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CASPIAN

“ L eona, wait!” I begged as she stomped off the penthouse elevator and punched in the security code for the door. “Wait.”

She ignored me, just like she’d done during the drive back to the penthouse. I’d tried to explain in the van, but Ryuji had constantly interjected. I’d gotten so bad I wanted to slam him up against the wall and wrap my hand around his throat until Obi snapped for us all to shut up. That finally got Ryu off my ass, leaving the rest of the ride so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

She stayed plastered to Ciel’s side on the elevator ride up, arms folded around her middle but leaning into his side. He kept his eyes down, murmuring in her ear in Spanish.

I wavered between anger and regret. We’d gotten the army—well, maybe half of the men who showed. But it was a start. I knew more would follow, especially after news of our engagement spread.

She had every right to be upset, but couldn’t she see that we got what we wanted?

I didn’t mean for her to find out this way. I meant to tell her. I really fucking did.

I wanted to propose like a real fucking man, but every time I tried, there was some excuse.

I tried to tell her when we got to the building, but the men were so damn happy to see her, and then fucking Ryuji showed up and threw me off, and by then it was too late.

I thought it was going well. I thought the men were seeing how fucking strong she was. I thought they were changing their minds. But I replayed everything they’d said over and over, and it was so fucking clear how they walked into that meeting already believing we were engaged. It was obvious how they deferred to me, not her.

When I told Giulio I would propose, I didn’t think he’d tell everyone we were already engaged.

I should have seen it. I should have said something.

Finally, as Leona yanked the penthouse door open and ran inside, I’d had enough. I reached out to grab her arm. “Princess, will you fucking talk to me?”

She whirled. “Get your hands off me!” she shouted. Tears rimmed her eyes.

My heart felt like it was cleaving in two. She’d never looked at me like that. Never.

“I can explain.”

“Explain what?” she hissed. “How you knew what they wanted from the start but didn’t bother telling me?”

“I didn’t want to put you in a position where you were forced into a choice you didn’t want.”

“Well, a lot of good that did!” she shouted. “I was forced into making the decision, anyway! I had to in order to get us out of that mess!”

Forced . Had to . My throat bobbed. I knew it. I knew this was going to happen, but I had to ask. “You don’t want to marry me?”

Her voice broke. “I don’t get much of a choice now, do I, Cas?”

Rejection tore down my chest. My body heated like a bomb about to explode, so quick and harsh it took my breath away.

She turned on her heel and headed toward the kitchen. I followed, but Ryuji grabbed my arm. “Don’t fucking touch me.”

“You fucked up more than enough for tonight, bodyguard,” he snarled. “Give it a rest before you fuck up even more.”

I yanked out of his grip.

No. We were going to hash this out. She had to know I didn’t want it to happen this way. She had to know how much I loved her—how all of this had just gone wrong.

“Leona—” I said as I rounded the hallway into the kitchen.

“You know the worst part?” She wiped tears from her cheeks. “You lied to me. You let me walk in there thinking I’d done enough. That I would be enough.” She raised and dropped her shoulders. “I have been doing everything to be the leader I want to be. I killed Kofler, I jumped feet-first into all this shit—all of it to gain the respect of those men. Fuck, to even gain their respect—” She pointed at Obi and the other Shadows. “It’s all shit. It means nothing.”

I might have hidden what Giulio said, but that wasn’t the whole story. I never meant for this .

“I…I did lie,” I choked out. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hide it. I just wanted them to see you for you. ”

I glanced behind me, looking for Obi to bail me out a little, but the fucker watched it all with those reserved eyes.

“But they didn’t see me for me. They saw you. That’s all they wanted. I’m glad we got the men, but this?” She raised her hands to the side. “What is supposed to happen now, Cas? What do you want to happen?”

I swallowed. “What do you mean?”

“We have to get married to keep those men on our side,” she said, stepping forward with flames in her eyes. “But what about them?”

Ryu stared at me with so much disdain I thought it might drip from his eyes. But that was nothing fucking new.

