Page 62 of They Break Beauty

Words churned in my head at the sound, matching to the melody.

It was easier not to open my eyes/ It was easier not to feel a thing/ Until you/ You came into my life like a hurricane/ You eased away the pain/ Until you.

“You’re whistling to my duet?”

He lifted a shoulder as he made his coffee. “Am I?”

“Yeah, you definitely are.”

“Guess it’s caught in my head from the other day.”

“How? I’ve been singing a bunch of my others since then.”

“Because of the girl,” Mason said, focusing back on his papers.

“Her name is Brianna,” Lev bit back with an edge this time, as he returned to the table with the coffee.

I shifted forward on my chair. “Holy shit, you fucked her, didn’t you? Outside the bar or at her place?” I eyed Mason in question because he’d been home that night. “Or here?”

Lifting one eye off his papers for a moment, he answered, “Not here.”

“No fucking was had,” Lev said, waving his hand dismissively. “Not in the technical sense.”

“Technical sense? What does that mean?” I asked.

Mason slapped his papers down and glared at Lev. “It means he fingered her up against the wall of the bar then marked her.”

“Marked her? Like Hex-wise? He likes her, it’s a little hard to believe he would—”

“He came on her,” Mason told me.

“Huh, marked her in that sense. Got it.” I licked my lips. “I like it.”

“Of course you do,” Mason grunted. “Dirty slut.”

I grinned. “That I am, darlin’. And don’t you forget it.” I looked at Lev who was noticeably less upbeat now, some major tension having taken him over. “Although, I am a little hurt, you didn’t invite me, Lev. You saw that I’ve got a rapport going with her now.”

“You might have a rapport but you don’t know her. Double-teaming at this stage would have terrified her and fucked up everything.”

“At this stage? So you are actually considering my sharing idea then?”

Before he could answer, Mason ran right over that and demanded instead, “And what might that everything be?”

Lev glared at him fiercely. “How do you know what went down?”

“Hmm, let me see,” Mason said, sitting back in his chair and clasping his hands on his lap. Oh shit. Not good. Very not good. “Could it be that your mysterious behavior of keeping to the shadows, combined with your even more mysterious return necessitated me putting eyes on you? Could it also be that one of those sets of eyes reported a very localized blackout at Nirvana right after Colt texted to tell me you were on your way home? A blackout that took out the lights just on a couple of the exterior walls of the building and also downed the security cameras? Gotta say, Levi, that was an impressive feat. It required interference from several different sources as well, and to pull it off in perfect synchronicity like you did… another level. Your skills have clearly grown substantially since you’ve been away. Strange, isn’t it, that your internship didn’t include any of that sort of thing?” When Lev just continued glaring at him, his fingers tightening around his mug to a white-knuckle grip, Mason went on, “I had one of my people get the security cameras up and running again and link me to the feed. That’s how I saw.”

“Hmm.”

“That’s all you have to say for yourself?” Mason demanded.

Lev sucked in a harsh breath, then narrowed his eyes. “No. Far from it, brother. You’re so afraid of not being in absolute control of every little thing that it’s become a sickness. A worrying and really fucking sad sickness.”

“Lev—” I started to warn.

He ignored it and pushed harder, “You’re so stifled that I was stunned that Colt was able to get you off. I mean, props to him, that’s a major feat. The guy’s got skills, we all know that, but with you that’s not even a given. It’s slamming up against some real deep-seated repression.” Lev scoffed. “You don’t even know who the fuck you are. I mean, shit, you can’t even acknowledge him in public—or around anybody outside of the three of us—you leave him relegated to just some friend. You just don’t see how much that hurts him every fucking time, is that it? Or you don’t care? Or is it because you’re so emotionally stunted these days that you really don’t register it?”

I slapped my hand to my face and slumped back in my chair. “Shit. Stop this.”

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