Page 33 of Gangster's Empire: Leeza & Havel

“Dead?”

She nodded.

“After seeing him you realized the Kobas were under attack and immediately ran home to your son.”

She nodded again, her hair brushing his shoulder.

He inhaled, catching the scent of strawberry shampoo. “You grabbed Kris, a gun, and your bag of cash and passports and you ran.”

She looked at him with questioning eyes.

“Yeah, I know all about it. There’s not much about you I don’t know.”

“If you knew about the bag and the passports, why didn’t you take them away?”

“You were stuck in a bad marriage. I figured you needed a bugout bag so you’d feel less trapped.”

She looked surprised that he understood and it annoyed him. He’d always known what she was about. Her safety had been his main priority since she was a ten-year-old girl playing hopscotch in her stepfather’s rose garden.

“If you knew my marriage was so bad, why didn’t you…?” She trailed off.

“What?” he demanded. “Whisk you away from him and risk going to war with your family? Or maybe you wanted a secret affair to make up for what you weren’t getting in your husband’s bed.”

She flushed and turned her head away, but he took hold of her jaw and forced her to look at him. “You made your choice when you married Adam. Except professionally, you were no longer my concern.”

Her face crumpled before she could school her features. Good. He was glad it hurt. It was minor payback for his years of suffering. For having to watch another man put hands on his woman, for having to protect her from a distance while his heart turned to ash. For being the only woman who could hold his attention.

“You know why I married Adam,” she said in a low voice, her eyes flicking away from him. “If I hadn’t, my father would’ve….” She swallowed, leaving the end of the sentence to hang. He wasn’t going to let her get away with it though. This conversation was a long time coming and they were going to have it. They had to if either of them was to find peace.

“If you hadn’t married Adam, what would your father have done?” The edge to his voice had her pressing her lips into a line. “He would’ve killed me. Is that what you were going to say?”

“Yes!” She threw her hands up, winced and placed her bruised knuckles back into the cradle of the ice pack. “He didn’t give me an option. I had to marry Adam or he was going to hurt you.”

“Very noble.” The words dripped with sarcasm. “You didn’t think to stand up for yourself, or for me?”

“He would have killed you!” She shoved off the couch and paced away from him before whirling around to glare. “I was protecting you. Why can’t you see that?”

Havel stood up to his full 6’5” height, flexing his arms and making his tattoos ripple. “I can protect myself.”

Leeza crossed her arms over her chest. “Muscles don’t mean anything to a bullet in the head and you know it. Don’t pretend you could’ve gone up against Krystoff and won.”

He stepped closer to her, fisting his hands to stop himself from grabbing hold of her. “You didn’t give me a chance to go up against him. Instead, you cut me off at the balls by marrying another man after promising yourself to me.”

“I didn’t have a choice!”

“Of course you did!” he shouted back, losing his temper. “You should’ve trusted me to take care of you. You should’ve told me what was going on and asked me to help. Instead, I found out when I got my wedding security detail assignment.”

She blinked in surprise. “You really didn’t know?”

“Of course not,” he growled.

“But that day when you came to find me to tell me my father wanted to speak to me, I thought you knew… I thought that was why you looked so grim.”

“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. You decided based on a facial expression that you’d marry another guy?”

“No, don’t make it sound so simple. I thought you knew Krystoff’s intention. I thought you knew I was trying to protect you when I agreed to the marriage.”

He stepped into her, crowding her as he glared down at her. “You’re not getting it, sweetheart. I don’t need protecting. I never did.”

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