Page 60 of The Retaliation You Deliver

“Couldn’t agree more.” And that’s exactly where I’m going to send him.

“So…” Mom starts and I suck in a breath knowing that she’s about to change the subject and pull the rug from beneath me once more. “Luca mentioned a girl.”

Jesus.

“Of course he did,” I mutter, anger swirling within me at his need to stick his nose right in the middle of my business by getting Mom involved in this.

“He said it could be serious.”

Fucking hell.

I scrub my hand down my face wondering how I’m going to get out of this.

“She’s Richard Fletcher’s niece.”

She stills in my arms.

“Oh that’s a… coincidence.”

“Yeah. Coincidence,” I mutter.

“Leon,” she warns, her eyes pinning me with a warning look that I remember all too well from my childhood.

“Probably best you don’t know.”

“Leon, if you’ve hurt—”

“Mom, can we please not? Things are… complicated.”

“Yeah,” she breathes. “When aren’t they?” She falls silent for a moment and I allow her the time to think. All of this must have hit her like a wrecking ball after all. “Leon,” she says much softer this time. “Life is too short to mess around. If you think she can make you happy, then you need to go for it. You’ve been through too much already to miss out on something that could give you the peace you need.”

She places her hand on my bruised cheek and I lift mine to it.

“Follow your heart, Lee. Not your anger,” she begs.

My lips part to respond but I find pretty quickly that I have no words for her.

“I’m going to see Kayden in a bit. I promised him I’d take him to the arcade.” A smile twitches at my lips that despite our cunt of a father, that my little brother has the most incredible family around him. “You up for it?”

“Yeah, yeah I am.”

“Get ready and I’ll meet you downstairs.”

She pushes from my bed and walks toward the door but she turns back to me before disappearing.

“I’m not going to push you to talk, Lee. But when—if—you’re ready, I’m right here. Nothing you can tell me will ever change how I feel about you. Nothing you could do could change how much I love you.”

“Thanks, Mom,” I say, forcing the words past the lump in my throat.

“But for the love of God, you need to stop fighting. It’s ruining your pretty face,” she says, lightening the mood.

“What, this?” I ask, pointing to myself. “All the girls love a bad boy, didn’t you know that?”

She shakes her head and laughs as she disappears from my room muttering, “It sounds like you only need to worry about one girl.”

I laugh to myself for a beat, before pushing from the bed and finding a change of clothes. Mom’s right, I look like hell so I need to at least try to look a little more presentable.

Music booms from one of the guys’ rooms beneath ours as I make my way down the stairs to find Mom but I don’t see anyone until I step into the kitchen.