Page 223 of Chaos Kills

When he doesn’t answer, I begin picking at blades of grass to occupy some of my mind and to give me something to do.

“I don’t want you getting into predicaments that are going to get you hurt. I don’t know what you’re capable of, but…frankly, I don’t know whose side you’re on.”

“Yours.”

I lift my chin upward. That one word…it batters away all doubt which is amazing because I barely know him. Yet, he doesn’t seem like a bullshitter in the slightest.

“You don’t speak to me,” I argue lightly. “I can’t side or relate to someone who… Is it hard?” He cocks his head to the side, and I’m hoping he doesn’t take it as if I’m insinuating that he’s slow. “I mean, do you just not like talking?”

He nods.

“Mhm…” I tear my focus away from him before he steadily sits in front of me and mirrors by position, crossing his legs together and keeping a comfortable distance between us.

His darkness and secrecy do something to me, but I’m not completely sure what it means. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m bluntly in love with pain and heartache or if it’s something else.

Obviously, he has history with Vivian, and I’d love to know that story, but I’m not going to get it out of him.

“What would you do?”

I’m used to the silence that follows, and I wasn’t expecting an answer. Talking out loud to someone, a person who doesn’t speak much, is oddly therapeutic.

“Come with me,” I mutter, my voice barely audible to my own ears. “Leave this shit behind.”

“You can’t.”

My eyes close automatically at his denial of running away from this place. What I’ve been constantly going back and forth on for what seems like forever.

“Why?” I press, but offer nothing else.

I need a new perspective. Someone on the outside.

Someone Levi trusts.

Someone I want to trust.

Looking up, Ozzy stares at me with zero emotion. “I need you.”

And I do.

Because I’m lost.

I love South Shore, but I hate it.

I love it because it was Dad’s.

I love it because I grew up here, and it’s all I know.

And I hate it because it’s close to Emilio, and my father died here.

Ozzy’s dark blues continue to hold mine, making it look so easy when words to me are.

We’re opposites in that sense.

However, I need something—anything—to show me how he’s going to get us somewhere on the right page.

He leans forward, causing my joints and muscles to tense, but I don’t move. And I anxiously watch him close the distance between us.

His exhales become heavier, his body shaking as if he’s freezing his entire ass off, but I don’t stop him. I want to see what he’s going to do to make me believe him once and fucking for all that I’m protected, and he’s with me.

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