Chapter 6
Phoenix
Levi definitely wasn’t happy to see me when he opened the door to let me into the kitchen. But the fact that he also wasn’t surprised by my presence meant Father O had likely talked to him.
I’d gotten up around lunch time and then headed to St. Anthony’s to talk to Father O.
I figured getting the old man on my side would make things easier when I showed up for my first shift as the newest volunteer for the St. Anthony’s Soup Kitchen.
I’d convinced Father O to put me on the same schedule as Levi so that I could give him a ride to work each night.
The deciding factor for Father O had been my insistence that I could make sure whoever had put the bruises on Levi’s face wouldn’t get a second chance.
I hadn’t told the priest I already knew how Levi had gotten the injuries, but he hadn’t seemed surprised that Levi had even ended up with the bruises in the first place…
like he’d already known it wasn’t a random attack.
After I’d gotten Father O’s buy-in, I’d gone back to Levi’s apartment to wait so I could follow him.
Like the day before, he’d taken the bus again, despite the improvement in the weather.
Since he’d walked to the church all the previous times, I had to assume he was being careful because of his run-in with the blond asshole the day before.
There’d been no sign of said asshole this time around so I’d waited a few minutes before knocking on the soup kitchen entrance door.
Levi didn’t say anything as he opened the door wider, so I followed him inside and remained silent as he gave me my instructions - cutting up vegetables for the stew he was preparing.
As I worked, I let my thoughts drift to where they’d been since the previous night after Levi had asked me to leave the soup kitchen after I’d volunteered to help him finish preparing the meal.
My intention had been to go back to my car and wait for Levi to appear from the alley and follow him to work like I normally did, but I’d been too on edge that I’d miss his attacker sneaking into the alley through the end I couldn’t cover, so I’d ended up getting out of my car and waiting for Levi by the door.
My anger at myself had grown and grown as I’d tried to make sense of what I was doing there…
after all, my job wasn’t to keep Levi safe.
It didn’t matter if his entire body was covered in bruises when it came time for me to take him out, I had a damn job to do.
And even if it wasn’t my job, Seth was my priority because he was family. Levi was nothing to me.
So, what the hell was I doing here? Why was I going through such extraordinary measures to ensure the young man didn’t get hurt again?
Why, even now, did I want to go up to him and shake him and ask him why he’d participated in such a horrific crime seven years ago?
Why did someone heartless enough to stand by and watch a man and his child be cruelly tortured and listen to a woman being brutally raped then go and volunteer at a soup kitchen when he wasn’t under any obligation to do so?
That was a piece of information I’d managed to wrangle out of Father O when I’d talked to him earlier.
There was no court or probation officer ordering Levi to give back to the community…
he was doing it because he wanted to. And from the way the priest had talked about him, the young man thoroughly enjoyed the work and was popular among the men, women and children who relied on the soup kitchen’s services.
Apparently, the way he’d talked to me when he’d still thought I needed a helping hand was the way he talked to all the people who walked through the soup kitchen’s door.
He treated them like people. He showed them respect and kindness.
He inquired about their lives. Father O had even told me a story about how he’d given up his gloves, hat and coat this past winter to a man who’d had nothing.
I wanted to believe it was an act, but I couldn’t deny his breakdown the night before.
When he’d been talking about his brother.
To have such an extreme reaction to even the mere mention of his older brother had been a telling sign, and I was starting to have my own suspicions about just how much influence Ricky Deming had had the night Seth and his family had been attacked.
Before the drug possession charges that had landed Levi in prison just before he’d turned nineteen, he hadn’t been in any kind of trouble.
His brother, on the other hand, had had numerous run-ins with the law.
Mostly minor things like assault and vandalism.
Everything had changed when Ricky had been in his twenties and he’d been accused of rape on two separate occasions.
One of the girls hadn’t even been eighteen years old.
Initially, both girls had pointed the finger at Ricky, but when the prosecutor had been ready to press charges, they’d both recanted.
And then Ricky’s girlfriend had been discovered strangled to death in her apartment.
