Page 110 of Defiant Beta

"Being at the school with no one to watch your back isn't safe," Vincent interrupts what would have been another epic lie.

I’m nottechnicallysnuggling up with Xavier on the couch, but I’m not exactly moving away either.

Xavier looks at Vincent, surprised. “You want me to stay here?”

“We haven’t learned anything new in the last few days we were there,” Levi says slowly.

We filled Vincent in on what happened with Mr. Irwin and Mrs. Stratton at the motel over Chinese food. It probably wasn’t wise to talk about the disgusting place over food, but he needed to know that we had crossed a suspect off our list.

“The end-of-year ball is happening soon,” I remember. “It’s going to be crazy around there getting things ready for it. I don’t know if that’s going to help the investigation or hinder it.”

And I still need to do something about rescuing those omegas. But what?

“If we need more information, we can get inside. We know all we need about the teachers.” Vincent stretches his legs out, as relaxed as I’ve ever seen him.

“Give me one more night,” Xavier says. “I’ll go back this evening, have a look around and then come home tomorrow morning.”

Vincent’s eyes widen slightly. “Home?”

I bounce my gaze between them, confused by his response. “What’s so strange about that?”

“He never called it that before,” he adds in a quieter voice. “None of us have.”

Levi grabs the remote from the coffee table and turns on the TV. “How about a movie?”

“You watch movies in here?” The living room has always been empty whenever I’ve passed by. It’s why I started sleeping on the floor behind the couch, thinking no one used it.

“Nope,” Xavier says.

“What do you do on your downtime?”

“We work.” Xavier taps out a message on his phone when it buzzes with a notification.

I blink at him. “Like, all the time?”

He nods.

I look at Levi.

He pauses his scrolling through what looks to be hundreds of channels to say, “I work out.”

I turn to Vincent, and I can almost guess what he’s about to say.

“Work.”

“You guys need a life.” I wince. What they’re doing, getting justice for Aly, is important. But they need to take care of themselves too. “Sorry.”

Vincent’s brows knit together. “Why are you apologizing?”

I shrug. “Just because.”

“What about you?” Xavier asks me.

“What about me?” I echo.

“What does your downtime look like?” he asks.

I start to explain how I relax, but I can’t because I’m just as guilty of throwing myself into work and forgetting to have a life.

---