Obi was an impassive stone.

Wynn couldn’t meet my gaze, but I already knew what he thought. He wanted it to be her choice. He’d warned me, too.

And Ciel? Ciel looked at me like I’d deceived them all.

“This isn’t a fucking betrayal,” I spat. “You’re acting like this ruins everything. Marrying me isn’t the worst thing in the world, Leona. It gets us everything we want.” That’s exactly what Obi said. It would give us everything we want. And I believed him.

She shook her head. “It gets you everything you want, Cas.”

I stood speechless. How did all of this go to shit so spectacularly? Everything I was worried about happened, despite how much I tried to prevent it. None of this was going according to plan.

“You’ve all been lying,” she continued. “All of you, but Ciel, were aware of this to some degree.”

“I told him to tell you,” Wynn said, voice low. “I told him this was a bad idea.”

She narrowed her eyes. “But you didn’t tell me either, Wynn. You let me walk in there and get blindsided.”

“It needed to happen,” Obi said. “Strategic decisions need to be made without emotion. That is what leadership is. That’s what I’ve been trying to teach you. We cannot take New York without being willing to make sacrifices.”

A little laugh bubbled from her lips as her hands fisted at her sides. “You promised to mentor me, but you set me up just as much as he did. You’ve been manipulating us all for your own ends, and you won’t even tell us what they are.”

“Don’t lump me in with them,” Ryuji said. “I haven’t been keeping secrets.”

“Oh, is that right, brother?” Obi challenged. “Tell her why you wanted to buy the Los Angeles club.”

Leona paused. “What do you mean?”

Ryu’s mouth pressed into a thin line. “That’s not fair, Obi. Low fucking blow.”

“Tell her,” he insisted.

“Yeah, tell us, Ryuji.” If I was going down, I wasn’t going down without that fucker.

“Sweetheart, it’s not like that,” he said, hands raised. “The clubs are my businesses?—”

“You wanted a fallback if this did not work out,” Obi said. His carefully crafted facade of calm and control was bursting at its seams. “You were hedging your bets. If we failed to defeat Volpe, you could disappear, and at least you would still have your clubs.”

Leona’s mouth hung open. “Is that true?”

Ryu stared ahead. “It’s not that simple.”

“Tell me the truth,” she demanded. “Were you preparing in case we failed? Has this all just been a giant fucking game to you?” She inhaled a sharp breath. “Is that why Obi told you this was a business partnership? So you’d stop fucking around with me?”

Ryu’s jaw worked as something unspoken passed between them. “I have backup plans for situations exactly like this. You can’t tell me it wasn’t a good decision. Just in case.”

“Oh, fuck off,” I scoffed. “Admit it. You’re a coward. Walk away.”

He launched at me, fist raised, but Obi and Wynn leapt into action to restrain him. I laughed darkly. “How is this supposed to work out when we can’t stay in the same room for two seconds without trying to kill each other?”

Leona took a hesitant step backward. A tear rolled down her cheek and splattered on her shirt, darkening the material. “I don’t know.”

“Baby girl, wait,” Ciel said, the first he’d spoken in all this mess. She took another step backward.

“I don’t know,” she murmured. “Were we fools to think this could work?”

Nobody had an answer.

I sure as fuck didn’t.

She turned and walked out of the kitchen, back toward our bedroom.

“Leona…”

“Leave me alone.” She sounded so fucking exhausted. So done.

“What are you doing?”

“I have no clue,” she said as she grabbed the door. “The only one of you that I’m not mad at right now is Ciel. The rest of you can fuck off.”

Then she slammed it in my face.

My hand automatically reached for the handle, but I paused an inch from the metal.

I knew she’d be pissed when she found out. I knew she’d likely want nothing to do with this marriage. The look in her eye, the sight of those tears dripping down her face, was so much worse.

I’d been trying to protect her, to support her in the best way I knew how. When that door slammed in my face, I realized I’d only been trying to protect myself.

I stepped back from the door. I didn’t deserve to follow her.

I’d fucked up.