38. Levi
LEVI
I ’m going to fucking kill him.
Grabbing the piece of shit that had his hands on my girl by the shirt collar, I shove him forward into the bricks of an old, abandoned building.
I don’t even know how the fuck she got here, but I’m half-tempted to bend her over the hood of my car and spank her ass right here for running off like that.
She’s shivering against the side of the building, her wide eyes filled with tears when I punch the asshole so hard, my hand aches afterward.
The dumbass tries to swing, but he only manages to stumble, nearly falling off the curb.
I grab him by the back of the neck, spinning him around towards the brick wall, and shove his face into the stone over and over again.
Blood from his broken nose sprays the bricks, but I don’t stop until I know he’s close to passing out.
When I’m done with him, he’ll wish he’d died.
Dropping him, the asshole doesn’t move an inch while my heart races in my chest.
I want to kill him. I want to rip him limb from limb for what he was going to do to my girl.
My girl.
My hands are vibrating with rage, and I clench them at my sides, my split knuckles cracking under the pressure.
“Levi,” Ava breathes, and my head snaps in her direction.
She’s huddled against the wall, her back pressed against the bricks and her arms wrapped protectively around herself.
“Get in the car.”
Her gaze widens, but for probably the first time since I met her, she doesn’t argue with me.
With the little stunt she pulled, it’s probably a good thing.
“Mr. Black,” Cheddar wheezes. Poor fuck has been running since the moment we found out Ava was missing. “Did you find her?”
“I did,” I tell him.
“I’m . . . sorry . . . I didn’t see . . . what happened.”
I want to be pissed off at him, but even I know it’s not his fault. I hired Cheddar to keep a watchful eye on Ava when I’m not around, but I know her.
She’s slippery. At the first sign of something rejection, she bolts.
Guess that’s why I’m too busy raging at myself to worry about Cheddar.
“Go take a breather, Cheddar.”
He shakes his head.
“I’ll wait here for Mr. Christian, so you can take Miss Ava home.”
I look back at the asshole passed out on the ground. If there’s anyone besides my brother I can trust, it’s Cheddar.
“You sure?”
Cheddar smiles through broken teeth.
“It’s the least I could do.”
I nod once, scrubbing a hand through my hair. I’m still pissed off, but it’s not Cheddar’s fault.
It’s hers .
“Thanks . . . Hector.”
He looks pleasantly surprised that I’d used his real name, and it only makes me grit my teeth harder because she was right.
I’m about to climb back in the car when my cell rings, piercing the night air.
“Did you find her?”
“Yeah.”
“And?”
And I want to rip the man limb from limb.
“Cheddar’s waiting for you.”
“Splendid. How is the big bastard?”
“A big bastard. Christian?”
“Yeah?”
“Make the call.”
Christian chuckles under his breath, low and dark.
“Happily.”
I’m about to hang up when his voice rings out again.
“Levi?”
“What?” I growl. I’m in no fucking mood for a lecture.
“Go easy on her.”
He hangs up without another word, and I suck in a deep breath.
Go easy on her? Fuck that. It’s one thing to throw a tantrum. It’s something else completely that she fucking scared me .
Scratch that. She didn’t just scare me.
She made me fucking panic.
I don’t panic.
Yanking the door handle open, I fall inside, the blazing against my already hot skin. I’m burning up from the inside out and trying to reel in my temper. My hands shake on the steering wheel, my mind going a million miles a minute over what could have happened.
I want to punish her. Tie her up in my cabin and fuck her until she’s coming over and over for me. I want to brand my name on her goddamned ass so everyone will know who she belongs to.
He touched her. He would have hurt her, had I not found her in time. Maybe worse.
He touched her.
“I’m so—”
“ Don’t .”
Ava jumps at the tone of my voice, falling silent. With a growl, I put the car in drive and start towards the house.
She doesn’t try to speak again until we’re out of the city and into the forest.
“Look—”
“Not the time, Ava.”
“Then when? I get you’re angry with me, but you can’t silence me, Levi.”
Oh, there are ways . . .
Fine, baby girl. You want to play, let’s play.
“What the fuck were you thinking?”
She sputters from the passenger seat, her cheeks flaming red.
“I was . . . I was thinking I didn’t want to sit around and watch you flirt with another woman while I looked like a fool,” she snaps, pretty little head shoved high.
I chuckle darkly.
She really has no fucking clue, does she?
“You mean the informant who’s been keeping tabs on your name?”
“Why is she keeping tabs on me?”
