My talk with Torin was a bust. I knew it was a longshot, but it was still disappointing. He was mad. So listening to Cairo and taking him seriously for once wasn’t hard.
He’s not fucking around.
And while I don’t like being told what to do, I have enough on my plate with Dad’s funeral arrangements and getting Ellie and Mae together.
To keep them together.
This is going to be rough as it is, and they’ve yet to learn what happened. They are going to be devastated, and I have to be as strong for them to lean on as Levi is for me. It’s important I’m as present and sane as possible during this time.
I’m left with no other choice but to be only that for them.
Mumbling outside the front door possesses my attention then, and I instantly chide myself for not grabbing the shotgun from my bedroom. Backing away, I sprint back inside and fetch it.
With purposeful steps, I’m striding for the door and ripping the damn thing open. Barrel pointed at the porch, I uncover Nessa jumping away from a man who I quickly realize is Levi.
Levi.
My breath catches as light green eyes latch onto mine before he mom-arms Nessa out of the way and beelines for me.
I toss the gun onto the nearby couch and am quickly gathered up in Levi’s arms. Jumping onto him like a koala, needing to be closer. I nestle my face into the crook of his neck, and he smells awful.
Like days of sweat and grime all over his body, but I ignore it. My eyes close on their own, and I revel in the solace that Levi brings.
I inhale him again to make sure this is real. That Emilio fucking Wildes actually held up part of the deal.
Everything is going to be all right now.
I’m safe.
“Whose house?” Levi asks me, the depth of his voice sending a calming wave through my system.
I give a small shake of my head. “Not now. One more minute. Please.”
His long fingers splay over the base of my spine, permitting me these moments that I so desperately fucking need.
The next few days are going to be hell.
And I’m so beyond grateful that he’s here that it’s almost unbearable.
“Whatever you need, Astor,” he mutters into my hair, inhaling, and I feel his muscles relax under the fingertips of my right hand.
“Are you okay?” I ask, squeezing him a bit more. “Are you hurt? I’ve been waiting to hear about you for days.”
“I’m good. It was just Muncy being a bitch about letting me go.”
Rolling my eyes from behind my eyelids, I break from the safety net of his hard body and peer down at him, loving the fact that I’m looking right into those eyes that are like the color of celery sticks.
Yes, I said celery sticks.
“Lev…” I inhale to give my lungs the oxygen to get the words out. “I haven’t told the girls?—”
“We’ll get to that.” He gingerly cups the side of my face and wipes a tear away from my cheek with the pad of his thumb. “We’re gonna get through it, alright. We got this…together, got me?”
I don’t got this. I’m far from alright. I’m a mess, barely able to function. How we’re going to get through this loss, I’m not entirely sure. Dad was Levi’s father, too.
And we’re both parentless in this world now. But I will try my best to be his comfort as he is mine.
I bob my head because I’ll be whatever and do whatever he needs me to be. “Okay. Can you?—”