Serving Leo [Book 4 of the Stavros Series] ✔️

16

Picture of Adrik Krupin;)

Although I saw Leo only a couple minutes ago in the hall he looked very different. A stand of his dark blonde hair was matted to his forehead with blood now and a bruise in the form of a wire was forming around his neck. He obviously didn't go down without a fight.

He was a fighter after all and a good one at that.

"Ivory," Leo gasped, his eyes flickering between me and the gun pressed to his head. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I laughed dryly. "You're the one with a gun pressed to your head."

"That's about to blow your head off if you don't stop fucking looking at her," Adrik growled, pressing the metal farther into Leo's skin.

Leo's cold eyes turned to Adrik's. "What do you want?"

"Tssk tssk," he mused, "the billionaire obviously never learned manners. How stereotypical." Despite being a professional at looking nonchalant all the time, Leo's face slightly paled.

"See," Adrik continued shifting on his feet to get comfortable. "While I was searching for Ivory, since of course I knew I couldn't trust you to bring her to me at our supposed meeting, I found out that she worked for billionaire Leo Stavros. All it took was some logic and I'll admit listening to your voice in a recorded interview to know that you were him. Plus after I did some digging I discovered you were in Wyoming and weren't planning on coming back anytime soon."

I shot up from the bed. "Don't shoot him Adrik," I grounded out, "he doesn't deserve it!"

"No," Adrik agreed, keeping his eyes on my boss. "But I do need something from him."

"I won't give you shit!"

"Wrong answer," Adrik seethed.

I couldn't stop it if I wanted to. One of the men stepped forward quickly and kicked the back of Leo's knee, sending him buckling to the floor and withering in pain. I noticed that the man had a bruise forming on his right eye and it was already in the stages of swelling. Leo must have given it him before as a little welcoming present.

"Hey you're going to try to kidnap me? Well I'm going to kick your ass." I could imagine it too perfectly.

"Let's try again shall we," Adrik asked with a fake kind voice. He was far from being kind and he wasn't fooling anyone.

"Adrik," I began but stopped when his eyes shot to me, cold and heartless. I gulped back my words knowing it would only cause Leo more pain.

"Good," Adrik said, turning back to Leo on the ground. He holstered his gun and leisurely folded his arms. "Now where were we? Oh yes you were asking what favor you could do for me."

Leo glared at him while I mentally scoffed. Didn't Adrik know it wasn't favor if you threatened him to do it?

"I don't hear you asking," Adrik said, looking at him confused but also amused.

He was sick.

Leo grounded his teeth together. "What can I do for you?"

Adrik clapped his hands together in glee. "I'm so glad you asked. See my dear old father," he said, looking over at me briefly, "is dying of Alzheimer's. Modern doctors might have found a cure to cancer but not to Alzheimer's. We have spent every penny we can on his illness and we're only just now seeing improvements."

Maybe a couple years ago I would have shed a tear for Roman Krupin, maybe I would even have a frog in my throat, but that would have been before his son killed my brother.