Page 86 of Falling in Reverse

Around him is a fully decorated office with black bookshelves and dark hunter-green walls. The lighting in the room is a dim warmth, good for just relaxing during a stressful day.

And in front of the massive desk sits two big-ass rottweilers, whose lips are curled back and baring their white teeth at me.

“Hey, Pretty Boy,” I greet smugly, even though I have a pretty good chance of getting eaten alive. “We have to stop meeting like this.”

His jaw tightens, but he doesn’t say a word as he rises, keeping his hands smartly at his sides so I can see them. “I’d ask you what the fuck you’re doing here, but I have a pretty good inkling on why.”

“Why?” I press. “Is it because you think you have something of mine?”

Torin lifts a placid brow. “His name wouldn’t happen to be Levi Wallace, would it?”

I mock his expression, keeping a safe distance from his dogs and the room in front of me. “Where is he?”

“Not here, I’m afraid.” He lifts his shoulders, all high and mighty and about to catch a bullet. “But I’ll let him know you stopped by.”

I move forward, but the dog on my right with cropped ears growls, causing me to halt.

I might be a bitch, but I’m not going to turn into an animal killer on the list of names I’ve gained over the years.

Torin begins to round his desk, gaining my immediate attention and finding his eyes already latched onto me like he’s about to give the magical word for his big mutts to move on me. “Do I need to keep repeating the conversations we have, or are you good?”

“I’m good.”

He leans against the edge of the desk and studies me. “Why are you here?”

“Didn’t I just make myself clear?”

Torin doesn’t waste any time pushing off the furniture, confident that the closer he gets won’t mean that I won’t yank on this trigger. “All this for Wallace?” He tsks and shakes his head. “I’m hurt that you’ve never done it for me.”

“For what? You’ve never been anything to me.”

“Haven’t I? I remember my name off your pretty lips once upon a time.”

“Where is he?” I press, the adrenaline coursing through my veins a clear reminder that this isn’t me. I don’t hold up 9mms to people and demand answers.

“How does this conversation end, Wildfire?” he asks me, only a few feet away. Those light browns the color of amber holding me to my spot and to barely breath. “I just wanna know if I’m going to have a mess that I have to clean by the time it’s up.”

“Depends.”

“On?”

“You givin’ me back Levi.”

One side of his lips quirk in a cocky smirk, still holding that contemptuous expression that seems to be embedded in every boy that’s from The Landings. “Then you’re gonna have to shoot me.”

My index finger flirts with the trigger, when he suddenly reaches out to seize my weapon. I instinctively pull on it, the bullet cracking through the air and piercing through the ceiling. Chards of wood rain down around us Torin’s body slams into mine, squeezing my wrist to keep hold of another “accident.”

We struggle for what seems to be only a few seconds before my spine hits the back of the wall, which happens to be right next to the door he just closed.

My head thrusts forward, trying to catch him as I did the last time on Marine Boulevard, but he’s too fucking smart for that.

Instead, he only pulls back and seizes my throat with his free hand.

“You missed,” he mutters over my heaving breaths before I kick him in the shin.

He doesn’t falter, only roams his hand farther up mine to get better access to the 9mm.

I growl, pinning him with my glare and meeting his level of calm.

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