Shattered Longings Novel

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.

Bella was so terrified that she covered her mouth to stifle a scream. Who on earth was Leonard?

The thugs were initially stunned, then quickly scrambled to hide behind their leader.

The leader, staring at the dark barrels of the guns, stuttered as he tried to maintain his tough–guy act. “Y- You wouldn’t dare! That’s just a toy gun, right? Don’t try to fool me! I’ve been around here my whole life. I’ve never seen someone like you before!”

I

Leonard’s lips curled into a cold smile. “Wanna bet? You think it’s a fake, I bet you’ll die.”

The sight of those guns must have been too intimidating because, after weighing their options, the group. reluctantly spat a few threats before fleeing faster than rabbits.

Once everything quieted down, Bella’s legs gave out, and she collapsed to the floor, pale as a sheet.

Leonard was surprised. He quickly knelt beside her and tried to explain, “It’s not real, it’s fake! I was just trying to scare them. How did I end up scaring you too? You weren’t afraid of those thugs, but you’re scared of this?”

Bella’s palms were sweaty, and she couldn’t bring herself to look directly at him. She had previously thought of him as just some rich playboy from the area, but what she had just witnessed completely changed her view of him.

Seeing her in disbelief, Leonard nervously scratched his head. “I’m not lying. Do you want to take a closer look?”

Bella quickly shook her head. “No, no, keep it to yourself. I’m going home now. Thanks for saving me!”

It wasn’t just the guns that had frightened her. It was also the way he had looked and acted; he seemed Tike an entirely different person.

Back home, Bella locked herself in her room. But she hadn’t eaten anything since the morning, and her stomach was growling, making it impossible to sleep.

Chapter 251 Set You’ll De

Finally, at around 1:00 am, she couldn’t take it anymore and went to the kitchen to cook something. She tried to be as quiet as possible, but she still ended up waking Leonard.

He stood sleepily in the kitchen doorway and asked lazily. “Didn’t you eat?”

Now that she had calmed down, she wasn’t as scared anymore. She was starting to believe that the guns had been fake. What normal person would actually have something like that?

She nodded. “Do you want some?”

Seeing that the food she was making looked pretty good, Leonard replied, “Sure, I’ll eat a bit. You go ahead, I’m just going to step outside for a smoke.”

Once outside in the yard, he looked in the direction of the kitchen and pulled out his phone to dial a number.

The call connected, and Dominic’s cold voice came through. “What’s going on?”

Leonard recounted everything that had happened that day.

There was a brief silence on Dominic’s end before he snapped, “Couldn’t you handle a few thugs without using that?”

Leonard grinned mischievously. “I just found out today that Bella is such a scaredy–cat. I think she probably ran off because she found out the truth about you and got scared.”