43. Bay
FORTY-THREE
bay
“You got to pick out the movie last time, Mae,” Ellie objects as she holds the remote control over her head for our little sister to not be able to reach it. “I’m not watching Moana again.”
“But it’s my favorite movie,” she whines, jumping up and down as though she’s going to gain eight inches to be able to reach it. “You have to.”
Ellie scoffs. “Definitely don’t.”
I’m literally about to disconnect the Netflix, because Levi bought it for the girls and it’s been nothing but this every single day.
“Why are you bullyin’ me?” Mae immediately stops launching herself at Ellie and puts her small hands on her even smaller hips. “I’m tellin’ Levi.”
Ellie glowers at her. “No, you’re not.”
Mae only stares at Ellie for just another second longer before she rounds her body to go fetch my best friend. “I’m doing it.”
“ Mae ,” I project, stopping her right in her tracks. “He’s on the phone. Go to your room and watch it.”
“But—”
“Or I’m cutting it off.”
Mae frowns, but then wrinkles up her nose at me. “ Fine .”
Then she stomps away and down the hallway, because she knows she’s not going to get her way with me today. I’ve already been a little short with both the girls, because Levi has been on the phone for hours, pacing the kitchen, and I don’t know what he’s doing.
I don’t know what he’s planning, because that has to be what he’s doing now. The run-in with Matteo and his little posse has set him off, and he’s been all sorts of pissed off lately.
“Do you need something, Bay?” Ellie asks, coming up to me as if she can sense something’s wrong.
I shake my head. “No, but you could do me a favor.”
“Sure.”
“Just keep her in there until Levi’s off the phone.”
She nods. “Okay.” Then disappears toward her room to keep the little she-devil inside.
I watch Levi pass through the kitchen again, his face skewed up and pissed. And I know he feels as though it’s the world against him right now.
All because of who I am, mostly.
If it wasn’t for Emilio and his dumbass DNA test, we wouldn’t be going through this.
My phone buzzes in my hand, and I glance down at it, displaying Speakeasy Brewery .
Torin.
It has to be. And he’s another one who just needs to ignore Matteo once and for all so that it doesn’t add more to what’s already going on.
Also, did Reeve rat me out for meeting Emilio the other day?
“Why are you calling me?”
I hear Torin immediately laugh on the other side. “Hello to you, too, Wildfire. I was just checkin’ in on my favorite girl.”
Maybe not.
“I’m going to hang up now.”
“You do,” he warns casually before I can pull the phone away from my ear. “And I’m just going to call Wallace and ask him to speak to you.”
My nostrils flare because I have no doubt that he would. “Why are you always starting trouble with my boyfriend?”
“Because he’s not your boyfriend.”
How did he figure that out?
It could be because Levi and I don’t stride around displaying PDA all the time. He may have claimed me in front of them, but there’s no status between the two of us other than we’re extremely close.
“And you made that observation how?” I ask, watching Levi do another lap across the kitchen.
“Because, if I were your boyfriend, Matteo would be dead by now.”
“And that’s why you’re not,” I retort. “You’re too insane to be in a relationship.”
“You like my crazy, baby. We’re one in the same, you and me. It’s why we work. It’s what will make the sex even more crazy.”
And I feel guilty about that when Levi is losing his mind in my kitchen and I’m over here fucking his enemy.
The fuck is wrong with me?
“Was there a reason why you called?” I ask simply. “Or are you just that bored?”
“I wanted to check in.”
“About?”
“The other night.”
I promptly become uncomfortable because, even though I was with Cairo, if I was with Torin, it would’ve been much worse.
Since the two of them have a past, Matteo would’ve started poppin’ off a lot sooner then. He wouldn’t divulge any qualms about killing the Prince of The Landings and what that would mean for him afterward.
“I’m fine, Torin,” I mutter so that Levi doesn’t hear me.
“Bad time?”
“It’s always a bad time to be speaking to you.”
“Don’t lie,” he counters with amusement. “However, I don’t want to get you in trouble.”
“Really? Because you didn’t mind doing that before.”
“I was a young kid back in those days. My intention was never to have you experience Matteo’s wrath.”
“I beg to differ.”
“What did he say to you?”
I shake my head against his question because, for one, I can’t get into this right now. And, two, I don’t want to. “I just told you this was a bad time.”
“Don’t you have friends, Wildfire? That blonde girl who is always with you at the races.”
The one that is currently hella pissed that she got shot?
“And?”
“You’re talkin’ to her right now,” he offers up as the lie to tell Levi in case I’m caught. “So, tell me what he said.”
“For what?” I clip back under my breath. “Cairo told you to stay out of it, so do that.”
“I’m never going to fully stay away from De Leon. He’s already a dead man walking.”
“And you kill people?”
“I have.”
I scoff, though I’m not certain on that account. “Listen, Pretty Boy…I’m in the middle of something right now.”
“You are,” he divulges. “Me.”
“ No, business.”
“Ah…yes. My female demise.”
“Stop it.”
“You said it,” he emits. “Are you in the middle of conjuring up a plan to take me down right now and I just happened to call?”
“Wouldn’t that be something?”
