Thirty-Two
Leo
It was hard to concentrate when Skye looked like the sun walking around, glowing in the evening, summer light. Leo didn’t let her get too far, either. She was wrapped around his arm or trailed by Shane.
“You’ve taken too much time off,” Shane told him as they stopped by one of the vendors. “You haven’t left her side in over a month.”
“I worked every day for six months,” Leo returned, watching Skye. “I deserve this.”
She was in line for ice cream, chatting animatedly to one of the local women. Leo was surprised by how out-going she was. No longer reserved, no longer wary, Skye seemed to have the itch to make friends. He would rather the locals than the rats at the clubhouse, he told himself. And if she wanted to go out and see her new friends, he would allow it. He would not suffocate her or keep her chained to the apartment.
He had offered her any position at the marina—she had adamantly said no. If she was going to find a job, she said she’d rather support a local store around town. And he could tell she was going to ask it be one of the biker owned ones. Her eyes wandered to their storefronts all the time.
She was becoming one of them.
Or she was one of them already.
He couldn’t be sure.
As if reading his mind, Shane murmured, “She is different.”
“Yes,” Leo agreed.
“A little more out there than I’d like.”
“Better than being a hermit.”
Shane frowned. “She misses them.”
Leo’s jaw tensed as he simply nodded.
“Do you think they brainwashed her?” Shane then asked, glancing at him.
Leo shook his head. “No.”
When Shane waited for more, Leo sighed. “They took care of her. Treated her like family.”
“Only because Hunter claimed her, and that comes with consequences, Leo. If he makes her his, she will be seen as his in the eyes of the club, which makes her presence here, with you, a major problem.”
“He claimed her like I have claimed her,” Leo retorted. “When she’s there, with him, she is his. When she’s here, with me, she is mine.”
But Shane just stared at him.
He stared at him in a way that said,are you certain?
And Leo…wasn’t certain.
This arrangement didn’t make any sense. On one hand, he wanted Hunter as happy as he was with her. On the other, he didn’t want him as miserable as he was probably feeling in that moment. The loneliness in between having her was a torment of its own.
As if to deepen the blow, Shane added, “She will not be yours, Leo. Never in the eyes of the High Table. Never in our world. She will be seen as your whore. Your father will not allow this to carry on. He will ask you to wed a daughter from one of the five families. You will have to cease this relationship. You will have to let her go. Eventually.”
“Eventually,” Leo echoed on a whisper, feeling his throat bob as Skye purchased two ice cream cones.
One chocolate, for her.
One vanilla, for him.
She came up to him, that smile wavering as she stopped before him, studying him. “What’s wrong?”