Page 84 of Chaos Kills

However, I need my mind on tonight and the money Levi and I are trying to make and bank so we can get a one-way ticket out of here.

I bob my head because I have manners and not going to speak with a bunch of chewed-up food.

“Hey, Lev, you got a second?” Nessa shows up at his side. Her pretty blonde hair is pulled back into a long ponytail as her bedroom-brown eyes flick to me. “Hey, babe. You ready?”

I cover my lips. “Yeah. How old is the guy?”

Nessa smirks wickedly at me. “It’s actually a girl.”

My eyebrows lift in surprise. We don’t get a lot of females racing around here so I’m pleasantly excited for once.

“She’s new,” Levi emits. “And cocky. Juice is already flirting with her.”

“This will be fun,” I deadpan as a spark of excitement goes through me for the first time in a while.

“I’m busy, Nes,” Levi finally acknowledges, getting me to remember that she had asked to talk to him. “Maybe later.”

“It’s important,” she says. “You haven’t?—”

“Don’t you two have to talk?” Levi moves his index finger back and forth between Nessa and me and hell fucking no.

I wasn’t about to tell her about us leaving South Shore tonight. Wrong place, wrong time. But Levi has been on me constantly, suggesting that the longer I wait, the more pissed she’s going to get.

“No,” I deadpan anyway, keeping my face stoic.

Levi’s jaw clenches a bit before he wraps an arm around Nessa’s shoulder and ambles away with her and his limp to get whatever it is she needs out of the way.

I told him to stop working out and pushing steroids, but he doesn’t listen. I guess he strained a muscle, and now he’s walking around looking like he has a stick shoved up his ass.

Serves him right for trying to fuck up my night. I dodged that bullet for today, but eventually, Nessa and I are obviously going to need to speak about it.

Well, she’s going to yell about it.

I’m not sure how many scathing words are going to be passed between us when she discovers we’re leaving her behind for a little while until we can get the girls settled.

I get to Levi’s Malibu because we’re taking turns racing it since Dad’s Nova is still being fixed, and double-check the fluids and tire pressure. I do my normal checks for leaks, check the gauges to make sure power is getting to them, and fill the car with turbo blue while I strive to keep my concentration on what Levi and I are aiming to accomplish.

Fifty grand.

The amount of cash that will tide us over comfortably until we figure out our next move. We’re deciding between California and Michigan. I think the latter will hide us more, and there are plenty of lakes and beaches for the girls.

Perfect world, we’d have a lakefront house so it’s easily accessible at all times. However, I think Levi wants to go to California.

I’m under the hood when I feel something charging me. The hairs on my arms rise on end like a sixth sense as I whip around to prep for whatever it is before a hand cracks viciously across my face.

Blinking twice, I pull a seething Nessa into my view…and Levi told her.

“What thefuck, Bay?” she manages to roar out at me before another body swiftly shows up into the equation, and Nessa is currently being choked out by, none other than…Ozzy.

Everything happens so damn fast I’m unable to utter a single word before Nessa’s long fingernails dig into the skin of his inked forearm.

Her brown eyes constrict with unadulterated rage and adrenaline. I make a move to get him to stop before Levi shows up and taps his forearm lightly.

“Alright, Ryland, enough,” he says calmly. “This is Bay’s friend.”

Ozzy doesn’t let up.

He doesn’t move an inch.

---