“Because, Ava, someone was fucking following you. Or did you not think they were still watching you?”
She putters, falling back in the seat like I’d slapped her.
Finally, she shakes her head, looking anywhere in the car but at me. “It doesn’t matter.”
Jesus fucking Christ.
“What the fuck’s gotten into you?” I grit. I hear what she’s saying, but I don’t fucking like it.
This isn’t my Ava. These are the lies someone’s put in her head.
She scoffs, chuckling humorlessly.
“You made me sign a contract that I would leave if I developed feelings for you.”
“So, are you?”
“Am I what?” she fires back.
“Developing feelings?”
She looks like she’s been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
“That’s not what I said.”
“It’s what you implied,” I challenge, and she falls back at the bite in my voice.
“I’m not a charity case, Levi. If you want me gone, then man up and tell me.”
I scoff at her boldness.
“What the fuck did Cherry say to you?”
I know exactly what it is, and I’d bet a grand that it has something to do with whatever Cherry said to her after I walked away.
I fucking knew it.
My knuckles crack with the force of my grip on the steering wheel.
She shakes her head, looking out at the road. I fucking hate it.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Of course, it fucking matters!” I snap.
“Okay, Levi. You want the truth? Maybe I’m just waiting for this thing to be over.”
Silence is the only sound despite the blood roaring in my ears.
“Come again?”
“You and I were never meant to be forever, Levi,” she says, her voice cracking despite the determination in her gaze. “I know the contract I signed. I also know I have to protect myself, and leaving tonight was just that. An act of self-preservation.”
I pull the car to the side of the road, down a dirt path that leads to an old, forgotten campsite, and shove the car into park.
I hear her sniffle and realize she’s crying, but I can’t do anything about it.
Not this time.
The last three weeks have shown me what loving someone means. It’s not cheesy one-liners and dinner dates with wine. It’s the real, hard shit. The nasty shit no one wants to talk about.
It’s holding her while she silently cries at night when she thinks I’m asleep.
It’s brushing her hair when we take a shower because she’s too tired.
It’s fucking coming home to her. Not someone else every night. Her.
It’s doing what I have to do to protect her, even if she may hate me in the end.
The laugh that escapes me sounds bitter even to my ears.
Imagine that. I was worried about her developing feelings, but as it turns out, I’m the one who fucked around and fell in love.
I pull the car to a stop in front of the house. Neither of us moves.
“You really think you’ve got this all figured out, don’t you?”
She narrows her pretty gaze on me, and suddenly, I want her to fight me.
I want her to tell me what a piece of shit I am. Shove me away. Tell me she hates me.
Maybe then, I could let her go.
“Screw you, Levi.”
She reaches for the handle, but I reach across her, pulling it shut, and get right in her face.
“No, screw you , sweetheart. You think you can just walk away from this? You don’t know a fucking thing.”
“I know you murdered your father.”
A calm falls over the car, so silent, even the snow stops falling for a moment.
“Excuse me?”
“What the fuck did you just say?”
She swallows heavily, and those pretty green eyes finally meet mine.
“I know about that night, Levi,” she breathes, and I feel like the world is crashing down around me. “I watched you murder your father.”
Tears burn in her eyes, and I watch the descent of one as it slides down her cheek.
“I know what you did, and I know you think punishing yourself for it is going to make it better, but it’s not.”
“Stop,” I growl, but she doesn’t.
“—It’s not your fault. You didn’t deserve the way he treated you. He was an evil man—”
“I said stop !”
She jerks at the violence in my voice. I’ve never yelled at her. Never. Even as it leaves my mouth, I feel guilty because a flash of fear crosses her pretty face.
I should have fucking known she’d seen me that night. I should have made sure. I should have checked.
Before she can continue, I get out, slamming the door hard enough that it rattles from the impact. I stalk down the path a few feet in front of the car, trying to get my adrenaline to go down.
My hands are shaking when I run them over my face. My mind is going a million miles a minute with all the things that could have happened because Ava decided to listen to fucking Cherry and ran instead of coming to me.
I, who hasn’t gone a single day without her by my side for the last two months.
I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy, because moments later, the passenger door shuts behind me.
“I strangled my father in cold blood, Ava. I watched the life bleed from his eyes for what he did to my family.” When I turn around, she’s hovering by the car, her eyes guarded. “And you know the fucked-up part, baby? If someone were to come for you , I’d do worse.”
She closes her eyes for a single second, and a tear slips down her cheek. I watch its descent, the meaning behind it burning like battery acid in my chest.