Page 101 of They Break Beauty

“Is that gunshot wound connected to that fight with your dad?”

“In a sense. It wasn’t inflicted by him, though, nor actually during our round of combat.”

I frowned. “Then, what—”

My laptop chirped, cutting me off.

Levi blinked, then took in the screen. “Done. Now to ensure the data that was taken is secure.”

“Take a break. You don’t have to do it all at once.”

He looked out at me. “I appreciate that, but I need to get it done.”

“It’s hard for you to stop, isn’t it?”

“What’s that?”

“It’s difficult for you to stand still, to relax, or just to do nothing, isn’t it?”

He averted his eyes and I thought he was going to blow off my question or, more likely with him, redirect and possibly make a joke in the process.

But then he sucked in a breath and sank back against the kitchen chair. “I need to keep my mind busy, yeah.”

“Because of them?”

“Yes.”

We didn’t need to utter it aloud, he knew what I meant. The demons.

“Even in the bath, you kept fussing with it, adding more hot water, then cold, putting in more bubble bath, then moving the actual bubbles around.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to be. I get it.” I gestured at the three new origami butterflies in front of my plate that I’d made this morning since he’d started working on my laptop. “Do you think it’ll ever stop?”

“I do.”

“You sound so certain.”

“They’re still with us because we never had closure.”

“They were punished.”

“It’s not enough, though, is it?”

“I don’t know.”

“We didn’t get the opportunity to deal with them.”

“Even if I do acknowledge that disturbing claim to have some truth to it on my end too, the fact is that the… ringleader… he’s dead.”

Something flitted across his features that I couldn’t quite discern because it was so quick.

“Levi, what—"

A sudden pounding on the front door brought me up short and had Levi instantly shooting to his feet on high alert.

No, it was more than that.

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