46. Bay
FORTY-SIX
bay
Being in the passenger seat with Levi behind the wheel is nostalgia I haven’t felt in what seems like forever.
I’m completely at ease.
Every sharp turn he makes and the slipping of the back tires does nothing to bring up any level of anxiety.
It’s the locating thing that’s bugging the shit out of me.
However, Levi knows The Landings as much as I do, if not better. The engine of the Plymouth Roadrunner roars through the light and weaves out of traffic like a dream.
Or maybe it’s the driver.
More than likely the latter.
Levi being within the same space as me is more comforting than any hug or kiss. It’s the safe cocoon he mindlessly wraps me in, where all my faith is thrown and everything is at peace.
Nonetheless, we’re in this weird spot where neither of us knows where we’re going, and it bothers me we haven’t talked it out. That we haven’t been able to.
“Lev…” I swallow, my nerves beginning to coil in equal parts embarrassment and fear. “I’m sorry.”
He takes another sharp left turn and straightens the car. “About what?”
“The baby.”
His head turns to me, and I meet his unmatched green gaze, one that appears confused and annoyed. “You wanna talk about this now ?”
“When am I going to see you again?” I lift my shoulders because I know he doesn’t have an answer to that. “Besides, I’m ready to…move past it. And I can’t without talking to you about it first.”
Levi shakes his head, his white mask shoved up to his forehead, as he continues studying the road. “It is what it is, Astor. There’s no changing?—”
“I was going to name it Rosie if it was a girl,” I shove from my throat, giving him every little last detail of what I was thinking before everything happened, like he was always there. “And Levi, if it was a boy.”
My best friend falls silent then, alluding that he doesn’t have shit-all to say about it, which is fair.
However, I keep talking before I lose the courage to do so.
“I didn’t want it. The last thing we needed was?—”
“You don’t need to explain this to me. I know how sex works.”
“Levi,” I hedge evenly, watching his jaw tick and his fingers tighten around the steering wheel. “I lost you. And now that I didn’t, I was pregnant with another man’s child .”
“I know what you were.”
“I would’ve wanted you there still. I know that’s selfish. You should’ve taken your out,” I mutter. “Pretended to be dead.” My stomach clenches with memories of how I believed that once was true. “Started a new life for yourself. Something that would’ve been less trouble.”
“Now, where’s the fun in that?” One of his hands falls from the wheel and latches onto mine, both clutched together. “You’ve always been mine, Astor. It doesn’t matter who you’ve decided to bring along. That’s never going to change.”
I unravel and lace my fingers with his, squeezing his limbs tightly to show him…everything. “Do you mean that? What we did the day I found out you were alive…”
“Why are you hesitating?” His thumb gently glides up and down my skin in silent comfort. “And why are you even asking?”
“Because we fucked and said nothing about it.”
“I didn’t know you fucked and then spoke about it. But if you want?—”
“Stop it,” I lightly chide. “You know what I mean. I come with baggage. I come with several?—”
“Boys.”
“Levi…this isn’t normal.”
“Are you saying you wanted me to change course and date Nessa?”
My nails mindlessly dig into his flesh. “No.”
“Then leave me alone with my decisions. I chose you. Even when Nessa showed up naked in my bed and wanted me to fuck her silly, I still chose you. I will always choose you.”
Showed up naked in his bed?
Yeah, bitch?
I’m highly regretting my decision not to make her death hurt more.
“You can stop stabbing me with your fingers now,” Levi chimes, instantly having me ease up on my death grip of a body I can’t touch anymore to inflict pain. “I don’t know if I should be pissed still or turned on. I’ve never had a woman kill for me before.”
“Told you it would’ve saved you trouble.”
“I like your brand.” He points ahead. “Right there. That’s one of the cars.”
My eyes slice to the direction of his finger, and it’s textbook bad guy.
Blacked-out SUV.
Nothing special about it.
“How are we gonna do this?” I inquire, adjusting my ass in the seat to get ready for whatever he has in mind.
“We’ll try to spin them first. However, that means a whole lot of gunfire in our direction, and I only have my Glock and an extra clip. Check the glove box.” I do as instructed and only find random pieces of paper, no extra guns or weapons of any kind. “I’d tell them to come more strapped, but until I handle Muncy, I don’t want them getting locked up on some extra bullshit.”
