Page 74 of Gangster's Empire: Leeza & Havel

The other woman nodded knowingly. “Wanna smoke?”

Leeza accepted and stepped outside, moaning as the cool air hit her. It felt amazing against her flushed cheeks.

She took the cigarette and leaned in as the woman held a lighter to it. Drawing the smoke into her lungs, Leeza decided that she was having the most perfect night.

The feeling turned to panic as the taste of ash coated her tongue. Oh yeah. She didn’t smoke, she thought as she gagged. She threw the cigarette on the ground, covered her mouth and stumbled away from the other people. If she were going to vomit, she didn’t want anyone to see her.

She crouched in the ally, leaning against a brick wall and taking deep gulps of air until the nausea subsided.

She should probably lay off the tequila and never, never again forget that she was a non-smoker.

Standing, she turned away from the wall and staggered toward the door. Shit, she thought as she looked around. She was alone. Everyone else had gone inside. Worse than that, the door was closed, and when she tried to open it, discovered it was locked. She yanked on the handle a couple of more times, then decided that she’d have to go around the front and tell the bouncer she got locked out. They knew her on sight so getting back inside wouldn’t be an issue.

As she made her way around the building, a wave of fatigue washed over her. She stopped to lean against the glass window of a storefront. Clubbing had been so much easier when she was younger. Now, she wanted nothing more than to slide into her bed. Once she found her way back inside, she would tell Saskia and the others she was going upstairs to bed. It had been an excellent night, but she was done.

Zmatek was only a few doors down from where she was standing. She could see people spilling out onto the street, hailing cabs, talking, laughing, smoking. Then she spotted a black SUV parked against the curb in the club’s loading zone.

Her limousine! It must’ve come from the estate to pick her up. Oh shit. She was so drunk. Should she get in it? Of course, she should get in it. Maybe her father sent it. Wait? Was he dead? She couldn't remember.

She weaved her way over looking for the driver. Gone. Maybe inside.

Whatever. She could wait for them in the car.

She yanked at the door handle and it opened.

She crawled into the back. The driver would come back and take her home where she could go to bed.

She yawned and fell over onto the seat. Just a little nap, she thought as she curled up.

* * *

Havel barked orders as his people scrambled to search the building for his lost fiancé. She’d been gone three hours and no one had heard from her.

Kris was tucked safely in bed upstairs with Fatima watching over him, so Leeza hadn’t used the opportunity to run off. There was no chance she would leave without her son.

But where did she go?

The only answer Havel could come up with was that something sinister had befallen her. Yet, his gut was telling him she wasn’t in danger. And his instinct was spot on when it came to Leeza.

When she was fourteen, she’d been thrown from her horse in a remote and wooded part of the estate. She’d hit her head on a rock and stumbled around concussed. Havel had found her curled in a heap on the ground crying for her mother.

When she’d married Adam, he’d still had those feelings, but couldn’t act on them. Instead, he would lay alone in his dark bedroom gritting his teeth and telling himself she deserved everything that was happening to her. He was wrong though and he knew it, even back then. His heart had broken when he saw the bruises on her delicate skin.

It never made sense to him. He knew she studied Crav Maga. Why hadn’t she broken her husband’s arm when he got violent? Why just take the abuse?

Through reading her counsellor’s notes, Havel now had an answer and the answer was just as heartbreaking as the bruises. She’d allowed the beatings because she thought she deserved them.

Going with what his gut was telling him, he talked himself off the cliff. He would find his little wanderer, spank her ass for worrying him, then spent the rest of his life worshipping her and making her understand that she deserved only the best that life had to offer.

With that goal in mind, he had Ali pull up the security footage of the club right before Leeza disappeared. He would watch it over and over until he figured out where she went.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

“Oh god,” Leeza groaned and tried to roll over, but started to fall.

Catching herself, she pulled back and cracked her eyelids. Was she falling out of bed?

Oh… she wasn’t in her bed… she was in a car.

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