Chapter 10: Hidden Heir: Chapter 10

I definitely do.

I turned up on his doorstep with nowhere else to go, having not seen him in four years, and he took me in without question. He helped care for my daughter, gave her a place to sleep, and then cared for me like we had a much deeper history beyond just a random fuck in a club four years ago.is

“You’re right,” I say softly, sitting next to Tiff at the kitchen island while she eats her breakfast of granola, fruit, and yogurt. “I just don’t know where to begin.”

Leon stands in the doorway with his arms crossed. There are slight shadows under his eyes, and I’m not sure he’s even slept. He was gone when I woke up. In truth, I expected to be back in my apartment, the horror from the night before nothing more than a nightmare that ended in a dream in Leon’s arms. But I woke up in a bed more comfortable than anything I’ve ever slept on, with my daughter by my side. She was so excited to be in a fancy new place, all of her fear and upset from the night before seemingly forgotten.

She is strangely enamored with Rik, the man who follows me like a ghost through the house, only leaving the kitchen once Leon appeared, after untangling himself from Tiff’s hands.

My daughter’s resilience is quite impressive.

“Have you eaten?” Leon asks.

“No. I just made some breakfast for her.”

“Do you like French toast?”

I nod and Leon gets to work. He moves around me as if this is a dance we’ve danced a hundred times before, getting out eggs, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, and bread. As he works, I subtly keep myself between him and Tiffany because despite everything, Leon is still a dangerous man.

Perhaps the most dangerous.

Four years ago, he was just a sexy, nameless hunk that was so gorgeous I thought nothing of fucking him in the alley behind the club. And then again in the bathroom stall when we couldn’t get enough of one another. He was just a guy, with miles of muscle and a sexy smirk that made my heart melt and my core ache.

Until I saw him on a news report the following day, standing next to the tyrannical criminal kingpin Kreik Koval. The report stated that Koval had once again walked away from airtight murder charges. To this day, I still remember the way my stomach fell when I googled Koval and learned of his son, Leonity.

Leon.

My Leon.

The sexy, mysterious, best-sex-of-my-life club fuck was the son of a man suspected of building the most brutal and successful criminal empire New York had ever seen. Nothing was ever proven, of course, and that was the catch. A man that dangerous was far too slippery. He greased all the right palms, often going to court simply for the satisfaction of walking away free. Some reports claimed his son was just as dangerous, if not worse.

Sleeping with a criminal would have been hot if the crimes listed weren’t so horrifying. I didn’t sleep for a week, terrified that he would turn up on my doorstep and demand more from me, the full weight of his criminal family backing him up.

Six weeks later, I discovered I was pregnant with Leon’s baby.

It was the scariest moment of my life. I spent three days locked in my apartment sobbing over the terror that gripped me and the uncertainty over what to do. It was one thing to have a baby with a stranger, but quite another to have the baby of someone so dangerous. I was haunted by the thought that he would take me and my baby, immersing us into the terrible, dangerous world he thrived in. People died daily from gunshots, drugs, stabbings, and worse. One article claimed there was no humanity in the Koval family. Other articles stated they would sell their own children if it meant getting a more substantial profit on drugs.

Seeing what drugs had done to my brother was scary enough. I couldn’t stomach the thought of raising a child in that world. I’d rather die.

So I stayed hidden. I buried myself in my work, moved to the other side of the city, and never went out clubbing again. He only knew my first name but for a long time I was certain he’d be able to track me down.

He never did, and I’ve had three wonderful years with my daughter.

Now I find myself in his kitchen because he’s the only person that can save me and my family from the Irish mafia. I can’t tell him the truth about Tiffany; she is my child, he simply donated the DNA.

I want her to have a normal, loving life.

Which is why I can never tell Leon the truth.

I don’t know him well. Not really. If he finds out I kept his child from him, what’s to stop him from killing me and taking her? Or worse, handing me over to the Irish instead of protecting me from them?

I’m stuck between two rocks, and I’m praying that Leon is the softer space.

I hate lying. It makes my stomach tight and my skin hot, but for my daughter’s safety, I will lie until my gums bleed.

“Has your boyfriend eaten?” Leon asks, cutting through my wandering memories.

“My boyfriend?” I glance over at him in confusion. His head is down as he chops up tomatoes and peppers for scrambled eggs. “I don’t have a boyfriend. You mean the man I came with?”

Leon nods.

“He’s my brother, not my boyfriend,” I snort in disgust. “Eww. A thousand times eww.”

