If it was just for now, of course I could. With the sound of her voice, and with how much I missed her and just wanted her home, I couldn’t refuse her anything right now.
Plus, if all the other guys were only stressing her out, I wasnotgoing to add to that. I’d already pushed her away once. I’d been lucky she came back to me. I wasn’t about to risk that again.
“Sure, baby girl.” In the meantime, I’d pull as much public information about that restaurant as possible. I’d have the full blueprints of the building, their permit records, and anything I could find that could give us the information advantage. “We can tell them when you get back.”
We might not be able to kill Volpe at a public restaurant, and honestly, I wasn’t sure we should try, but we could make sure Leona blew into that meeting, ready to kick ass, and take names. She could demand a spot on the board and start attempting to take control of the company. We could fray Volpe’s control even further. He was bound to make mistakes.
“I miss you, Ciel,” she breathed.
“I miss you, too, baby girl.” Ryuji shouted something in the background, followed by Obi’s deep rumble. “Need anything else?”
“I just need you three to take care of yourselves, okay?”
“Promise.”
“How is everything there?”
I shook my head even though she couldn’t see me. “Fine. Don’t worry. We’ll fill you in when you get home.”
“Home,” she said, voice slightly amused. “Home is where the heart is.”
“Then I guess my home is in LA right now.” The space between us stretched even further, as she didn’t respond. Shit.Was that too far? Was she not feeling the same longing we were? I pushed forward, pretending I didn’t just say something so embarrassing. “Call me if you need anything. I’ll send you the stuff on Felix ASAP.”
“Ciel—”
“It’s all right, Leona,” I interrupted her. My free hand curled into a fist. She didn’t need to coddle me. I needed to stay focused on the tasks at hand. “Get some rest and tell Ryuji to stop being a dick. He’s always a dick, so it’s a fair assumption.”
She laughed softly. “Okay, Ciel. Get some sleep, too. You have to stop running yourself so ragged.”
“Talk to you later.”
I hung up the phone and then practically slammed my head on my computer desk.
Fuck. Why did I say that? Why couldn’t I play this cool and collected like Ryuji did? Or confident like Wynn? My throat didn’t have the same issues around her anymore, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t terrified of fucking this up.
Work.
I had to get back to work.
Alacrán. Chiara. Board meeting. Max.
31
CASPIAN
Leona had been gone for six fucking days.
Now that she was about to step off that plane and back into my arms, I tapped my foot against the black of the tarmac.
We waited on the private landing strip outside the city. The tarmac was on the property of an old woman who lived way out in the country. Apparently, her house had foreclosed, and Obi bought the whole property with all the surrounding acres of land for her under the condition that the Shadows got full access to the landing strip whenever needed.
I’d asked Wynn how they guaranteed the old woman never told anyone this was where they took off and landed their plane. He’d laughed and said the old woman was practically enamored with Obi and had sworn her lifelong loyalty to him.
She stood next to us as we watched the plane land, also waiting eagerly for the plane to taxi closer.
The plane door lowered. Obi stepped off first, followed by Ryuji. He scowled when he met my gaze. But then he turned around and reached a hand back into the plane. Leona stepped out, hair whipping around her face in the breeze.
I sucked in a breath while my heart thundered.She was home.
