Page 88 of Chaos Kills

Something didn’t vibe right.

But I believed Nessa when she said I scared the shit out of her. I just need Levi to say it.

“What’s going on between you two?”

Levi pilots his gaze back to me. “Going on?”Yeah, no, asshole. We’re not playing that game.“Don’t start, Astor.”

“Start what? I asked a question.”

“And I’m choosing not to answer it.” He pushes off the Malibu and starts for somewhere, but I trip him, and he cursesout. I hadn’t forgotten he pulled a muscle in his leg. He spins around, face twisted a bit in discomfort as he glowers daggers at me. “What do youwantfrom me?”

“I thought I made myself clear.”

“She’s spiraling, Astor. Like she always fuckin’ does. I got a guy on her after the Matteo incident, and he doesn’t allow her to hit up malls to steal shit. That hit a nerve. She’s pissed. If she wants to join up so bad with us, then maybe she should learn some self-restraint. We’re not going to be around to bail her ass out of jail, and we’re not her parents.”

I slowly shake my head, even though I’m hearing everything he’s saying, it wasn’t the right time. “You made things worse.”

He bows his head a few times, accepting that. “I did.”

And Levi shows no signs of remorse on that note.

“And now I have to make things right before we leave,” I emit sourly. “More shit to do.”

Levi pierces daggers at me with his light green eyes. “You making up with Nessa or not has no bearing on when we’re fuckin’ leaving,” he retorts sharply. “When we’re gone, we’re gone. End of story.”

“It’s not.”

“Bay—”

“And that’s if you ever pick a place. I might not need to worry about anything. I’ll have all the time in the world.”

He scoffs as if that’s the least of our worries. “Wherever you wanna go, Astor, I don’t care. I’m down.”

“No.” I shake my head. “I need you to like it, too. It’s important. We’re starting over.”

“Well, you don’t wanna do Cali because there’s no snow.”

“I’ll live.”

He lifts his shoulders. “We’ll let the girls decide, then. But that means we’ll have to tell them, and I don’t want Ellie?—”

“Ozzy is going to make this a thing,” I mutter, knowing that he’s not far behind. That he’s still here. “I told him we’d talk about it.”

“Yeah,” he leers. “That wasn’t supposed to happen either. We might have to lie.”

I perk an eyebrow. “About?”

“The leave date. Put him on another trail. Michigan and Cali might be out. He may have heard that.”

“Is he close?”

“Not really. But I don’t know how good his ears are either.”

“We might…”

Shit. There is no way that Levi is going to let him come with us.

There’s no way he’d want to go either. And I’m not sure I trust he wouldn’t tell Emilio or Torin where we went.

---