5
Leon
My weekend starts exactly as my week ended.
A fucking disaster.
Much like my entire life, if I’m being honest about it.
After leaving my father barely conscious, I jumped back into Luca’s car and ended up at The Locker Room.
I’ve been here a couple of times since that night. It feels weirdly therapeutic being where my father made his final mistake.
Bry looked less than amused when he saw the state of me but after a little convincing, he ushered me to one of his darkest booths and left me with a bottle of the most expensive whisky the place has.
It wasn’t a surprise to me when I found out the kinds of things that go on under the roofs of his establishments that run across the country.
It’s no secret that Brett’s a scumbag so it only seems fitting that in each of his favorite states he has a place where he could let his inner demon loose.
A shudder rips through me as I think about all the ways he fucked us all over, but no one as much as our mother.
Why she stayed with him for as long as she did, fuck only knows. She says it was for us. But kids do just fine with separated parents. I want to believe that there’s another reason just to relieve a little guilt that it’s our fault she stuck it out and got treated like shit for years.
My head steadily pounds as I lay there trying to remember how I got from the bar to here at some point in the middle of the night.
But everything is hazy. Sadly, the parts about my life I want to blur into nothingness never leave though. And I still vividly remember exactly how she felt beneath me on that desk. How fucking tight she was as I pushed inside her, how she cried my name when she came.
“Fuck,” I bark, bringing my fist down on the pillow beside me but regretting it instantly when my knuckles split open, blood beginning to pool at each wound last night left behind.
But the pain of that is nothing compared to the booming voice of my brother only seconds later.
“LEON,” he barks, his footsteps thundering my way before he slams his body against my door, ensuring the lock gives way and he comes flying in.
His lips part to shout some more but then he sees the blood and his expression falters.
“What do you want?”
He hesitates for a second.
“Where the fuck is my car?”
“Oooh… umm…” His expression turns murderous. “I can’t remember,” I confess, glad that my secret hasn’t changed how big of an ass he can be.
“You fucking what?” He thunders.
“I’m sure it’s fine, bro. Chill.”
“Don’t you fucking tell me to—”
“Luca,” Peyton shouts as he lunges toward me.
He damn near stops mid-air at the sound of her voice which amuses me greatly.
“You’re so fucking whipped, bro.”
“If you’ve so much as scratched it, I’ll fucking kill you,” he seethes.
“Have at it. Doubt anyone would miss me.”
His jaw ticks at my words, darkness seeping into his green eyes, which is better than pity.
“You haven’t fought this hard to give up now, Lee,” he warns as Peyton sucks in a breath behind him.
“No, so what am I meant to do?” I ask, genuinely interested in where he thinks this is going to go now that my past is out in the open.
“Keep fucking fighting. Or he wins.”
“He’s never going to win. And even if I do drown. He’s not going to be alive to see it.”
Luca pales at the unspoken words in my statement.
“No, Lee. You’re not putting your future at risk for that… for him.”
Throwing the covers off, I push to stand, standing toe to toe with my brother.
“Fucking watch me. I’ve waited ten years for this, you can fucking forget it if you think I’m going to put it all behind me and let him live the rest of his life being worshipped by kids all around the world for his achievements in football.”
“And killing him will achieve what?”
“It’ll stop him,” I whisper coldly before spinning on my heels and storming toward my bathroom in the hope that they’ll both be gone by the time I reemerge.
I stand under the burning torrent of water, letting it wash away our father’s blood that’s splattered up my arms. The open wounds on my knuckles burn, but I barely acknowledge it, instead I clench and unclench my fists, needing more pain.
I’ve thought of a million and one ways I’ve wanted to end that cunt’s life over the years, each and every one of them involves me looking him dead in the eyes as the life drains out of him so he knows exactly who’s done it.
I always thought it would be relatively easy. Sure, his disappearing off the face of the Earth put a wrench in the works, but I figured it would still be easy to get to him because even if he just bought an even bigger estate and was hiding inside it; I always thought I’d have a chance to get to him somehow or someway.
But now, with him in a secure facility. I have no idea how I’m going to make that happen.
I can hardly rock up to the place and convince the staff who’ve never seen me before that he’s my long lost uncle and get a free pass into his room.
It’s obviously going to take more planning than that. It’s also going to need people with skills, with the lack of morals to see something like this through.
The second I’m out of the shower, I find my cell in my pants pocket from last night and find the person I’m going to need for this.
Someone whose morals are more than just a little lacking.
“What the fuck?” I mutter the second I step out of the house and find my car sitting in the driveway.
I know Luc said he was going to get it delivered back but fuck, I wasn’t expecting it here already.
Cancelling the Uber I’d requested, I walk toward my car and pull the door open.
I should be shocked by the fact my keys are sitting right in the middle of the driver’s seat for anyone to steal, but that isn’t what captures my attention when I step closer.
It’s the scent.
Her scent.
My car smells like fucking coconuts and innocence.
“Motherfucker.”
Unable to resist, I drop down into the seat and suck in a deep breath.
It settles me in a way I don’t like, it reminds me just how much easier she made everything in those couple of weeks. How being with her cleared all the poisonous and twisted thoughts in my head until all I could think about was her.
I thought it was good. But really. It’s a weakness.
She’s a weakness.
And one I don’t need or want.
I have a game plan and I intend on following it through to the end.
So what if she didn’t turn out to be the evil bitch I wanted her to be? So what Richard isn’t going to be an easy target to get to?
Nothing worth getting is ever easy. And revenge, payback for what he did to me is most definitely worth the effort.
With my endgame in mind, I start the engine and back out of the driveway. Movement in the living room window catches my eye, and when I look over, I find Luca glaring out at me.
Our eyes hold for a beat before I gun the engine and fly off down the street.