Page 23 of Mischief Mayhem
“I like her,” I said, furrowing my brows. “She does things to me that no one else can do, that no one else has ever done.”
“So she’s a freak?” Leo let out another laugh.
A stinging rage shot through the center of my chest before I squashed it down. I didn’t like anyone talking about V like that, least of all this piece of shit. But I’d learned at a young age to catch flies with honey instead of vinegar. No one liked an aggressive asshole.
“It’s more than that,” I said. “It’s not even sexual.” Yet.
“Ohhh,” Leo said, nodding like he finally understood. “So you want it but can’t have it because of your friend?”
I cleared my throat and straightened, ignoring the burst of dread in my gut. He’d hit the target dead on.
“She’s the president’s daughter,” I said. “Her brother is my best friend. She’s off-limits in a thousand different ways.”
“And that makes you want it more, I imagine.”
I scoffed and helped him upright, handing him the weights so he could start his deadlifts. They weren’t more than ten pounds a piece, but he’d lost a lot of strength in the months we’d held him captive.
“Do you want my advice?” Leo pursed his lips and met my gaze with a friendly and sage one of his own, complete with an innocent smile.
My immediate reaction was to say no. Fuck this guy. He’d tried to have me killed a few times, and given the opportunity, I’d put money on him trying it again. But . . . who the hell else was I going to ask? No one in the MC could know. I’d thought about looping in Ru. Once upon a time, I’d been one of the few people who knew about her secret relationship with Saint. But she and V were best friends, and I figured if anyone deserved to confide in her, it should be V. So, I stared at my sworn enemy while he worked his hamstrings and offered a tentative white flag.
“Okay,” I finally said.
“I think you should fuck this girl.” He shrugged. “If it’s as good as you think it will be, the risk is worth it.”
I balked, my mouth hanging open while I processed what he’d said.
No. No, no, no.
I couldn’t give myself permission for that . . . could I?
Laughter bubbled up my throat and over my tongue, pouring out of me in a wave of relief. No one had ever been that brutally honest with me, and definitely not about V. Hell, no one in the MC would dare talk about her like that, like she was just another fuck in a line of long fucks.
“Oh ho ho,” Leo continued, “You’ve thought about it, huh? I bet you’ve been thinking about it for a while.”
I swallowed against a parched throat, narrowing my gaze. “I’m not good enough for her.”
“Isn’t she the judge of that?” Leo winced as he straightened, setting down the weights so he could rub at his knee.
“Are you okay?” I started toward him, but he held up a hand, making me pause.
“Fine,” he said. “Just aches is all.”
“Do you need me to call Selene?”
“That sadist with the needles? Fuck no.” He blew out a breath and sighed. “It’s fine. I’ll be fine. I just need to rest. Keep talking.”
I sat down on the footstool in front of the recliner and ran my hands over my face. “We almost hooked up. It was great, but then she said it was a mistake, that it couldn’t happen again. I told her what I wanted, and she acted like a deer in highlights.” When I looked at Leo, mischief danced behind his dark eyes, indicating I already knew what I had to do.
If I wanted her, I had to go get her. Stop dancing around the fucking issue, no matter what her father thought. He’d respect me more for being honest about how I felt, despite the consequences, versus being a coward because I was afraid of them.
Trojan wouldn’t have wanted me to do that. Trojan would have told me the same thing as Leo—go after her and make her mine.
“Life can’t be easy for this girl,” Leo said, his voice much softer now. “All those older brothers, a stubborn crow as a father, no mother to fight for her independence.” Naturally, he knew as much about our family as we knew about his.
I cleared my throat and considered his point. Bear, Castor, Pollux, and KC (hell, even me) had scared off any boy she’d ever dared to bring around. In high school, there had been a kid named Teddy that took two steps inside the clubhouse, tucked tail, and bolted. I couldn’t blame him; we were some terrifying motherfuckers, even back then.
No wonder she had run so far away as soon as she could.