2. Bay
TWO
bay
“ Where?! ” I shove past Juice, expecting him to immediately point out where my Levi is, but I run into Hot Rod instead. His massive chest blocks my speedy path to Levi’s wounded body, and I’m so overwhelmed I’m not entirely sure where to start but the obvious. “Where is he?”
Blood.
It’s fucking everywhere.
All over his tatted biceps, within the fibers of his light blue shirt, some even smeared on his forehead, and it’s enough to cover the black tattoos on his collarbone, too.
My heart leaps to my throat as imminent fear drapes over me. He’s covered in blood.
It’s everywhere.
Everywhere.
I feel my own drain from my face. Levi’s right-hand man refusing to speak or give me any indication of what the hell is happening doesn’t fill me with hope either.
“They’re tryin’ to save him, Bay,” he replies as softly as he can. “They—” I move around his frame to see for myself, but he copies my actions and remains an ever-hating impediment.
“ Move ,” I order, lifting my chin to send him the most withering glower I can manage.
“Bay…he’s not here.”
Of course, he wouldn’t be. Juice and Rod would have called an ambulance.
“Which hospital?” I force through some light-headedness fucking with my equilibrium. My fingertips lightly brush my temple, and I grapple with my balance because I’m one swift breeze away from falling over. “Can someone take me?”
“He’s at a secret facility.”
My gaze flicks up to Hot Rod’s hazel eyes again…and they hold zero hope.
That’s in your head.
“We couldn’t take him to the hospital,” Juice tacks on calmly. “Doctors would’ve asked too many questions, and we don’t need Muncy around.”
That all makes sense.
“Okay, who’s taking me, then?”
Both Juice and Hot Rod stare at me like I’m a fucking intruder who planned the drive-by.
“Not all at once, boys. Hurry up.”
“No one.”
My focus snags on Juice, who looks equally like shit. The same blood smeared on his skin and clothing. It was a shitshow and a red one at that.
And as much as I’d love to fucking study the shit, I latch on to the fact that these two motherfuckers are telling me I can’t go see my best friend.
“Boys, I’ve had at least two strokes on my way over here,” I manage through my teeth. “I’m really not in the mood for the dramatics.”
“We don’t know where De Leon is,” Rod explains evenly. “And I’m trying to keep him from finding Levi to finish the job.”
Right.
However, I’m still getting a tad irritated that everything the two of them are saying is making sense.
Furthermore, it only homes in on the idea that this is the reason why Hot Rod and Juice are Levi’s number one and two. These two dudes know what they’re doing, and they are carrying it out.
But not in my favor.
“Okay…but he’s fine?”
“He’s breathing.”
Not good enough.
“Well, when can I go?” I ask, clasping my hands together to keep from fidgeting. “He needs me.”
“He needs the doctors and nurses.”
I pry my attention off Hot Rod because he obviously sucks at this. “Juice, can you find a way to take me later?”
“Bay, I said no ,” Rod grinds out from my periphery. “This isn’t a fucking game.”
“Who's laughing?” I argue, still holding Juice’s stare. “I need to be with him. He needs to know I’m there. I can help. He can hear me. He’ll know. Levi always knows—” Rod steps closer to Juice to gain my attention, but I don’t give it.
I only watch Juice try to stand up to me and be sympathetic but reasonable at the same time.
“I need you to listen to me, Bay,” Rod mutters irritably under his breath. “This isn’t a game. Levi was gunned down tonight. Matteo is making moves. He will continue to make moves.”
The thought of my ex mowing Levi down makes me sick to my fucking stomach. I can feel the warm bile wanting to rise from my throat and threaten Hot Rod and Juice’s shoes, but I attempt to keep my brain on the subject matter and what’s most important here.
“You should get home,” Juice inserts gently. “The guys will follow you back.”
I don’t know the guys, nor do I give a shit who they are. I need confirmation I’m going to see Levi soon.
“How long?” I ask. “Is he in surgery? What are they doing? Do they have enough equipment to?—”
“It’s enough,” Juice states. “It’s up to him now.”
“Up to him,” I repeat, as that statement doesn’t compute properly in my head. “What’s happening? I need something, Rod.”
“He’s in surgery. I haven’t gotten word back that he’s out yet. But when I do, you’ll be the first to know. Otherwise, I can’t take you there. If that building is under attack, he’s dead. I literally have him in the most secure, low-key place around. I have men there making sure shit doesn’t go down. However, I can’t even go in case someone follows me. Okay?”
