Chapter 3
Leo asked to speak with Dante alone.
They met in the estate gym that evening.
The fifteen-year-old stood near the heavy bag, arms folded.
“You’re going to think I should've told you sooner.”
“Probably.”
Leo looked down.
Dante waited.
“I saw Grant following Lily.”
“When?”
“Twice.”
The first time had been three weeks earlier during riding practice.
Grant stood near the east paddock even though he had no assignment there.
When Lily left with her instructor, Grant checked his phone and followed several minutes later.
Leo thought nothing of it.
The second time happened outside the tack room.
Grant had Lily’s saddle pad spread across a bench.
When Leo asked what he was doing, Grant said Marcus requested a safety inspection.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Leo looked irritated.
“Because everybody tells me to stop acting like I’m security.”
Dante remembered.
Leo had become increasingly interested in protective work after his father died.
Dante repeatedly reminded him he was fifteen.
Not a bodyguard.
Not a capo.
A teenager.
But Marcus had treated Leo differently.
“You want to be useful?” Marcus often said. “Learn to notice things.”
Dante suddenly disliked that sentence.
“Did Marcus know you saw Grant?”
Leo nodded.
“I told him.”
“What did he say?”
“That I was imagining threats because I train too much.”
Dante stared at him.
Marcus had encouraged Leo to observe.
Then dismissed him when he observed the wrong person.
Leo continued.
“There’s something else.”
Two months earlier Marcus asked Leo whether he wanted to join a junior security program when he turned sixteen.
The program was supposedly run through Meridian Shield.
“He said I could start learning surveillance systems.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Why?”
Leo hesitated.
“Grant creeps me out.”
Dante almost smiled.
Not because the situation was funny.
Because fifteen-year-old judgment had apparently outperformed several adults.
Then Leo added:
“Marcus got really mad when I said no.”
That changed the conversation.
May you like
The hidden trackers might involve Lily.
But Marcus had been working on Leo too.
