Page 85 of Executing Malice

“It’s after ten, Leila. You’d know that if you weren’t ... whose are these?”

“None of your business. Hand them over.”

I pause, wondering what they’re talking about.

“Do you have someone here?”non-brother asks.

“That is definitely none of your business,”Leila barks, voice high pitched.

I would be amused if this didn’t serve a new set of problems. The last thing I need is for non-brother to barge into the bedroom and find me butt-ass naked in Leila’s bedroom, rifling through her panty drawer, but him following up his righteous indignation by asking where I’m staying. Can’t exactly tell him his non-sister’s attic.

“It is my business after what happened to Jasper Sutton last night.”

Uh oh...

“What happened to Jasper?”Leila asks with remarkable calm.

“He was attacked in his bedroom by a masked psychopath wielding a crowbar.”

It was a bat.

Idiots.

And I take some resentment to being called a psychopath. I am nearly almost always in control of my anger. So, I slipped up once. It’s harsh to slap a label over a single accident.

Besides, he started it.

“Oh no, that’s awful. Is he okay?”Leila asks sounding genuinely concerned, which I’m trying to understand.

Concern is a normal human emotion upon hearing someone you know is injured. But she shouldn’t care. Why does she care? Does she like him? Maybe I should kill him.

No. calm down, Dante.

Maybe the non-brother is right. Maybe I am a psychopath.

I shrug and resume pulling out socks and a pair of faded jeans.

“He’s not. He’s in Mayfield getting put back together. The piece of shit broke his arm and his nose. He has bruises all over his body and might need a cane to walk.”

I roll my eyes.

What a drama queen. I did not hit his leg that hard. No more than a couple of times. What a little bitch.

“So, I need to know who you have in your—”

“Obviously not someone capable of that,”Leila cuts him off.“Now, can you please leave so I can getready for work?”

“This is serious, Leila. First Felicity and now Jasper? It’s clearly targeted.”

“By whom? Me? What happened with Felicity was an accident. She walked into the door. Why would I go after Jasper? I’m not going for the sibling collection.”

The situation between Felicity and Leila isn’t a new one. It’s almost a mirror event of when she was fifteen and I was waiting outside her school doors for her. One of the girls Leila had problems with decided to piss Leila off by slinking over to me and putting her hands on my chest.

I pushed her away and warned her not to do that, but Leila had already seen it. Her green eyes were lit flames on a scary calm face that terrified even me.

The girl lost her two front teeth and was knocked out cold for several hours. The news roared through the school like wildfire. No one came near me again, which was fine by me, but it also taught the girls picking on Leila for being a foster kid not to fuck with her.

It was a win for everyone, so her territorial behavior with Felicity doesn’t surprise me in the least.