Shattered Longings

Chapter 28 I Bet You’ll Die

It was Leonard.

The troublemakers all stood up and began to close in on him. Seeing the situation take a turn for the worse, Bella rushed forward to stand in front of Leonard to block the group.

“Don’t do anything stupid!” she shouted. “I’ll pay you the money, but if you start a fight and someone gets hurt, you won’t be able to get away with it!”

Leonard didn’t even seem to care about the group of men. He was amused as he looked at Bella, who was clearly terrified but still trying to protect him.

“What are you doing?” he asked. “If I hadn’t called you because you were out so late, who knows if you’d still be alive tonight? Step aside, I’ll handle this.”

Bella thought Leonard had lost his mind. “There are so many of them! What are you planning to do? Don’t you know what they say about places like this? You can’t take them on!”

Leonard’s playful eyes narrowed slightly, giving her a half–smile. “Are you sure about that?”

Before Bella could understand what he meant, he suddenly pulled her behind him and, out of nowhere, took out two guns.

At that moment, the playful expression vanished from Leonard’s face, replaced by a look as fierce as a predator’s. He eyed the group of men like they were prey.

she covered her mouth to stifle a

were initially stunned, then quickly scrambled to hide behind their

dare! That’s just a toy gun, right? Don’t try to fool me! I’ve been around here my

I

smile. “Wanna bet? You think it’s a fake, I

must have been too intimidating because, after weighing their options, the group. reluctantly spat a

down, Bella’s legs gave out, and she collapsed to the floor, pale as a

trying to scare them. How did I end up scaring you

were sweaty, and she couldn’t bring herself to look directly at him. She had previously thought of him as just some rich playboy

her in disbelief, Leonard nervously scratched his head. “I’m

keep it to yourself. I’m going home

her. It was also the way he had looked and acted; he seemed Tike an entirely different

anything since the morning, and her stomach was

251 Set You’ll

to cook something. She tried

sleepily in the kitchen doorway and asked lazily. “Didn’t you