I sat on the couch, sipping my coffee and eating crackers and cheese, while Leon took the phone handset from the wall. He stepped outside through a sliding glass door and onto the small back porch.
I watched him punching numbers in as he walked to the railing. The sky was gray around him. The backyard oak trees were barren. His breath clouded around his harshly handsome face as he leaned on the railing, facing the house but looking into the distance with the phone to his ear.
Who was he calling? What was he talking about? How much of it involved me?
I wanted to go out there and listen in. Instead, I switched back to cookies, dipping them in my coffee and eating them until I felt less famished. The sounds of his mother working in the kitchen reached me, faint but somehow comforting. Homey. Reminding me of being a kid and my mother cooking. Meanwhile on the television screen, a massive sweaty man with long, dirty blond hair smacked another huge guy with a chair and threw him out of the ring. The other huge guy landed on a table and smashed it flat.
I stood and made my way to the kitchen. I poked my head around the corner. Mrs. MacCarrick wore oven mitts and was taking a perfect-looking pie from the oven.
“Thank you for the coffee and food,” I said. “It was exactly what I needed.”
“You’re welcome, of course.” Her eyes lit up with pleasure even as she waved a hand as if dismissing the compliment. She seemed so friendly and warm that I began to wonder why Leon claimed he never brought women here. No doubt he preferred women with melon-sized breasts, Botox lips, and too much eye shadow.
I cleared my throat. “I’m going to step outside for a moment to talk with Leon. He’s on the back porch.”
“Don’t tell me that boy left you alone in there?” She looked disappointed and angry.
That lifted my spirits some, knowing I’d gotten Leon in trouble with his mom. “He had to make a call. We’ll just be outside if you need us. That pie smells wonderful, by the way.”
I left her grinning from ear to ear and headed for the sliding glass door. I put on my heavy coat again and zipped it up tight. The weather still looked cold, gray, and miserable.
Leon was leaning his elbows on the railing now. I didn’t bother to notice his ass when he was bending over. Maybe if he wore Speedos like those wrestlers, Imightlook.
He glanced at me as I crossed the wood deck. I shoved my hands in my coat pockets and casually leaned against the railing, staring at him.
“Listen, I need to let you go. How long are you going to be?”
Leon stopped, frowning as he listened to the reply. He glanced at me again, and his frown deepened. He didn’t seem pleased to see me. Too bad. He shouldn’t have kidnapped me then.
“All right,” he continued, replying to some answer on the other end of the line that I hadn’t overheard. “I owe you one.”
He lowered the phone and pushed the button to end the call. Then he stared at me with those green tiger eyes that I had such a hard time reading. I lifted my chin and stared back defiantly.
“I thought I told you to stay inside.”
“You asked if you could trust me to behave. Here I am. Behaving.”
He sighed out a long breath that steamed between us. “Do you like being a pain in the ass?”
“You’re one to talk.” I looked at the handset he still held. “Who was on the phone? I hope it was the district attorney and you’re turning yourself in.”
He grunted. “Great guess.”
I stared at him, waiting for more. He stared back impassively.
“If you don’t tell me what’s going on,” I said, “I’m going to stop acting like I’m here of my own free will. Does your mother know what you do for a living?”
His green eyes flashed dangerously. I stared back even though my blood had gone cold, my heart was pounding twice as fast, and my mouth was dry as desert sand.
He spoke slowly and every word was colder than a blizzard. “You are only alive because of me. I don’t have the time or the patience to put up with you behaving like a brat.”
The fuckinggallof this man. I was so angry it was hard to form words, and my anger incinerated my fear.
“I have put up with all your shit,” I replied through clenched teeth. “I spent a sleepless night worrying you were going to murder me. Worrying that any scrap of human decency you showed was only you manipulating me so I’d be easier to handle. I’m sick and tired of being dragged around like a little kid with no idea what’s coming next. So, as far as I see it, you’ve got three choices. Either tell me what’s going on, send me back to my family, or kill me.”
Leon put the phone on the railing beside him, then shoved his hands into the pockets of his long overcoat, leaning back as he eyed me. His face was as hard to read as ever. “What is it you want to know, Princess?”
“Start by answering my question. Who were you talking to? What was so important that you missed out on watching meaty men pounding on each other?”