“So the guns they’re already carrying aren’t enough?” I tease with a roll of my eyes.
Levi smirks and gently pulls my hand to his lips, darting his tongue out to lick at my flesh before pressing a searing kiss there.
I wish he wouldn’t do that.
Not when we’re here, about to do some crazy-ass shit, because I would love nothing more than for him to pull over so I can straddle his lap.
“What if we can’t spin them?” I ask, attempting to keep on topic and from my body betraying me fully. “We need to get them out.”
“Yeah, but which one is in there?”
I glance back at the SUV as it makes a right turn, and Levi follows at a safe distance. They’re going to catch on that we’re following them any second and bolt. We don’t have a lot of time.
And I can’t not get to whomever is in that car.
Ozzy.
Lorenzo Black.
I can’t help but hope it’s Oz, but I don’t want anything to happen to Cairo’s dad either.
“Give me your gun,” I order, sliding my hand free of Levi’s and extending my palm for his weapon. “And pull up to the driver’s side like you’re going to pass them. I’ll see if I can get a hit on the driver.”
“Keep your seatbelt on,” Levi replies evenly. “If I need to throw the brakes on, I don’t need you going through the windshield.”
His Glock is in my grasp in the next second as he hits the accelerator and moves over into the left lane.
He’s careful not to barrel down the road, easing up on them even if he’s going over the speed limit when he begins to line up with the driver’s door.
“Three shots,” Levi says. “That’s all you get. We need to preserve that ammo if we need it.”
Leaning over to roll my window down, I don’t bother to get my breathing under control. My only mission is hitting my shot and taking down the SUV so we can get whomever out of it.
And we’re not going to have a lot of time.
My brain attempts to settle on my target as I glance over at the adjoining vehicle.
The driver doesn’t look at me, but that doesn’t mean whoever is in the backseat isn’t.
Not the problem. Take out the driver.
Extending my arm, Levi gives me the alignment I need not to miss.
The first bullet spiderwebs the window before the driver hits the gas.
My second shot busts through but doesn’t do any damage.
My third one, though, gets him before the car takes a sharp left turn and spins. Levi taps the brakes and swerves to the right, getting out of the way of the SUV that’s now in our lane and whipping the Roadrunner around.
I see the black doors begin to pop open before Levi’s foot is on the gas again, aimed right at the passenger side to take the man there out.
“When are you getting the rest of your tattoo done?”
Levi’s question doesn’t register right away because…why the hell would that be a conversation we’d have right now?
However, I remember shit like this doesn’t faze him, and he asks the weirdest shit at the most inopportune moments.
Like the time he told me he beat the shit out of Tyler Buntone in high school because he said he was going to take my virginity and smear my blood all over the locker room walls.
We were in the middle of knocking up a liquor store, and he mentioned it after he demanded the cashier to hand us all the cash.
Or the time Levi admitted he didn’t think he was going to graduate high school because he was caught fucking two blondes in one of the science labs.
Information I didn’t want or need to know when you’re in the middle of fucking up one of Sherriff Muncy’s patrol cars when he was harassing Dad, but, you know, that’s Levi for you.
Always talking at the stupidest moments about things that have nothing to do with the moment.
“Haven’t thought about it,” I admit, the moment the front of Marshall’s poor Roadrunner hit the door and pinches the spot Levi was aiming for. “Soon.”
“Do it ASAP for me,” my best friend utters as he turns the wheel so sharply that the back tires squeal in protest at the fast angle and abrupt change of direction. “I like my ink on your skin.”
Levi really doesn’t know what he does to me when he says shit like that.
Honestly.
Or maybe he does, and he’s that good at making my panties wet.
Either way, the boy needs to stop.
“You wanna talk about tattoos when we’re about to do fuck knows what?”
He slows the car down, bringing it to a stop as we eyeball the SUV. The guy Levi just hit is on the ground, slowly trying to move his legs but failing epically. But no one else has come out of the vehicle.
“You know this shit turns me on,” Levi claims matter-of-factly. “And so does that.”
I break my focus from the enemy’s car and glance over at him. “Are you telling me every time you did some shady shit, you had a hard dick?”
“Only the times you were with me.” He steals a look at me, his expression full of determination and, dare my ass say, lust. “I loved running behind you, Astor.”
