Chapter 10: "Now It's Your Turn"

Leah's POV

Anna let out a sharp, mocking laugh. "Don't kid yourself, sweetheart. Elias is my dog. You really think he'd dare?"

Sure enough, Elias shook his head. "Anna, she's different."

"Different how? Go ahead — explain."

I felt a sudden flicker of dark curiosity. I wanted to hear exactly what shameless thing he would come up with.

Elias struggled for a long moment before finally squeezing out an answer: "She's going to live with us. She's here to join our family."

I walked over, crouched down to his level, and slapped him hard across the face. Then I wiped my hand on my sleeve like I'd touched something rotten. "I can't believe I was ever blind enough to think you were worth a damn."

I stood back up. "I don't need either of you to get anywhere in life. All I want is for you to stay the hell away from me." I turned and met Anna's eyes. "That goes for you too."

The smile dropped off Anna's face. She snapped her hand through the air. "You had your chance. Take her down — and anyone who gets in the way goes down with her."

Her men drew their weapons instantly, a wall of gun barrels swinging toward me. Matto's men moved just as fast — kicking Elias aside, closing ranks around me, their own guns leveled straight back at Anna's crew.

Kyle's legs buckled. He collapsed to the floor, sobbing. "Leah, Leah, please — Dad is begging you, just back down. Are you really going to stand there and watch us all die? We're family."

Family. I looked at him — the tears streaming down his face, his whole body shaking — and felt absolutely nothing. "What happens to you is none of my concern."

There had been a time when I might have stepped in for his sake. But that was before he tried to hand me over. The moment he put me on the table as a bargaining chip, he stopped being my father. A cold, hollow ache opened up in my chest as I stood there watching him fall apart. This man I had believed loved me — he had only ever been on my side because no one had offered him enough to switch. The second the scales tipped, he would hand me over without a second thought.

Anna's eyes had gone vicious, her hand half-raised as if she were about to give the order to fire — and then the screech of brakes cut through the air outside.

"Who's there?" Anna's head snapped toward the entrance.

I looked too. My first instinct was that she'd called in more backup, but the surprise in her voice told me she hadn't. Who would show up now, of all times?

Then Matto walked through the door.

He was still in his perfectly fitted suit, posture straight, his sharp gaze sweeping the room before it settled on me — and softened, just barely. Behind him came a line of men whose gear and numbers made Anna's crew look like amateurs. In every way that counted, they had her people completely outmatched.

"Matto." The word left me before I could think. The frantic hammering in my chest went quiet all at once. I crossed the room to him, and he pulled me in, his hand moving through my hair. "Don't be scared. I'm here."

Anna stared, her expression cycling through disbelief. "Are you serious right now?" she snapped. "Matto, you're a man I threw out like trash. What exactly are you trying to pull? You hire a few extras, wave around some prop guns, and you think that's going to scare anyone? You aren't even fit to lick the dirt off mine shoes."

Matto didn't bother with her. He stepped to my side, checked me over to make sure I was unhurt, then turned back to Anna with the same unhurried calm. "Looks like the lesson I gave you last time didn't stick. You still haven't learned what happens to people who come after what's mine."

"Lesson?" Anna let out a high, ugly laugh, as though he'd said something genuinely absurd. "Matto, stop bluffing. My father is the governor — he runs this city. You've had a decent run lately, I'll give you that, but you're still just a man who got lucky with money. You think your net worth outranks a governorship? Touch me once, and my father will make your life a living hell. He will make you disappear from this earth entirely."

Matto's expression didn't shift. He didn't answer her. Instead, his gaze drifted down to Elias, still flat on the floor and unable to get up, and the corner of his mouth curled into something cold and unhurried. "The governor. Right. A warrant for my arrest." He let the words sit for a moment. "You swore up and down, last time, that if I ever pulled a stunt like that again, your father would have me hunted down. And I did pull that stunt — I put a bullet in the man currently lying at your feet, and he spent a good stretch of time in the ICU afterward." He paused again. "And yet I've still never seen any warrant. Which tells me the governor's daughter doesn't mean nearly as much to him as you'd like to believe." His gaze dropped to Elias one more time. "Turns out the protection you've been banking on is a bad check, Elias. Pathetic."

Elias's hands clenched into fists, his face flushing a deep, mottled red. "Stop trying to drive a wedge between us," he spat, though he couldn't bring himself to meet Matto's eyes — or Anna's. "What Anna and I have is none of your business. You just wait — when the governor hears about this, you're finished."

The bravado was hollow. Everyone in the room could hear it.

"The governor, the governor." The mockery at the corner of Matto's mouth was barely contained. His right hand moved — one clean motion, faster than anyone could track — and the shot rang out before anyone had time to react.

The sound cracked off the walls. Anna screamed. The bullet had punched straight through her arm, and she doubled over, clutching the wound, her whole body shaking as she stared up at Matto. "You shot me. You actually shot me."

I stood with my hand pressed over my mouth.

"That bullet is a reminder," Matto said, his gun still trained on her, "that some people you don't touch. Now get out of here. Go find your father. I'll be waiting for that warrant." He let the silence stretch. "If it never comes — next time, I won't aim for the arm."

Anna's face twisted into something unhinged. "Shoot them!" she screamed at her men. "Kill every last one of them — not a single one walks out of here!"

Her men exchanged uneasy glances. They hesitated. Then, one by one, they began to step back.

"What the hell are you doing?" Anna's voice cracked with rage. "Are you deaf? Why aren't you firing? My father will destroy every one of you for this."

She kept screaming. One of her men leaned in and murmured something close to her ear. Whatever it was, the color drained from her face. The fury in her expression curdled into something colder and harder.

"You'll all regret this." She threw the words out like a threat, then turned on her heel and walked out fast, her men filing after her.

"Anna!" Elias scrambled, reaching after her. "Wait — what about me? Don't forget me!"

She didn't look back.

Matto heard him. He walked over, crouched down in front of Elias, and gripped his chin in one hand, tilting his face up. His voice came out quiet and almost pleasant. "You put your hands on my woman." He held the eye contact for one long beat.

"Now it's your turn."