I bob my head in acknowledgment. I get that, I do. But it still doesn’t stop the anxiety coursing through my brain, my body, and every nerve ending.
Or the fact I’m not at least there, standing by and waiting for Levi when everything is said and done.
“When he’s free and clear, I can go see him? When you move him? When it’s safe to move him?”
He bobs his head. “Yes.”
That has to be good enough. His word and the fact he wouldn’t allow anything to happen to his king.
His friend.
“Make sure…” A sob suddenly creeps through, and I squeeze my fingers into tight fists to keep it from forming into something uncontrollable. “Make sure, when you speak to one of the guys…that they tell him I’m thinking of him. That he doesn’t have a choice but to pull through.”
Hot Rod nods. “I will.”
Sheer defeat takes over me as I continue to stand there with no clue of what to do next. I’m helpless to do anything but wait and pray to everything holy I don’t have to bury someone else.
Not someone else I love.
“Go home, Bay,” Juice utters gently, reaching for my bicep and giving it a small squeeze. “We’ll keep in touch, okay?”
“Promise?”
“Just stay put until we tell you what you can and can’t do.”
It’s the way Hot Rod says it that snaps my resolve.
That he didn’t promise.
And I no longer feel hollow and incapable when my palms find his chest and shove him back as far as I can.
Then I’m two steps forward and in his face.
Well, his chest.
“You don’t get to fuckin’ tell me to do anything, ” I bark as spit flies from my mouth. Cute, I know. “If you fuck around and keep him from me?—”
“This isn’t your call,” Rod snaps with clenched eyes. “You can take your princess tantrums and get the fuck out of here with?—”
“And you can take your totalitarian bullshit and shove it up your ass. You might be in charge, but I’m not your bitch.”
“You are when I’m heading the Titan seat.”
It’s like he punched me.
The one thing I never wanted Levi to have, and it’s being used against me as a power piece.
South Shore’s king is down and out on an operating table, and Hot Rod couldn’t wait to use his status and throw it around.
“You’re no King of South Shore,” I snarl through my tightening jaw. “He’s not dead .”
“He’s out of commission, Bay Bay,” Juice inserts, his green eyes glimmering with concern. Fuck me. “Someone has to take over while he’s gone. South Shore has to remain headstrong and swift on its feet. In case?—”
“That’s his problem.” I point at Hot Rod. “What’s mine is Levi making it out of whatever hell he’s going through. That I’m there when he wakes up. That he knows I’m there, even if he can’t open his eyes. He has to know. If you can’t take me?—”
“Calm down, Little T.”
Cairo’s voice rumbles through my inner chaos and up my spine before I feel his chest lightly press in from behind. Offering a comfort I didn’t expect coming from him so late in the game. “You’ll see him. I’ll make sure of it.”
I want to believe him.
It’s not that I think he’s lying, but he has no sway here. Hot Rod and Juice hold my golden ticket to see Levi in the palms of their grubby hands.
And I’m out of the loop.
“It’s fucked up,” I mumble back. “We don’t do things like that around here. We don’t manifest people already dying when they’re not dead .”
“We’re not trying to piss you off here, Bay,” Juice retorts evenly. “But we can’t fuck around. I know you want to see him, and at the first opportunity, you will.”
“I want on the text thread,” I command. “I want to know everything that goes down with Levi.”
“No.”
I’m really starting to hate Hot Rod right now.
Like, fully-fledged I’m-about-to-kick-him-in-the-balls-right-now hatred.
“Listen, motherfucker, I’m?—”
“Bay…”
My heart suddenly skips at the sound of Ozzy’s soft voice to my left. Edging right along the sidewalk and out of the way, like he doesn’t want to be involved in what’s happening.
My immediate concentration clings to him like the opposite side of a magnet. The man, with the least to say, can lasso my emotions and steady them.
However, it’s not strong enough this time.
Hot tears burn the backs of my eyes, and I’m on the verge of having a nervous, unfiltered breakdown.
I can’t lose Levi .
The thought is unimaginable.
Unthinkable.
A life without him is one I can’t take part in. I’d die without him. There would be no more life pumped into me if something happened.
I don’t function without Levi.
Without him present, without him here , it’s the first time I’ve fully realized how much I rely on him.
I am no one.
And I’ve never felt so alone in my life as I do right now.
All this Emilio shit being a temporary nightmare, and the news of Levi’s drive-by—thanks to my fucking ex, who will be dead by the end of the week—is enough to make me rip this whole town apart, just to find my best friend.
