Page 59 of Chaos Kills

“Who are you here for?”

“You.”

My eyes slit suspiciously. “For what? So Torin can finally kill me?”

“No.”

“And why should I believe you? I don’t know you.”

“But he knows you, Astor,” Levi mutters out next to me, and I mindlessly capture his focus. “He’s not new.”

“Obviously. He broke into our house.”

Levi steers his gaze to Ozzy. “I’m gonna tell her everything, bruh. So speak up or forever hold your peace like you’ve been doing.”

The room remains still, but I need to observe Ozzy the best I can during whatever it is that Levi’s going to tell me.

I’m held captive by my husband’s blues when Levi takes Ozzy’s quiet as his cue.

“Uncle Vinny, Ozzy’s dad, had a Titan seat, and worked with Penn Northcott, too. Ozzy’s mom was a schoolteacher. I remember her buying me comic books, but I don’t remember much else. Roger discovered Ellie and Ozzy in a pool of Celine’s blood, they hadn’t eaten in two days…Ellie was one. Vinny was also dead.”

I clench my teeth together, holding Ozzy’s blues, and I match his energy.

The best poker face this side of the Northeast.

Nonetheless, my sister’s parents…his…this whole area is shrouded with death and destruction. Severing families and engaging in this awkwardness of who’s going to cross what line, and when.

It’s bullshit.

“Roger took Ozzy in temporarily…but Paisley wasn’t a fan and didn’t want the extra kids.”

Makes sense.

My so-called mother was a selfish bitch.

“But she kept Ellie,” I note.

“Yeah,” Levi exhales. “Another girl…a baby. She didn’t have Mae yet and was told she was never able to have kids, so…Ellie was everything she could’ve wanted. But a boy…that wasn’t her cup of tea.”

I crave more information. More of Ozzy’s history to give shape in my head of what kind of man he is, and my best friend doesn’t disappoint.

“When Paisley threw a fit about Oz?—”

“Why don’t I remember you?” I blurt out. A boy living in the house definitely would’ve jogged my memory.

Especially with eyes the shade of dark cerulean along with onyx features.

“He stayed with me,” Levi replies. “And my mom. She was so fucked up all the time, she barely noticed him. However, as this idiot got older, he started hanging out with Cairo, Reeve, and Torin. They accepted him, as is, and didn’t give a fuck he was from South Shore. How old were you, Oz, like ten?”

“Eleven,” he says placidly, finally glancing over at his cousin and removing those deep ocean blues from me.

My body feels as though it lost its footing for a second, like he was holding me up while Levi was speaking, and I quickly right myself.

“Then what?”

Levi leans against the kitchen island and puts down his beer. “He stayed with Lorenzo Black, Cairo’s father. Roger tried to stay in contact, but with South Shore and The Landings always going at it, Emilio kept that shit severed. Oz got into some shit, went to prison, came back, and has been doing Emilio’s bullshit ever since.”

He’s been to prison.

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