26. Levi
LEVI
Levi: My room. Now.
I sent that text over half an hour ago, and it’s been nothing but radio silence on her end since. I can’t lie and say I didn’t expect it, but she can’t ignore me. Regardless of whether she’s pissed at me, she can’t hide from me forever. I may be patient, but only for so long.
“Open the damned door, Ava.”
Which is why I’m at her door the moment the thirty-minute mark hits.
There’s no response from the other side. I know for a fact today is her day off, and I’m getting really fucking agitated waiting on her to show up. We have somewhere to be, and we’re already late.
After I told her she couldn’t go out last night, I haven’t heard from her, and I can’t escape the nagging voice in the back of my head telling me I need to put a leash on her.
My girl likes to be defiant, and I also know she will do anything she can to piss me off.
It’s part of what’s so fucking addicting about her.
“Are you done throwing a temper tantrum over your little party this weekend?”
Still no answer.
There’s a part of me that wants to apologize. To tell her the truth about why I’m keeping her at arm’s length.
Then, there’s that other part that refuses to let anyone see what’s really going on in my head. Conceal it. That’s always been so easy before. Why’s it so damned difficult now?
I try the handle, finding it unlocked. Good thing, too, because I’m this fucking close to breaking it down.
I push her door open, and the scent of her perfume is dull. Like she hasn’t been here in a while.
A trickling sense of awareness slips down my spine when I quietly shut the door and start looking around Cross Estate.
She’s nowhere to be found, and with today being her day off, I expected to at least find her in the study, reading, or up in her room.
I check with Javier, but he hasn’t seen her since last night. I text Mila, but she hasn’t seen her either.
I make my way through every room, even going so far as to check the room at the end of the hall—you know, the one I’ve made it a point to avoid for the last month? She’s nowhere to be found, and that’s when the quiet alarm bells ringing in my ears turn into a full-on roar.
“Paulina,” I snap when I find her in the office at the lodge. “Where’s Ava?”
Her brows knit together, and she excuses herself from the guest she was helping.
“Today’s her day off.”
I grit my teeth, an unsettling sensation slipping through my veins.
“So, where is she?”
“I believe she was going on a hike. I saw her leave a little while ago with a backpack.” She looks at the clock on the wall. “She should be back by now.”
“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?”
She cocks a brow, clearly unimpressed. “We discussed this. She’s a big girl. If the brat wants to traipse through the woods on her own, let her.”
“She’s not a fucking brat,” I grit. She’s my brat . “She could die out there, or did you not realize a storm was rolling in?”
She stares at me for a beat, her gaze softening, and beneath that hard exterior, I see a concern that fills my stomach with dread.
My girl’s out there in a fucking storm.
“She should be back by now,” Paulina repeats quietly.
“I’m going after her.”
“You can’t go out in a storm like that,” Paulina urges, rushing behind me. “It’s dangerous.”
That’s what scares me. Ava is tiny compared to me. I’ve got at least a hundred pounds on her, and I’m a whole head taller. She’s out in a bad storm when even I wouldn’t chance that.
“I won’t leave her alone out there.”
Pushing past her, I hurry out the door as the rain cuts loose, pouring down from overhead. I hurry back to the house, grab a flashlight, and slide a hoodie on—not the best for rain, but it’s better than nothing—before I head out into the storm after checking her room one last time.
The rain makes it difficult to see, and as dusk approaches, it’s getting darker and darker. She’ll be hard to see out in the brush, but I have to try.
Without waiting another minute, I storm through the trees, following the path up the mountain.
It’s a gradual climb, but it’s long, and I know better than anyone how easy these woods are to get lost in if you stray from the path. If I know Ava, she’s so far off the fucking path, she’s forgotten it’s there by now.
“Ava!” I call out into the rain that falls overhead.
It’ll be dark soon, and for all I know, she could be hurt. It’s cold, and as the rain pelts down, it’s only getting colder.
I can’t explain the burn in my chest, nor the panic in my veins at the silence that greets me in place of her soft, sweet voice.
“ Fuck ,” I curse, stopping and searching through the trees. “Where are you, baby?”
I walk until it’s nearly pitch-black overhead, and though the rain soaked through my clothes long ago, I keep going. I’m going to find her, whether it kills me or not, because I’m supposed to protect her. That’s my fucking job.
I’m deep in the trees, and the trail that I thought might be hers died off long ago.