Levi would do the same.
He would never allow anyone to stand in the way.
Not Torin, Cairo, Reeve, or Ozzy.
Not even the two assholes standing in front of me.
And I have to be there for him.
It’s a necessity like it is to breathe. I can’t allow a wrong decision to be made while he’s not conscious. I won’t take any chances, like the ones I didn’t take when it came down to my relationship with Reeve.
I can’t permit anything to happen to him like Dad. I wasn’t in the room. I left him. I wasn’t there.
He died alone while I was talking to Emilio fucking Wildes.
“You have twelve hours to get me to Levi,” I tell him gruffly, grounding myself into Hot Rod’s hazels. “Or I’ll do it my-fuckin’-self.”
Hot Rod steps forward, forcing his second-hand power on me, as if it will remind me who’s in charge while Levi’s gone. “You’ll see Levi when we’re ready for you to see Levi. Not when your selfish ass decides?—”
“I wouldn’t,” Cairo chimes in, his voice steady, but there’s a hint of warning locked into it. “Watch how you talk to her. You made your fucking point. Now, get him what he needs and stabilized so she can see him. He’s not the fuckin’ Pope.”
Hot Rod glances back at the Forsaken Boy who shouldn’t be here but is. “Shouldn’t you be worrying about your own problems?”
“Mine’s handled,” Sinatra deadpans, and I don’t know what that means. Cairo mentioned Torin being out here, but he’s gone too.
No sign of him.
Nothing.
Cairo’s cool as a cucumber. So, I’m assuming, all is well on his side. While mine is crumbling apart piece by piece.
“Then get the fuck out of here.”
Cairo’s fingers wrap gingerly around my hip, but he hasn’t made a move to get me to leave with him just yet. “You have twenty-four hours to get her inside to wherever the fuck you have Wallace, or I’ll help her find him. If your security is as lacking as your empathy, you’re screwed.”
Hot Rod scoffs, but a shitty-ass smirk lines his lips. “Good luck with that, Black.”
Cairo ignores him—something I envy him for—saying, “Let me get you home.” And when I don’t make a move, contrary to what he says, he tacks on, “It’s not safe out here, Little T.”
“I can’t stay locked in that house,” I retort without much energy in my tone. “I’m going to go crazy.”
“Twenty-four hours,” he reminds me. “De Leon is out there poppin’ off, and you’re the perfect hostage. So, as of now, you’re under what I say.”
The last part is what gets me to pivot around and face him. Promptly meeting those infamous dark, borderline black eyes.
“What are you saying?” I challenge with a small cock to my head. “If you think you’re gonna lock me up in chains, Cairo…you’ve got me fucked up.”
“Chains aren’t needed,” he replies simply. “Just Ozzy.” He eats up some distance between us, as if it’s gonna do or change anything. “And I’m also saying that you’re not going to leave my fucking sight. You’ve got to hang in there because, they’re right, this isn’t a game. I need you to play by someone else’s rules right now. You like these two assholes. They have Wallace’s best interest in mind. You’re in the way.”
He’s not wrong.
Still don’t like his answer, though.
“Fine,” I concede evenly. I’m already tired of going around in circles, and it’s apparent I’m not going to get what I want tonight. “But just know, if I don’t see him soon…I’m not responsible for what happens next.”
“Don’t fuck with me, Bay,” he counters with a bit of a bite. “You might be petty and reckless, but I’m calculated and callous. I will win that fuckin’ battle.”
The corners of my lips quirk into a shitty little smirk. “You don’t know me that well, do you?”
“I think I did about thirty minutes ago,” he replies flatly, and my cheeks blush furiously as he stares down at me. Memories of him inside me, the things he said. “However, I’m not ready to write a full-length biography on you just yet. Give me time.”
My lips begin to part with a retort, but Ozzy shows up at his side, and I lose.
I’m not going anywhere as long as these two are joining the we-need-to-wait train.
Patience was never a virtue of mine. However, I’ll play until I’m tired of waiting.
Until I know Levi is out of the woods.
Then they won’t have any more excuses to keep me away and locked up at home.
I owe Levi everything.
A strong front.
A force to be reckoned with.
A South Shore bitch, through and through.
But I can’t when he’s hanging in the balance, and I’ve lost one battle with these guys, who allegedly have good intentions.
All in all, it’s clear what needs to happen. I won’t pivot off a cliff because I’m clinging to a thread Levi is going to pull through for me.
He has to.
Don’t give up on me. I need you.