Page 103 of They Break Beauty

Colton looked between us. “You’re gonna want to sit down.”

“Sit down? Come on, brother. Just spill it.”

Colton grimaced, then pulled his phone from his pants, scrolled for a moment, then handed it to Levi.

I watched Levi’s expression morph from disbelief, to something a whole lot more dangerous as he swiped rapidly through whatever Colton had brought up, his free hand clenching into a white-knuckle fist.

And then his eyes went black with unadulterated fury.

“How?” he rumbled. “I had this protected.”

“I heard Mason talking on the phone earlier tonight as I was passing by with my acoustic guitar to song write out in nature like I do every now and then, and he spoke the name, Rina.”

“He had her crack my system,” Levi grunted, handing the phone back to Colton.

“One of the very few people we know who actually could. The only one we know, really, outside of your dad.”

“Motherfucker!” Levi roared, and I could see the strain on him not to start punching or pounding on anything in his immediate vicinity.

“What’s happened?” I asked, walking to Colton.

He handed his phone to me. “I’m sorry, cutie.”

Sorry? What was going on?

Fortunately—or perhaps, unfortunately—I got the answer to my question all too quickly.

There, on Colton’s screen were photos and posts of me. Me and Tommy. Me and Tommy getting it on. Even stills of us making out and doing more than even that.

My own private photos and videos that I’d kept out of… I don’t know… maybe a connection to the person I used to be before I’d cut it all off and turned my back on that part of my life to spare myself the pain.

“Oh my God,” I breathed, continuing through and noting how many likes and interactions the things had.

So many.

“It’s gone viral. Not just there on IG, but all over the place,” Colton told me, wincing.

“That’s why you were trying to reach me?” Levi asked.

“This only happened an hour or so ago. I was trying to reach you because even though Mason knew you were back, he called a meeting with Hex earlier tonight. Meaning—”

“Meaning, he’s cut me out.” Levi’s gaze strayed to mine briefly, before turning back to Colton. “Because Brianna is involved. Because he’s had her marked.”

“Yeah. I tried to stop him, Lev. I really did. But he’s just… it’s like he’s power mad. I think you showing care for somebody, intense care, really freaked him out, and sent him reeling back to five years ago, and this is his response—and major overreaction.”

Levi scrubbed his hand over his face, then started pacing, thinking.

Colton came to me and wrapped his arm around me, gently easing his phone from my grip with his free hand. “Don’t look at it anymore. We’ll fix it.”

“You better fucking believe we will,” Levi said, conviction and rage colliding into one hell of a vehement statement as he looked at me. “I’m sorry, Wildflower. I’ll take care of it, I’ll make it better.” He addressed Colton, “I need you to head back to the mansion and retrieve my special laptop.”

“Special?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s the shit,” Colton answered instead. “Military-grade and everything.”

“It’s… holy shit.” I eyed Levi. “Wow, you really don’t do things halfway, do you?”

“Fuck, no.”

---