I don’t stop, though, even as my toes go numb and my mind starts to come up with the worst. It’s like my nightmare playing over and over again in real time, only now, it’s ice instead of fire that’s going to take her from me.
And then I spot it.
A small footprint in the mud that I fucking know is hers.
“Ava!”
It’s by pure chance that I hear it. A whispered groan carried on the wind whipping through the trees from somewhere nearby.
I don’t think I’ve ever felt pure, unadulterated relief until the moment my flashlight lands on her, lying at the bottom of a steep drop-off.
“ Fuck, Ava .” I slip down the rocks to land beside her small form, nestled in a bed of weeds and mud.
She’s soaking wet and filthy, barely shivering when I reach her. Her face is pale, and her eyes are shut. On her head, a cut oozes blood, and her lip is busted from the fall.
“Fuck,” I curse under my breath, trying to shield her with my body. She’s in nothing but a thin jacket and leggings, and the rain is heavy overhead. “Sweetheart, look at me.”
She doesn’t. Not even when I lift her into my arms and cradle her against my chest.
“Ava.” I shake her, but she’s out of it, her head lolling into my shoulder. “Fuck. Fuck.” Struggling to stand in the mud, I hoist her up into my arms, holding her close.
I’ve got to get her out of the cold, and the cabin isn’t far. I cradle her to me, ignoring the answering ache in my feet and hands from the cold, and start the harsh trek toward the only place of solace this deep in the woods.
It’s difficult, carrying her small form through the dark and wet night, but I don’t let her go. I walk for what feels like hours, but it’s probably only twenty minutes until the silhouette of the cabin is lit up by a streak of lightning across the sky.
I sit Ava on her feet on the porch, and she groans, barely able to hold herself up. I pin her to the side of the cabin with my body and fish my keys out of my pocket to unlock the door before she falls over. Picking her back up, I carry her in and kick the door shut behind me.
I lay Ava down on the old couch before I head to the fireplace and toss a couple logs in. Luckily, last time I was here, I left a few stacked to the side so they’re dry. I light them, casting the room in a warm glow.
Grabbing the first aid kit I find in the bathroom, I pull up a chair and sit down beside her to clean her cut.
She must have taken a nasty fall, judging by the mud caked on her clothes and the cut on her forehead.
She won’t need stitches, but I clean it, placing a bandage over it to keep it from bleeding.
She doesn’t stir the entire time.
“Come on, Ava,” I say, but it sounds more like pleading with the ache in my chest. “Look at me.”
She doesn’t, not even when I start to undress her, hanging her soaking wet clothes on the back of the chairs at the small kitchen table. I remove everything until she’s completely naked before I shed my own.
Grabbing the end of the mattress from the bed, I slide it onto the floor in front of the fireplace before I cover it with whatever blankets I can find.
Lifting Ava from the couch, I carry her over to the fire, wrapping us both inside the blankets and pulling her against my bare chest.
I have no fucking idea what I’m doing, but I’ve always heard skin to skin is best when hypothermia is at stake, so I hold her tighter, ignoring the way my dick responds and pressing a kiss to her forehead.
“Levi?” Ava breathes, not yet opening her eyes to look at me.
“I’m here, little ghost,” I whisper, ignoring the irony behind her nickname and the feelings in my chest.
She shivers, burying her face into the crook of my neck, and I let her, holding her as tightly as I can while I watch the fire over her shoulder.
Fuck, if I hadn’t found her, there’s no way she would have survived out there through the night. Not with the rain pelting down from above and the cold setting in with the night.
“You came for me?” she says softly, interrupting my thoughts of how I found her, lifeless and freezing on the forest floor.
Leaning back, I look down at her. Her lashes sit heavily on her cheeks, and she’s not fully awake, but some of the color is returning to her face, and a shiver of relief rolls through me.
Brushing the still-wet hair back from her forehead, I place a kiss right beside her bandage.
“Always.”
The storm has died down to a steady rainfall when Ava stirs against me.
In my sleep, I let out a groan at the feeling of her tight little body running up against my bare cock.
“Fuck,” I grit, gripping her hip to stop her.
Her eyes flutter open, and she stares up at me in confusion at first. Then shock. Then horror.
“Levi?” Her voice quivers when she says my name as if waking up naked in bed with me is the worst thing that’s ever happened to her.
Can’t say I blame her.