Page 37 of The Retaliation You Deliver

I know who it is before he even opens his mouth.

“Leon, let him go.”

“If you fucking touch her again, I’ll kill you. You got that,bro?”

“I-I,” he stutters before spitting blood at my feet. “Only one of us has hurt her,bro, and it’s not fucking me.”

His palms slam down on my chest and I make it easy on him and stand back.

He might be taller than me but I’ve got at least twenty pounds on him and could take him to the floor in a heartbeat if I wanted to.

Macie immediately rushes toward him, concern glittering in her watery eyes.

I keep my eyes on him, and he knows it.

“I’m fine,” he says, dodging her attempts to touch him.

Smart man.

“Leon, what the fuck?” Letty screeches when she finally joins the party in the front yard.

Ignoring all of them, I walk up to Macie who’s still trying to help a reluctant Nathan.

“Let’s go,” I demand, reaching for her hand.

Her entire body tenses at my words and she jumps back, out of reach.

“Are you fucking insane?” she screams, her face hard with anger.

It’s fucking hot.

“You don’t get to turn up here, throw your weight around then demand I leave with you. I’m nothing to you, you’ve made that very clear, Leon.”

“I’m not leaving here without you,” I blurt out, my words shocking myself as well as her if her wide eyes are anything to go by.

“Then I guess you’re not leaving.”

I sense the others step up behind me, but if I think they’re there to back me up, I’ve got another thing coming because they all sidestep me and stand with Macie.

Shaking my head, I stare the people closest to me, those I fucking love, going up against me in favor of her.

The girl who allowed me to endure the pain and torture that turned me into this monster.

“So that’s it is it? You all finally get the truth and you turn your backs on me. Thanks for the support, assholes.”

Marching forward, I move around Luca ready to leave but his hand grips my upper arm.

“We’re not against you, brother. We’re just with her too.”

“You don’t even know her,” I spit. “She’s a traitorous bitch who doesn’t deserve your loyalty.” I say it loud enough so that she has no way of not hearing every venomous word as it passes my lips.

Luca releases me and I storm forward toward my car. The offer of getting fucked up with Colt long forgotten.

“Leon, wait,” Macie cries and my body stops of its own accord.

My heart pounds as she walks around me. She stands before me with her shoulders squared ready to fight and a fierce determination on her face.

I’m so lost in her angry blue depths that I don’t see her hand coming until pain explodes across my face and down my neck.