My cheeks ignite with a blush, and fuck me, he’s a dick.
He smirks before turning his sole attention back to the task at hand. “Now, we wait.”
“Wait?” I repeat. “For what?”
“Someone to fuck around and find out.”
Waiting.
My not-so-favorite game.
I immediately begin to fidget because I’m fully aware we can’t get out and walk up on it. That’d be full-blown suicide at its finest.
However, it’s what I want to do so we can get this shit over with.
“There”—Levi points—“it moved.”
My eyes mindlessly squint. “Where?”
“Someone’s moving around. More than likely trying to get out.” I make a move to unbuckle my seatbelt before Levi’s arm shoots out. “You know we’re not going out there.”
“But—”
“He’ll get out.”
Yeah, but which one?
I blow air out between my lips and fidget with my fingers some more.
“It was a race,” Levi blurts out suddenly, without any warning. “You had just lost to a Skyline, and you were pissed. You wouldn’t stop talking about how he got the jump, and you wanted a rematch.” Levi begins to slowly strum his fingers along the steering wheel, still focused on the SUV. “You were in these tight shorts that cupped your fat ass…and you bent over inside the driver’s door to get something. Then you hit your head.”
I frown because how graceful did that not sound?
“There was no calming you down that night,” he continues. “You had only been racing for a few months, but it was that motherfuckin’ stubbornness of yours that got my blood boiling. The shit used to drive me crazy—still does—but when Juice brought you nachos and a slushie, your ass calmed the hell down. You sat on the hood of that car, ate your shit, and I wanted you. I wanted your crazy and your temper tantrums. You were mine. I was never going to give you up. That’s the first time I realized you had me for life. That, one day, you were going to be mine.”
My chest tightens at his admission. At another random time of speaking, but it’s ours, just the same. “I’ve always been yours, Lev.”
“Not fully mine, Astor. I let you go to live your life and make your choices, but there was never really going to be an ending where I didn’t make a move. It didn’t matter what you chose.”
“Even with?—”
“We both know they don’t hold a candle to what we have. We have a loaded past with too many connections and memories, and we’re soulmates. Do I like the shit you have with them? No. Do I want you fucking other guys…” He cranes his head to me, and I force myself to meet his light-green gaze. One that will never, ever let me go. “Just know when you do, I’m fucking you harder, longer, and in a way where you’re going to be fiending for me like you do your next race. I’m gonna be in the back of your mind, Astor. You’re never gonna not see me.”
The pop of a door has Levi and I snapping our necks back in the direction of the SUV.
A body stumbles out of it, hands bound in the front of the lean frame before the guy raises his tied hands and slams them down, sending another body toppling headfirst toward the cement.
“It’s Ozzy,” Levi deadpans before hitting the gas, sending the Roadrunner roaring through the night air.
I watch my husband’s head shoot up at us approaching, and my heart sings and spirals all in one go.
He extends his legs, fearlessly ready to go at anyone else tonight, as if he’s waiting for Levi to try to hit him.
However, my bestie slows the car, and I shoot out of it like a bat out of hell.
“Astor!”
I ignore Levi’s warning, sprinting toward Ozzy when I should be looking at the SUV for someone else to come out.
“Are you alright?” I ask as I approach, feeling so fucking grateful it was him in the car, and he’s alive.
He glances at me, surveying my body real quick before flicking his attention to Levi in the car.
My heart skips at the secret being out, but when I follow Ozzy’s stare, Levi has already pulled his mask back down.
“C’mon,” I urge, erasing the distance between us. “We need to get you out of here.”
“Lorenzo is bleeding,” he deadpans. “He’s been shot.”
Fuck.
I step around Ozzy to get to him, but he immediately moves in my way. “Who is that?”
I don’t have time for this. And he can’t know.
“Ozzy”—I meet his dark blue eyes and try to hold my composure—“we need to get him help.”
“Why didn’t you leave ?”
He sounds more like Cairo the more time goes by.
“I wasn’t going to leave you,” I announce. “That wasn’t an option. Now, move .”
He does what I ask as I motion for Levi to come help me.
This boy needs to learn I’m a ride-or-die. That, if I like you, you’re safe with me.
And I don’t listen when shit doesn’t make sense.