Chapter 36 Dignity of the Cornered Beast

Lucas’s POV

The door wasn’t locked.

That alone told me something was wrong. Leo Thompson was many things—sloppy wasn’t one of them.

I didn’t bother knocking.

The handle gave way with a muted click, and I stepped inside.

What I saw next made my breath hitch.

Alicia.

Her shirt was open. One bare shoulder exposed, her back arched against the sofa cushions like she’d just been pulled into them. Her legs were tangled with his.

And Leo?

Naked. Entirely.

One knee pressed into the couch beside her. His head lowered toward her neck. One hand on her thigh. The other—

I didn’t register the rest.

Something inside me snapped. The kind of silence that precedes a bloodstorm settled in my chest. Cold, still, sharp.

I had seen many things in my life. Corpses dismembered. Betrayals forged with a smile. But this?

This was different.

This was her.