“I will handle the Camorra,” Obi spoke up. Nice of him to join inafterthe tension between me and Ryuji. “I have business with them.”
“Hah. Business,” Leona scoffed quietly to herself.
He locked eyes with her in the rearview. Her eyes slid to the side. Ryuji pointedly took her other hand in his, a frown on his face—but it didn’t look like a frown meant for Leona.
Yeah. Apparently, a lot happened in LA that nobody wanted to talk about.
Silence stretched.
Wynn sent me another glance that seemed to say,Tell her, say something, but fuck no. Not now. There’s no way in hell that discussing an engagement between the two of us would go well right now.
“Well,” Ryuji said, breaking the silence. “I’m thinking we get some burgers on the way home. Anyone else feeling like a burger?”
Leona laid her head on his shoulder. “Burgers sound great.”
I bit back the urge to pull her into my side instead.
She was mine. If she married me, she’d becompletelymine.
I didmy physical therapy exercises while Leona worked out with Wynn. He put her through the wringer, running her through conditioning drills and hand-to-hand combat sparring.
This was the first time I’d seen her workout. When she caught Wynn with a well-timed punch to the stomach, I practically whooped with pride.
Her father never would have let her do this. Even in the periodic times where he’d let her do target practice with a gun, he’d watch her like a hawk.
But now? She was getting strong. Powerful.
Luciano was a fool.
After they finished working out, I wrapped up my physical therapy and followed her back upstairs. I was also getting stronger, but my arm still tweaked whenever I raised it, and my fingers felt so weak. I must have pushed myself too far when we hunted the Alacrán Cartel that night. Everything about my body felt slower, sorer, and more sluggish.
But what was I supposed to do? Sitting out on everything for eight weeks like Willow wanted was impossible.
“Back to following me around, huh?” Leona teased as I closed the door to our room behind us. She went straight to the bathroom while I pretended the comment didn’t bother me.
I wasn’t a puppy. I was her soulmate, and I missed her like crazy.
She peeled off her shirt and leggings, standing in the bathroom in only her underwear and sports bra.
New bruises peppered her ribs and shoulders. I crossed my hands over my chest as anger rolled through my veins.Fuck.Ryuji and Obi promised to protect her, but she came home like this?
“What happened?” I asked, voice hard.
She caught my eye and followed it to her torso. “Oh. From when we got ambushed. I’m fine, though. I don’t feel them at all.”
“Leona…”
“I’m fine, Cas.” Her voice went soft. “Really. I promise.”
“They were supposed to take better care of you.” She was never leaving my sight again. Not if she was going to come home battered and bruised.
She wiped her makeup off her face. “It wasn’t their fault. And we kept each other alive.”
I sighed before gingerly snaking my arms around her waist. She turned in my arms after she finished washing her face and pulled me into a hug, her arms around my neck. Her fingers dragged up the back of my neck, through the hair, sending a shiver down my spine.
“I missed you so much,” she whispered into my neck. “It was so weird not having you with me all the time.”
I squeezed her tighter. “Like half of me was missing.”
