was it for Leo, or were they here for someone else? I couldn't think straight, pulling Leo flush against me as the room was silent.
"Here," Uncle Ben poked to the screen. The three of us moved closer to see him pointing to the camera view outside the house. "They came from this van."
My breathing caught as I saw it. "They were outside when we left," I remembered. I drove past it as we left the house. "I swear I didn't see anyone inside it, though." I closed my eyes, trying to replay it in my mind. Did I miss something?
I watched the delivery truck pull away, and Leo stepped outside to move the boxes in. As Leo picked up the second box, two men jumped out of the van and started walking fast across the street, looking around for anyone watching. As soon as Leo shut the door again, they looked pissed and started talking to each other before continuing to the door.
"Fuck this!" I yelled, feeling my heart lodge into my throat. "Nope. Fuck no. I'm done. I'm out of here!" I screamed again, grabbed Leo's hand, and started for our room. No way in hell was I sticking around this shit hole while Leo was in danger because of this bullshit. It wasn't worth it. None of this was.
"You're not leaving, you fucken pussy."
Dom grabbed my shoulder, trying to stop me, but I wasn't having it. I let go of Leo's hand and spun around, throwing my fist before I could see Dom. A loud creak filled the space before Dom fell on his ass. Leo gasped behind me.
"I won't stick around here waiting for this to happen again. Leo isn't a fucken pawn in this game. I'M NOT letting that happen! Fight your own bullshit war! We won't be a part of this." I grabbed Leo without looking at Dom. "Leo, grab as much as you can. We are leaving in twenty minutes."
"Wh- what's going on?" Leo looked at me with large eyes. "I don't understand."
I cupped his face, making our eyes lock. "I'm getting you out of here. This is bad, baby," my hands were shaking as panic tore me apart, "and I'll be damned if I'm going to let something happen to you over those goddamn docks."
They were here for Leo that whole fucken time. That was Rex's next move. Get Leo as a hostage for a trade.
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Only 4 chapters left on my Cool Beans tier on Patreon until the end of the story!! Thank you for reading!
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