Hunter shook his head. “We don’t talk about that.”
“Perhaps Skye might know—”
“I would never use her like that,” Hunter cut in solemnly. “And I know Leo would never involve her in that sort of thing. She is clueless.”
Roy looked uncertain. “How sure are you?”
On this, Hunter vowed, “She knows nothing.”
His body had tightened as he stood taller, like at any moment he might face confrontation. But Roy’s eyes softened. “Then we won’t have you asking her.”
Hunter caught Miles’ movement from his peripheral. He glanced at him, catching his animosity as he flared his nostrils and crossed his arms. Miles was pissed, and Hunter wanted to growl at him, demand he express what he was pissed about exactly.
But then Roy continued. “Prior to this information, we detected a rift between Leo and his father. Would Leo dethrone him?”
Hunter considered this for a moment, returning his attention to the President. “There is a rift. I think—I can’t be sure—but I think his old man was responsible for a certain incident pertaining to Skye’s safety.”
“What sort of incident?”
Hunter pursed his lips. “I can’t—It’s something I’ve strongly kept hidden.”
Roy’s gaze narrowed. “Why?”
He ran a hand through his too long hair, frowning as he looked elsewhere. “Because I’m still trying to figure out where the threat came from.”
Faden puffed out a breath, sounding shocked. “If you think for one fucking second that we tried to threaten Skye—”
“Enough,” Roy cut in sharply, glaring at Faden before looking back at Hunter. “Is that why she was holed up in Leo Itani’s apartment like his prized prisoner? Because there’s a threat to her safety?”
Hunter stretched his hands out, unsure of how much to indulge to his President. “The Warlords deal with the French. We were attacked by French men, and Leo believed the threat originated from our end, that the club was responsible for it—”
“We were not,” Roy growled, face reddening. “When the fuck did this incident happen, Sav?”
“Over her birthday.”
“At the cabin.”
“Yeah.”
Now Roy stood up, hands clenching as he angrily looked at Hunter. “This entire fucking time you haven’t said a fucking word—”
“I was trying to protect her,” Hunter interrupted in a hard tone, though nothing felt hard inside him now as he thought of Skye that night. “I didn’t believe it came from us, but I needed to be sure.”
“Would they have killed her?” Jesse suddenly questioned, looking equally distraught as he stared at Hunter. “This threat, at the time, would they have killed her?”
Hunter shut his eyes for a few moments, admitting, “I think they were going to kill her. I think…that they claimed they wanted money, but it was really about taking her.”
Everyone was quiet now.
Roy paced the room, lost in thought. “This has Itani written all over it. That Itani bitch tried to kill her when she was fifteen, clearly threatened that she might come too close to her son.”
“Fucking crazy,” Jesse whispered, eyes wide.
“She was ensuring Leo’s future,” Roy said, stopping to cross his arms as he rested his back against a shelf of Warlord memorabilia. “She couldn’t risk his path going askew and, fuck, I think George Itani felt the same way.”
Hunter considered this, but then he shook his head. “Their rift was long before then. I don’t think he cares if Leo is…” Is fucking her, he wanted to say, but that just made his stomach clench.
“I think you’re wrong,” Roy returned swiftly. “George thought he might still have a leash on his boy. He still has a plan for him, but then…then he would have had her attacked again.”