Page 4 of Sins of Leo

“It’s never too late. If you’re feeling burned out, sometimes a change of occupation can be beneficial.”

“I like what I do.” A begrudging admission. “I just don’t have the same drive as before.”

“Your intake sheet indicated you suffered a tragedy.”

His expression went blank. “Yeah.”

“Care to tell me about it?”

“Not really.” He huffed out a breath. “Guess I don’t have a choice.”

“If you’re not ready to discuss it, then we can save it for our next meeting.”

“Seems kind of dumb to avoid it since it’s the reason I’m here.” He went silent for a moment before saying. “My wife and daughter were killed.”

Killed, so not natural causes. “What happened?” Given he was in her office and not jail, she assumed he hadn’t been the one to end their lives.

Agitation tensed his body and Leo rolled from the couch to pace as the story emerged in short terse sentences. “A killer I was hunting took them.”

“They were targeted because of your investigation.” Stated, not asked.

“Yeah.” He stood still, and his shoulders slumped. “I don’t even know how it found them.”

She noticed the use of “it.” Depersonalizing the one who caused his grief. “That must have been devastating.”

“That’s putting it mildly;” his dry retort. “More like soul-crushing. Especially since it’s my fault.”

“You couldn’t have known your investigation would result in your family being targeted.”

“No, but I should have done more to protect them. I tried to get Kylie to leave until the situation was handled, but she refused. Maybe if I’d not been distracted, I would have found the fucker sooner.”

“Distracted by what?”

He grimaced, and for a second, she thought he wouldn’t reply. The reason emerged in a low tone. “My wife and I weren’t in a great place when she died. Hadn’t been in a while.”

He went quiet, forcing her to prod. “When you say not in a great place, were you fighting?”

“It might have helped if we were. About a month after we got married, Kylie just kind of went cold on me. Distant. Like, I’d come home, and she’d pretend I wasn’t there. Kind of impressive, given our small apartment and the size of me.” He offered a self-deprecating smile.

“Given your comment about never having met with a psychologist, I’m going to assume you didn’t attempt couples therapy.”

“No. Seeing as how we were both unhappy, I asked her if she wanted a divorce. It was the weirdest thing, because the moment I said, it suddenly it was like a switch flipped, and for a little while, she was the Kylie I’d met. I’d come home to romantic dinners. We’d snuggle on the couch, sleep in the same bed. But then she got pregnant, and suddenly, it was like she hated me and wanted nothing to do with me.”

“Hormones can be hard on some women, which isn’t making excuses for her behavior,” Ruth hastened to add.

“I know about the whole hormone thing, which was why I did my best to ignore it. Wasn’t easy. If she wasn’t giving me the cold shoulder, she was insulting me. Acting as if she wanted megone. When the baby was born, I thought maybe things would get better.”

No need to ask. They obviously didn’t. “How old was your daughter when she was taken from you?”

“Two weeks old,” he whispered. “Just a tiny thing. I could hold her in my palm.” He held out the hand in question and stared at it blankly.

“You loved your daughter.”

“More than anything, and I let her down.”

“There is no predicting the mind of a killer. You had no way of knowing they would come after your family.”

“Logically, I know that, but in here…” He thumped his chest. “A part of me insists I should have done more. I should have ignored Kylie’s refusal to leave and just packed them up and secured them in Tower.”

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