Page 23 of Broken Truths

8

Eden

The door slams shut. The way it echoes through the massive house settles in my chest like impending doom. I peek up at Oliver, and he meets my gaze with a strained one of his own.

It’s always something.

Judging by the loud stomping through the main foyer, it’s Leo who has returned home first. I was surprised he wasn’t here when we arrived back.

“Eden!”

My toes curl at the snap of his words. I attempt to stand, but Oliver tightens his hold on my feet which are currently draped over his lap on the freshly cleaned settee.

“Eden!”

I give Oliver a look, and he says, “What? It’ll be more fun this way.”

I roll my eyes. “In here,” I call back.

The stomps change direction and come our way. The fire blazing in front of us feels like a warm hug, but the closer Leo gets, the more chills rack my body. He’s obviously pissed. When he finally makes his appearance, his hard stare settles on me. The pink, puckered scars from the Pound of Flesh ceremony glow in the firelight as he moves around the couch and stands in front of us. His hands are clenched into fists, allowing the veins to pop on his arms until they disappear under the pushed-up sleeves of his Henley.

My mouth dries. Leonardo Jarvis is a picture. He may look more devilish than handsome, but my draw to him never diminishes. It only burns brighter when he’s on fire like this. Without Oliver to keep me grounded, I wonder what kind of awful situations I could get myself into with Leo.

I stand, pushing Oliver’s hands off me in the process. There’s something unhinged about the way Leo looks right now, like the force of his anger is rooted in fear instead of true, molten hate. “What is it?”

His dark eyes move to Oliver, then back to me. I reach out, my fingers enclosing around the area just above his wrist. As usual, a heated, tingling sensation rolls through me when we touch. It was in this very room that he got on his knees for me and showed me the other side of himself—the one that wasn’t all caveman and fuck-the-world attitude. He showed me that he truly cares. That he might not always know how to show it, but it’s there, brimming underneath the surface. That if he tries to let it out, he thinks himself less of a man.

“You need me?” I mouth.

He narrows his gaze for a split second before nodding, then darting his attention to Oliver.

I turn. “Sorry, Ollie. I’ll be back.”

Oliver’s jaw drops. “What? Why? Is something going on?”

“I’ll be back,” I promise, bending to kiss him on the forehead. I want to tell him Leo needs me, but I don’t want to betray Leo’s trust. Not right now. Not ever, actually, but especially not right now.

I walk over to Leo and wait for him to make the first move. He turns and walks out of the room, and I follow. He doesn’t go up the stairs like I expect. Instead, he heads right out the front door to his car that he’s pulled haphazardly into the driveway. I shiver just thinking about leaving the warm sanctuary of the house, but I grab my jacket from the foyer closet and follow after him.

Unlike Oliver, Leo doesn’t open the door for me or wait until I’m belted into the car. He starts the engine with a loud growl and as soon as my door shuts, he takes off. I fumble with the seatbelt, finally locking it into place just as he skids out of the driveway with squealing tires.

I grip the door as he speeds down the road, pushing the car faster and faster. The vehicle changes gears underneath us, moving from growl to purr, growl to purr, until it finally settles into a roaring state.

We blow past Carnegie’s campus, and I don’t even realize where we are until he slows down. Instead of pulling into the familiar go-kart track, he puts on his blinker to take the opposite turn.

We drive by rows of apartments until he stops in the farthest subset of buildings, parking outside the apartment on the far end. I glance up at the number by the door. “Where are we?”

“My place.”

“You have a place?”

He shuts the car off and stares at me at the same time. “What? Did you think I lived with my grandfather?”

The back of my neck heats. I guess I hadn’t thought about it, actually. Leo Jarvis just exists. “Does Alaric have his own place, too?”

Leo shoves the door open. “Last I knew, he lived in one of the high-rises downtown.”

My eyes widen. I always wondered who were the type of people that lived in a place like that, and Alaric definitely fits the bill.

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