25. Ava
AVA
F ollowing the Tomb incident, Levi and I fall into a routine.
He ignores me.
I ignore him.
Occasionally, one of us says something snarky to one another.
Other than that, the only interaction we have is when he comes to my room each night and makes me come until I pass out.
And of course, when I catch him following me.
It started off as a hunch. A gut feeling of being watched, only to turn around and find no one there.
Now, I’m positive it’s him when I step out of the nursing home one night and catch a glimpse of someone across the street in a black hoodie. My stomach dips at the sight of him, even if I can’t make out his features with his hood drawn.
He’s never been so open about his stalking before, but it’s Levi. Does anything he does make sense?
I take a step.
He takes a step.
I pause. So does he.
I flip him off and stalk off down the sidewalk. He trails me from across the street.
He keeps his hood up, stalking me from the opposite side of the sidewalk, and though I pretend I don’t see him, I can feel his presence.
Why he’s following me, I don’t know, but I do know it’s getting to be a nuisance.
When I arrive home, I immediately stomp upstairs, but instead of going to my room, I walk straight into Levi’s, stopping short when I find him buttoning a pair of jeans after a shower.
My voice gets caught in my throat when he turns to stare at me, my eyes latched on a water droplet that slips down his glorious abs.
“I’d invite you to lick it off, but I don’t have time.”
Rude.
“I-I . . . why would I do that?” I stammer, blushing because I have to admit a tiny part of me would have considered it.
Okay, a big part, but only because he put the picture in my head.
Levi smirks, his gaze running over me, before he looks away dismissively.
“What do you want, Ava?”
“You have to ask?”
He pauses, cocking a brow at me.
“If you’re referring to sex, baby girl, I’d love to stay and fuck you, but like I said. I have plans.”
God, could he be any cruder?
“What’s her name?”
“Her?”
“Yeah. I assume you’re off to see one of your . . . women .”
I hate the bitter jealousy sliding through me. I hate it even more when he flashes a cocky grin my way.
“Little ghost, are you jealous?”
“No,” I lie. “Just wanted to know so I could send flowers to her and offer my condolences. You know, sisterhood of the traveling dick.”
“Mmm . . .” he hums. “With any luck, she’ll be less clingy. Looks like I got enough on my plate with my housekeeper barging into my room unannounced every day.”
What. A. Dick.
“ I’m the clingy one? You’re the one following me.”
“Am I?” he challenges, flashing that devious smirk.
“How did you get home so fast?”
The amusement drains from his eyes, and my heart jolts in my chest like he’d stuck me with a cattle prod.
“I’ve been home all day, Ava.”
Ice slips through my veins, and I back up instinctively when he steps toward me, his T-shirt all but forgotten in his hands.
“No, you haven’t. You were just in town.” I say it slowly, as if maybe he’s had some temporary bout of amnesia and forgot. “You were watching me outside the nursing home.”
“Ava,” he says, like I’m a child who needs coaching. “I wasn’t following you today.”
I notice he said he wasn’t today , but if it wasn’t him, who was it?
“But . . . but . . . that’s impossible,” I breathe, tears welling in my eyes.
“What were they driving?”
I shake my head slowly.
“They weren’t. They were watching me from across the street.”
“What were they wearing?”
“A black hoodie.” I glance at the one on his dresser. “Like yours.”
“Did they have the hood pulled up?”
“Of course, they did. I didn’t see their face.”
He stares at me for a beat, probably trying to decipher if I’m telling the truth.
He was there. “I-It had to be you . . . Who else would it be?”
I blow out a shaky breath through my teeth when his phone rings and he steps back. I’m thankful for the space because my mind is going a million miles a minute. He answers, but I barely register his voice as I run over the last three days in my head.
“I’ll be there soon,” Levi says, cutting the call. He shoves his phone in his pocket and slips his T-shirt over his head, the black making the ink over his muscles more prominent.
Unfortunately, I can’t even enjoy the show. I’m too busy thinking about that . . . person. Whoever they were, they know where Gran is, and if they know where Gran is, what if she’s not safe?
Is it Donovan? He’s always made his presence known. Why hide it now?
Someone else?
“No more trips into town by yourself,” Levi says, tugging his hoodie over his head, and it’s the first thing that breaks me out of the haze surrounding my brain.
“Excuse me?”
He doesn’t even flinch. “You heard me. If you want to see your grandmother, I’ll take you.”
I can’t help but roll my eyes. “I’m not a child, Levi. You can’t tell me what to do.”
“You’re living in my house.”
“It’s Bella and Christian’s, too.”
“And they’ll back me up if I tell them you aren’t to go anywhere.”
He steps past me, heading down the hall. I follow after him, ignoring the way his cologne makes my mouth water.
“You can’t force me to stay here.”
He stops so abruptly that I run into his hard chest when he whirls on me.
“You sure you want to play that game, baby girl?”
Oh, fuck.
I swallow over the thick lump in my throat, falling back a step.
“I have a party to go to this weekend.”
“So?”
“So, I want to go.”
