And now I’m pissed.
So much so that I get to my feet, shove Leo down on the couch because of her fucking swollen joint, use my other hand to shove Lucky back onto the table and stand between them because I’mdone.
“You”—I point to Luck—“stay the fuck down. She’s yours now, you don’t have to go all caveman and get pissy because of unrequited bullshit. This isn’t going to get us anywhere, and you can fuck it out later. You”—I swing my stare toward Leo and point just as she tries to get up again—“You haven’t had one goddamn problem over the last thirteen years that was exclusive to you alone. Not since you agreed to be our lead vocals because the second you did that, you and all your bullshit becameours. You know it, I know it, everyone fucking knows it regardless of the three year hiatus so don’t try pulling thatI’m an islandshit.”
Taking a deep breath, I look between them again before I keep going. “And this? This garbage that’s supposed to mimic what happened for an entire year before we lost you? It willneverjust be ayouproblem, Leonor. He fucking killed you, you died, but so did we. Lucky bares the scars from it, the three of us have the rap sheet from it. All four of us were willing to die for you, and all four of us were ready to kill for you because of who you are to us.Youareours, Leonor.Ours.Weallfuckingdied that day because your temporary physical deaths killed us and when you called Lucius, unintentional or not, you breathed life back intoallof us. There is no moremy problem, no more handling shit on your own because we couldn’t save you then but we sure as fuck want to try protecting you now. No more secrets, no more lies. You have to tell us everything or else this isn’t going to work, and we’ve all wasted a fuck ton of time.”
Norman grabs my hand as I try to storm off, too angry to even listen to anything anyone has to say after my little speech, easily tugging me back toward them because I couldn’t actually leave if I really wanted to. I still don’t want to hear shit and an exit like that would help make my point, but if he doesn’t want me to go, fine. I’m not looking at any of them, not yet, because…
“I’m sorry,” Leo whispers as I feel her delicate hand slip into mine. She squeezes as I glance at her over my shoulder, those dark as night eyes glittering with tears. “There have been so many changes, so much going on in such a short period of time, and I’m scared. I’m not trying to shut any of you out, I just… I’m sorry. I’ll tell you what you want to know, Markus, so please don’t go.”
Searching her face, I can see every bit of sincerity, every ounce of truth staring back at me but I know Leo too well to believe she’s going to tell us everything. Not yet. We’ll get her there but she’s not done fighting us, fucking or not. Leonor is just done fightingfor now.
And because I can’t go through another few minutes let alone years without her, I’ll take it.
19
NORM
“You knew she wasn’t going to tell us everything.” We all knew that, and why Pete is all pissy over it is beyond me. “We’re lucky Leo told us what she did.”
“Shit is different now,” he grunts from behind me and I roll my eyes.
Nothing is ever really different with Leonor.
A decade of us practically living together and we still didn’t know where she was originally from, what it was like for her growing up, or any of the other shit Leo could recite back to usaboutus because we’ve told her basically everything.
Except how we all really feel about each other, but that’s beside the point.
We’ve all shared almost every moment of our lives from conception until five seconds ago with Leo, and she’s only given us a summary of what happened after she was born, and most of what happened after she turned seventeen until we were living each day with her. Hell, we didn’t know she was being stalked—the first time—for a couple of weeks before she had to tell us, and the only reason Leo did was because she got a bouquet of black roses after a show and panicked when she read the card.
If we hadn’t been in the dressing room with her and saw her face when it happened, I don’t think she would have ever said anything.
But that’s just how our girl is.
Always on the defense, only willing to share so much. She’s been hurt before, in multiple ways and pretty severely judging by how closed off she’s always been, and she likes to leave her demons in hell so no one else gets burned by them. Herself included.
“Different, how? Because if you think that getting a little dick is going to suddenly make Leonor more willing to spill her secrets, you’re more optimistic than the entire population thought you were.”
When I’m met with silence, I glance up from restringing my guitar to look at Pete over my shoulder. Who arches a brow when he asks, “Littledick?”
“That’swhat you’re going to take from what I just said?” I shake my head and go back to the task at hand because I can feel myself start to blush. “My point is, Leo isn’t going to budge until she’s ready and considering she hasn’t told us any of that stuff after thirteen years, I doubt there’s much that will get her to now.”
Pete reaches for one of the other acoustics I’m trying to fix from the row lined up next to me, his long fingers reaching for one before it disappears and he starts strumming the off key strings. “I want to know what’s up with Francesco, not how many foster homes she ran in and out of.”
Now I’m lifting my head and arching a brow while turning to face him because that’s a load of crap.
And he knows it.
“Ok, yeah, I want to know that too.” Pete chuckles as he attempts to tune the guitar. “We’re all curious as fuck about that stuff but this shit with Franc? It relates to the attack, which isrelated to what’s going on now. And since she was finally honest about how long she’s been getting more of that same bullshit?—“
“You expected Leonor to tell us what’s going on with Franc. I get it.”
Pete holds my stare as he shakes his head. “I haven’t seen Leo like that, Norm. Never. She was fucking terrified of Franc, like, genuinely scared. We all know he’s a tool, and he blames Leonor for basically everything that has to do with Luck leaving the path of righteousness for the band, but this was different.”
I blow out a breath as I lean my shoulder against the bed, twirling the pliers in my hand. “You said she kept saying Francknows thingsright? Things that she’s convinced we’d leave her for?”
He nods.