“Oh.” Maybe it’s just my imagination but Leon almost sounds relieved. He chops a little faster, then lifts his head, his green eyes locking onto mine. “Tell me why you’re here.”

He looks at me so intently that I feel stuck, like the moment I look away I will accidentally unlock and spill all of my secrets. Telling him the truth about the Irish and my brother is a gamble I’m not yet willing to take. For all I know, he’s friends with those monsters. I don’t know the rules between crime families, but if they move in the same dirty underworld then it’s reasonable to assume they’ve crossed paths. I don’t want to give Leon an excuse to hand me back to them.

Not wanting Tiffany to hear too much, I hand her tablet to her and ask her to play at the table. She takes one last bite, then holds her arms out for me to help her off the stool. I lead her over to the kitchen table and help her get settled in before going back to lean against the island.

“I’m scared,” I say softly. It’s hard to talk about.”

“Nothing and no one can get to you here. You’re safe.” Leon says firmly. “You came to me for a reason and I want to know why. How did you even know where to find me?”

“I googled you the day after we met. I realized we didn’t exchange numbers, and I didn’t know how to contact you.” A half lie. “Found out you lived in this huge place and realized you were way out of my league so I chickened out on contacting you.”

I notice a small grin on Leon’s face as he tosses the chopped veggies into a pan. “And you came here last night because?”

I take a deep breath and tell myself to lie around the truth.

“I, uh,” My stomach twists into knots. Whatever I tell him could mean the difference between life and death for my brother. “My brother is a drug addict. He has been for longer than I can remember. Last night, he got high. Like, scary high. I had gone out because someone had broken in and trashed my place of business, and I was shaken and needed to let off steam. As I was preparing to leave, I was attacked. I was able to get away and came home to find my brother passed out and my daughter sobbing, scared to death. The guy must have followed me home because he showed up, banging on the door and yelling that he was going to kill me and my daughter. He might have been stalking me because I don’t know how else he knew I had a kid.”

I shake so badly that I’m forced into silence, and I quickly place one hand over my chest, feeling my heart pounding beneath my palm. Tears spring into my eyes, despite my constant swallowing to try and keep the emotion at bay.

Leon abandons his cooking, turns the flame down, and approaches me slowly. “Is that who burned your shoulder?”

I nod. “And I lost my shoes when I ran away and…” I trail off, unable to look him in the eye. “I was scared. I have no one else. It’s just me and my brother. When I found him in that state, I thought he was going to die, but I couldn’t take him to the hospital because they’d ask me why I left my kid with a drug addict. I couldn’t risk her being taken away from me.

“I know that sounds terrible but he’s trying to change. I swear he’s trying to fix himself. After the guy stopped banging on my door I knew I had to get us someplace safe, someplace that Ant could sober up and we could discuss rehab—again. I crashed because that guy ended up catching up to us and was chasing me. I didn’t know where else to go and I found myself here. It all sounds so pathetic, I know, and I’m so sorry, but I just needed⁠—”

Leon’s hands land softly on my shoulders and a sob bursts out of my throat. I’m unsure if it’s from being upset or fear. Tears swell in my eyes as I feel Tiff tug on my shirt.

“Mommy?”

“I’m fine, baby,” I tell her. “I’m okay, really.”

“Take a deep breath, it’s okay,” Leon says.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I just… I didn’t know where else to go and it was a desperate moment.”

“I understand.” Leon’s thumbs rub gentle circles on my shoulders. “Brooke, you’re safe here.”

“Am I?” I lift my gaze to meet his eyes. “Can you truly promise that me and my daughter are safe?”

“I swear it,” Leon says with such conviction that I almost believe him. If we were old friends, there would be no doubt in my heart. But he doesn’t know that I know who he really is. And he doesn’t know my truth.

I know I’m building trust on lies, but if it means that my daughter is safely hidden from the Irish mafia, I’ll take it.

“Thank you,” I say, getting my tears under control. “All I care about is keeping my daughter safe.”

“You can stay as long as you need,” Leon replies, his grip tightening slightly. “And if⁠—”

“Leonity!” barks a deep, raspy voice with a much thicker Russian accent than Leon’s.

Leon’s hands drop from my shoulders and I jump in fright, turning to see an older man dressed in a pinstripe suit leaning on a black cane. He has a thick white beard, an angry scowl on his face.

I recognize him instantly from the news reports. He hasn’t changed one bit, except for maybe looking a little bit older, more weathered.

“Father,” Leon says tightly.

“Care to explain who the fuck this is?” he snaps, pointing at me with his cane.

Tiffany holds tightly to my legs, her face buried against my body.