Page 63 of They Break Beauty

Mason sneered at him. “Your attempt to redirect was admirable, yet majorly transparent.”

“Just stay out of my business and keep your focus on that,” Lev told him, gesturing at the papers surrounding him. “Got your army in place yet?”

“Working on it.”

“And then what? You’re gonna hit at Daddy Dearest?”

“One step at a time.”

“You chickened out the last time around.”

“Because you left.”

“That’s your excuse. You made the decision to call it off before I even announced I was taking off for a while. But you can’t stand failure in any fucking thing, so you leveled it on me because I’m an easy target as I don’t care about blame, insults, or any of that shit.”

“Right.”

“You’re actually admitting it?”

“No. I’m talking about you being right about you not caring or having a reaction to normal human things. So why are you now?”

“What?”

“You’re reacting, Lev. In a major way. And it’s because of this girl, isn’t it?”

“If I’m reacting then you’re reaching. Majorly.”

“Nah,” Mason said, shaking his head. “It’s clear as day to me. This girl’s a threat.”

Oh no. “She’s not, Mason,” I interjected. “She’s a sweet thing and—”

“She’s a threat in the sense of how she’s affecting him,” Mason clarified.

“The fuck she is,” Levi bit back.

“The way you’re reacting to her, the lines you’re crossing, the obsession she’s clearly become for you… it’s dangerous, given what and who you are. And it won’t be tolerated.”

“What does that mean?”

“What do you think? She has to be dealt with in the way Hex deals with all threats—absolute decimation.”

Before I could object, Lev shot to his feet and slammed his hands down on the table, rattling our plates. “You stay the fuck away from her,” he seethed at Mason.

Mason didn’t so much as flinch, eyeing him steadily. “Give me a reason to.”

“What?”

“Explain to me why she’s so special, why she’s under your skin, and why you’re going to such lengths with her.”

Lev’s jaw worked as he stared Mason down.

As the seconds ticked by and he didn’t say anything, didn’t offer anything up, Mason told him, “You have forty-eight hours to give me the truth, or she’s marked by Hex.”

Levi stormed around the table and snatched the papers from the table. Looking them over rapidly, he muttered, “Twenty-five recruits since we restarted Hex. All loyal to you through fear, intimidation and blackmail.”

“That’s the way we do it.”

Lev pulled out his phone and took rapid photos of each piece of paper with the list of names Mason had along with the details involved in what he had on each of them, what he was holding over their heads, as well as the assets and connections he wanted them for, what use he had for each of them. Then he threw the papers on the floor out of Mason’s reach and leaned in and growled in his face, “You strike at her and I’ll annihilate every single fucker on this list. Mark my fucking words. Don’t test me.”

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