He chuckles dryly. “Sorry, sweetheart, but what you want doesn’t really matter, does it?” He steps closer to me, his eyes darkening. “You signed your life away to me. That means when I tell you no, it means no.”
“So, what? I’m just supposed to wait around until you decide you want to fuck me?”
His frosty blue eyes meet mine, and a shiver slips down my spine at the warning in them. “I mean it, Ava. If I find out you went to that party, I’ll fuck you right there for everyone to see.”
“No, you won’t.”
I can tell by the look in his eyes that he most definitely will.
He stares at me long and hard for a moment, and I force myself to hold his stare. He’s not in control of me. I’m not a child.
“Try it.”
Levi Cross is the worst man I have ever met, and I stand by that statement wholeheartedly.
I mean, what an asshole .
Not that I really expected anything different. He’s been nothing but cruel and rude to me, save for when he wants to fuck me. He didn’t come see me when he got home last night. In fact, I didn’t hear him return at all.
Well, screw him. I’m not going to wait around for him to decide I’m worthy of his touch again.
It’s a nice day when I step out the back door and head toward the hiking paths that weave through the forest. I actually have a day off for once, so I decided to spend it hiking instead of waiting around inside to run into he who must not be named.
It’s warm, but not hot, and there’s a nice breeze blowing through the autumn leaves that makes everything smell like the crisp, mountain air.
I’ve always loved the trails behind the Cross Estate. The main path cuts right through the tall trees, and it feels like a totally different world from the glitz and wealth that haunt the Oak Ridge Lodge.
I take my time because I have all day, enjoying my stroll and taking paths I’ve never been down before. One in particular is slightly overgrown, so just because I can, I start down it, with no intention of following a map.
This is what I enjoy. The quiet calm that can only be found when you’re alone in the forest.
There’s no one to bark orders at you. No one to cast shifty glances your way simply because you exist.
. . . No one to control your every move.
It’s just me and nature, and the longer I walk, the more I find myself wishing I didn’t have to go back.
It’s not until the quiet rumble of thunder sounds overhead, somewhere in the distance, that I pause and look around.
Where the fuck am I?
I’m surrounded by trees on all sides, and when I turn around, I can’t for the life of me tell which way I came from.
To make matters worse, the sky overhead is dark, and the clouds are moving rapidly, meaning a storm is coming. A shiver moves through me at the breeze that rolls through the air, and suddenly I’m cold, my light jacket no longer enough to keep me warm.
Well . . . shit.
I look up through the trees, and the thunder grows louder, as if warning me to get home before I’m stranded.
Oh, this is bad.
“Hello?” I call, but it’s no use. There’s no one around here for miles, and I’m not even on a path.
I’m well and truly alone.
Okay. This is really bad.
I reach for my phone, only to find my pockets empty. And then I remember . . . I left it in my room so I wouldn’t have to deal with Levi today.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I growl.
The universe answers me, just in the biggest fuck you, Ava way possible.
Thunder rumbles, and it’s then that the sky opens up, instantly drenching everything within this forest, me included.
“Oh, fuck you,” I growl. Stupidly, I try to cover my head as if that will save me from the torrential downpour soaking me to the bone, and hunt for somewhere to hide.
I’m so blaming Levi for this.
With the clouds overhead blocking out a lot of the sunlight in the trees, and the rain making it even harder to see, I stumble through the thick underbrush in the way I think I came from, unsure if I’m going the right way or if I’m heading deeper into the Washington wilderness.
There has to be something nearby. Nowhere in this country is this unpopulated.
Then I remember. The Cross’s own at least three hundred acres. The lodge is on the first five of that.
I keep walking, struggling more and more, and getting colder as I go. My teeth chatter, and I tug my jacket tighter around myself, even if it is soaked. I’m coated in mud. Soaking wet to the bone and unable to see anything at all, as the sky only grows darker.
Of course, this storm is one of those storms that wipe out power lines. You know the kind that cause floods and otherwise destroy everything?
I find a large tree, backing up against the trunk, and hold on, like at any moment, the storm will pass, and it’ll be back to clear, sunny skies in no time.
It’s nearly impossible to keep moving, and my shoes are getting caught in the mud with every step. My choices are to keep struggling in the dark or wait here for the weather to subside, and I think I know which one I’m going to be forced into.
I’m such an idiot. I didn’t check the weather before I came out here. I was just desperate to get away from Cross Estate, even if that meant trudging through the forest.
Now, I’d give anything to be warm and dry in my bedroom, even if I did have to listen to Levi and his brooding.
I close my eyes, silently willing myself away from here and suck in a deep breath.
I have to keep going.
I stumble forward, holding onto trees as I go, and just when I’m about to give up, I spot it. A cabin out in the brush. It’s dark, and it looks like no one’s there, but it’s dry. I rush forward, making my way toward the little slice of civilization stuck out in the middle of the forest.
And then my foot catches something hard.
All the air is pushed out of me when I slip down a steep cliff, the mud dragging me down. I attempt to catch myself, fall on my back, and crack my head.
Then everything goes black.