Page 43 of Malachi
“Not a fucking chance. Nothing you could possibly say could stop me from hitting you until you pass the fuck out. You put me at risk, us at risk, our wives at risk,” I barked at him. I leaned in until I could smell the blood running from his mangled nose. “But the thing that makes it worse — the thing that is goddamn motherfucking unforgivable? You put that baby at risk, you self-righteous, arrogant asshole.”
He had the decency to look ashamed, but it only enraged me further.
“Our very own Judas. Isn’t that right,Leviticus?” I hissed every ounce of vitriol at him.
“No,” he whispered. “I told him a lie.” It was a pathetic attempt at dissuading the beating we were all ready to continue.
“Stop. Lying,” I growled.
“He told your father that you wanted to start your own community!” Ruth shouted, desperately trying to wedge herself between myself and her husband.
“What?” Zeke’s voice sounded beside me, but her words had barely registered through the heavy fog of my anger.
I raised my fist, ready to hit him as hard as I could, as I had wanted to ever since I had overheard that conversation.
“Wait, Kai. Stop!” Ollie shouted. Someone’s hands — I didn’t know whose — grabbed at the back of my shirt, pulling me away from Levi. I shook them off easily, but then the two hands became four, wrapped around my biceps as they pulled me away from him, putting space between us enough until Ruth could wrap her arms around Levi, protecting him with her own body. He didn’t deserve that. He didn’t deserve her protection.
“Everybody calm down!” Talia shouted from behind us. Her voice, full of tears, was the only thing that could stop me in my tracks. I felt a protectiveness for my sister-in-law and the child she carried that spoke to the primal nature within me.
As I turned, I took in the chaos of the barn. Ollie and Zeke stood beside me, Levi and Ruth huddled just behind me. Delilah stood in the middle of the room, where Talia now stood with her. She held both of her hands protectively over her midsection, tears running down her face. Naomi was curled up in a chair, her legs pulled up with her feet on the seat of the chair as she wrapped herself up into a ball.
Fuck. Triggering these women was the last thing I had wanted. I had let my anger get the best of me and I felt utter and complete remorse for it.
“Everyone, just take a breath,” Talia begged us. The room grew quiet as we all let the tension settle over us, the silence helping it to dissipate, though only by the slightest bit.
“Levi—” Zeke began, but Levi quickly interrupted.
“It’s time for me to explain.”
CHAPTER12
MALACHI
The tension in the room was at a fever pitch. Ruth’s words hung in the air. As I looked around the barn, it looked like everyone had cooled down just barely enough to talk, or more importantly, to listen. But I hadn’t. Not by a long shot.
“I need a minute,” I seethed, my hands still held in tight fists at my sides as I struggled to regain any semblance of control. I walked quickly towards the door of the barn, needing the cool night air to clear my head.
“Kai, wait. We need to at least hear them out,” Zeke tried to reason.
“No. Not yet. I need a minute,” I spoke tersely, my jaw nearly cramping with the effort it took not to snap at everyone, spewing my anger about the room violently.
“Give him a minute,” Delilah urged. I looked up to see her soft smile of understanding. I nodded my head once and hastily made my way outside. It wasn’t until I had stepped to the side of the door where they couldn’t see me that I let myself go. I dropped to my knees, knowing they could still hear me and needing to be silent as I pounded my fist into the ground over and over, wishing it were Levi’s face instead.
I wanted to scream. I wanted to howl my rage into the night; to break things. Anything to soothe the violent rage that I felt. But I couldn’t do that. I needed control. Digging my fingers into the grassy soil of the ground, I took deep breaths. The cool breeze rushed over my face as I tilted my face up to the sky.
Slowly, I regained control. I would listen to Levi; hear what he had to say. And if he continued his reign of bullshit, I would pummel his face in and leave this place, taking my family with me and leaving him behind to reap what he had sown.
The sounds of night surrounded me, making me feel calmer still. A rustling sound came from the side of the barn, drawing my attention for only a moment. If that was another fox in search of my chicken coop, I would have to go on a hunting spree. The little red devils had claimed far too many of my birds in the past years, though I hadn’t had a problem lately. I shook my head, refocusing on the matter at hand.
With one last deep breath, I made my way back into the barn.
“Welcome back,” Ollie greeted me with far less excitement than he had when the night had begun. I walked over to the sawhorse that stood near Ollie and Zeke, close to where the wives sat. I felt incredibly protective and needed to be near them.
“So? Talk,” I spat at Levi. He and Ruth had pulled up chairs across from the rest of us. The divide between us all felt a mile wide, the rift absolutely massive.
“Let me first start by saying that I’m sorry,” Levi began. I couldn’t hold back my derisive scoff.
“I’m sorry that I didn’t reach out to you all sooner, but it wasn’t that simple. It wasn’t safe,” he explained. My leg started bouncing, twitching with the level of anxiety trapped in my body.
