Page 31 of Stroke of Fate

“But you know who I am.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard of you before.”

As they go back and forth, my eyes ping-pong between them. I have to hand it to Finn— his voice is steady, and he holds his own under Levi’s scrutiny.

Levi cocks his head. “What exactly have you heard?”

“Nothing worth repeating,” Finn says flatly.

“Right,” Levi says dryly. “What are you doing out here with Bear?”

“We were talking.”

“Mm. So if I were to, I don’t know, take her phone and check her contacts, your name wouldn’t be there, now would it?”

What the hell is going on?

Finn swings his gaze toward me, the first flicker of panic visible on his face. He doesn’t look nearly as sure of himself as he did a minute ago, and I can’t help but feel bad for him.

Pit these two up against each other, and Levi has a height and muscle advantage.

“What the hell is your problem?” I hiss between clenched teeth at Levi.

I’ll probably only make things worse by coming to Finn’s rescue, but this has gone too far. And I feel a weird sense of obligation toward Finn. Something tells me the only reason he’s even dealing with Levi’s wrath is because of me and my stupid inability to be honest.

Levi stares down at me, his eyes tracing every inch of my face. Despite my irritation, my cheeks warm under his sharp gaze. When his eyes find my lips, they linger momentarily, and his Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows.

“He’smy problem,” Levi grumbles after a beat.

Finn mutters something under his breath, causing us both to look away from the other.Giving me no time to react,Levi plucks my phone from my hand, lifts it to my face, and unlocks it. I watch him scroll down my contact list until he finds Finn's name.

Levi’s attention snaps back to Finn when he says, “Oh, would you look here? There you are.” The laugh he lets out has no humor behind it.

“We share a class,” Finn says quickly, shifting from one foot to another.

I’m surprised he hasn’t walked away yet, but he’s probably trying to prove a point by standing his ground. Though I wish he wouldn’t.

“She doesn’t need your number for that.”

There’s a dose of possessiveness in his voice that I don’t understand. Actually, I don’t understand where any of this is coming from. Last I checked, I’m allowed to give my number to whoever I want, whenever I want. Even if I don’t want to, it’s stillmychoice.

Levi’s fingers move across my phone. When I lean closer to see what he’s doing, I find that he’s not only deleting Finn’s number but blocking his contact information entirely.

“There, that’s better. Blockedanddeleted.” Levi says matter-of-factly, pinning his gaze on Finn.

“Seriously, Bear? You’re just going to let him do that?” Finn rounds on me, his body taunt with tension.

I blink up at him. He’s staring at me expectantly, waiting for me to back him up.

“Finn…I…um, maybe it’s best if you go.” I stammer out.

Truthfully, I’m secretly grateful Levi stepped in and did what I obviously couldn’t do. Would I have gone about it in such an abrupt, direct way? No, but I didn’t go about it at all, and that might’ve had a worse outcome.

I would have only strung Finn along by responding to his text. Leading someone on is sometimes worse than shutting them down from the start.

Realizing I won’t be defending him, Finn rolls his eyes. “Whatever, I’m out of here.”

As he walks away, Levi shouts, “Delete her number from your phone.”

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