“It would. However, that’s not the way it’s going to go, is it?”
It’s as though Torin already knows that I’d never be able to murder his ass on the street. That we share this mutual pull between each other and—no matter if it would’ve ended or not—it’d always be there.
“Are you fishing for information?” I solicit evenly.
“No, I’m just stating facts. You can’t kill me, and I won’t hurt you. Whatever shall we do?”
“Separate. Never talk again.”
I swear until I see him smile when he says, “There’s never going to be anything or anyone that’s going to keep us separated, Wildfire. Just accept that and move on.”
“I’m trying to but here you are.”
“Baby…you fucked me and swallowed my load all down that pretty throat. If Wallace is near, he’s obviously not the one for you. He’s never been the one for you. I am.”
The revelation is actually scary as shit.
Am I attracted to the asshole—yes.
Do I want to be—no.
It’d make my life a whole lot simpler in many ways.
“And what do you want me to do with this prediction of yours, Pretty Boy?”
“I want you to be what you always should’ve been,” he vouches. “Mine.”
My head rocks back and forth. “That’s never going to be possible. Look at the line that divides us.”
“I’m breaking the line.”
I’m suddenly met by Levi’s green eyes from across the way, and it’s like he can sense what’s happening here. That someone is trying to pry me away from him.
“I don’t think Levi would like that,” I reply, giving my best friend a small smile.
“He can’t kill me.”
Oh, but I bet he’d try.
Like I’ve said before, Levi would move Heaven and Earth for me. He’d burn a whole city down. He’s endured the hottest desert and the coldest lands just to get to me.
And I would do everything the same for him.
Always.
And no Pretty Boy is ever going to change the dynamic of what I have with Levi.
He might not be my so-called boyfriend, but he’s literally everything to me.
“I have to go,” I profess lightly. “See you around.”
Then I hang up right before Levi does the same thing and strides into the living room with his white tee and black ripped jeans lookin’ all bad boy vibes and someone you’d never bring home to your father.
He crooked a tatted finger at me. “C’mere.” Pocketing my phone into the back of my jeans, I rise and approach him like a fly to shit. “How are you?”
“Fine,” I state. “Are you okay?”
“No.” He reaches for my forearm and guides me the rest of the way to him. “I’m not okay.”
“What’s wrong? Please don’t tell me you’re makin’ crazy moves, Lev.”
He glances down at my hand now placed in his. “I want to. But I don’t want something to happen where I’m not around and you have to do all of this yourself.”
“Let’s focus on Dad and the girls…and leave everything else alone.”
“But they won’t leave you alone,” he counters softly, still looking at my fingers. “And there’s a reason behind that.”
He knows.
I’ve kept this from him for too long, and he’s finally going to let me have it. Talk about how I’ve betrayed him and our friendship. How he’s unable to do this with me anymore since I’ve kept my real identity a secret.
I’m unable to speak or move as those moss-green eyes slice up to me and hold my stare as if he’s ready to shatter my heart at my own doing.
Honestly, I’m a fucking wreck.
“I think we should double think about this whole South Shore thing,” he states. “Shit’s getting too dangerous here.”
My brows knit a bit because that’s not what I was expecting. “What?”
“I need you all to be safe. I can’t eat or sleep with thoughts of you, the girls, and Roger being in the middle of this. I should’ve never have taken the seat.”
“I understand why you did it,” I mutter, squeezing his hand. “It sucks, but I get it.”
“And it’s done the exact opposite. You being linked to me and my being the King of South Shore has done nothing but pull you in. Now, I have the Forsaken fucks following you around. And now Matteo is starting to get big-dick energy about grabbing Wharf Bay’s seat and?—”
“Hold on,” I assert gently. “You don’t have to do this alone. We can figure this out and what comes will come. I’ll have Juice and Hot Rod at my side at all times of the day and night if you want me to.”
“I don’t want you to be a hostage, Bay.”
I shake my head even though he’s right. “I won’t be. Let’s see if Matteo even gets the seat first. Then, if he does?—”
“He won’t,” my best friend vouches. “Cairo will get him.”
“Are you afraid of what Cairo is going to do?”
“No.” He brings the top of my hand up to his face and rubs his stubble against it as he thinks. “According to his father, I have nothing to worry about.”
“But you still are.”
“Because I don’t trust them.”
“Can you trust anybody?”
“You.”
I exhale heavily because he shouldn’t. I haven’t been truthful to him this far and maybe he’s right.
However, I’m not sure if I can get out of Emilio’s clutches by just leaving town. What if he comes to find me and tries to drag me back kicking and screaming?
Levi won’t have the Titan seat and nothing to back him up while it’ll be us versus a whole gang.
“Let’s just…take this one day at a time. What can I do to help?”
“Nothing,” he mutters. “Just order me a pizza.”
I roll my eyes. “I thought you just said nothing.”
“You didn’t eat dinner either.”
Observant as all hell.
“I’m not that hungry.”
“Yeah, but you’re going to eat,” he half-ass orders. “And we’re going to eat together when we do.”
“Whatever you want.”
He winks at me and gently drops my hand. “And that’s what I love about you, Bay.”