It should have been a slam-dunk case, but Ricky’s father had offered an alibi, which had made the prosecutor nervous.
So, he’d knocked the charges down so Ricky barely served any time at all.
Both Levi and Ricky had been in prison for an overlapping time period, but not in the same prison and Levi had gotten out before Ricky.
Luckily, there hadn’t been much time for Ricky to hurt anyone else because Ronan had ordered the man’s termination within a month of him being released.
I glanced over my shoulder at Levi who was in the process of pulling some frozen dinner rolls out of the freezer and putting them on several cookie sheets so they’d be ready to go when dinner was just about ready to be served.
“Where do you want these?” I asked as I motioned to the vegetables I’d already chopped.
Levi glanced at me and I didn’t miss the way his eyes lingered briefly on the butcher knife in my hand.
“Um, put them in here,” he murmured as he reached into a cabinet above the stove and pulled out a large bowl.
His shirt rode up just a little bit and I barely managed to conceal my reaction at the sight of a jagged scar just above his hip bone that ran upwards until it disappeared beneath his shirt.
Levi didn’t notice me studying him and I averted my eyes when he handed me the bowl.
“Smells good,” I said absently as I began putting the vegetables in the bowl. The base for the stew had been simmering for a while now. I moved to his side. “You mind if I try it?”
Levi seemed surprised by the request, but he nodded and handed me a clean wooden spoon. I tried the soup and nodded. “It’s good.”
He studied me for a moment. “But?”
“No buts,” I said, handing him the spoon.
“What?” he asked. “Is it missing something?”
“No,” I began.
“Please, tell me.”
“It’s really good, Levi,” I reassured him. At his look of worry, I patted his shoulder and then reached into the cabinet and found the spices I was looking for. “Do you trust me?” I asked as I opened the top of the container of allspice.
The look in Levi’s eyes was hard to acknowledge. I’d meant the question in terms of him trusting me not to ruin dinner, but he was clearly thinking about the question very differently.
He managed a nod .
“A dash of this,” I said as I added the allspice.
I reached for the paprika. “And about half a teaspoon of this. It’ll give it just a little more kick.
” I stirred the spices in and then got another clean wooden spoon and dipped it into the broth.
I took a taste and then held the spoon to his lips so he could try the rest of it.
Levi didn’t move as his eyes held mine and just like that, the air around us changed and I realized why. My dick went from interested to hard as I stared at where Levi’s lips were hovering near the edge of the spoon. The same edge where my lips had been just a moment ago.
I held my breath as Levi finally leaned forward and closed his mouth over the spoon. His eyes lifted to meet mine as he swallowed. The sight of just a little moisture clinging to his lips was my undoing and I was dropping my mouth to his before I could even consider my actions.
The sound of the outer door slamming had Levi jumping back just before my mouth came into contact with his.
“I’m here!” I heard a woman’s voice call out.
Levi stared at me, wide-eyed with flushed cheeks. My own body was screaming at me to grab him, uncaring that we were no longer alone. I gripped the spoon in my hand as if the action could somehow keep me from reaching for him.
“Hi sweetie, sorry I’m late,” the voice said and I barely noticed the young woman round the corner. She seemed oblivious as she shrugged off her jacket and dumped it and her purse on the small table against the wall.
“Oh,” the woman said when she finally realized Levi wasn’t alone. I forced my attention to her and that seemed to knock Levi from his daze.
“Sherry, this is Phoenix. He’s a new volunteer. Phoenix, this is Sherry.”
“Hi, Sherry,” I said as I reached out my hand to her.
I barely heard her as she welcomed me and began making small talk, because my eyes strayed back to Levi who’d dropped his gaze.
“Um, I’m going to go start getting things ready up front, okay?”
The confusion in her voice finally seemed to get through to Levi because he looked at her and nodded. “Um, yeah, okay. Do you need help?”
Sherry looked back and forth between me and Levi and shook her head. Where she’d been friendly before, her eyes were clouded with suspicion as she pinned me with her gaze and took a step closer to Levi. “If you need anything, just call out, okay?” she murmured to him as she patted his arm.
He nodded.