Page 28 of When Kings Fall

A shudder rolled through me. “You actually saw him?”

“I did, but I couldn’t fucking well act. He was surrounded by thirty of his guys at the time. If I’d moved in, I would’ve fallen, and there was no guarantee that I could’ve taken him down with me in the process.”

“If he’d seen you, Levi,” I choked. “What he would’ve done to you… oh my God.”

“Hence my retreat, baby. So I came back here. I wanted Mason to mobilize Hex to give him a taste of power to distract him so I could pursue you, because I knew he’d be suspicious of me suddenly coming back. Just me being back would have him on my back… because of the history of my recklessness, me returning would be jarring to the peace and quiet he’d endured without me here.”

“Peace and quiet… more like unbelievable boredom,” Colt said.

“All well predicted and deduced,” Mason told Levi.

Levi acknowledged his rare compliment, then told me, “I’d heard that you’d come to Stonewell U just after I’d left. The urge to go to you and come home right away was overwhelming. Knowing you were finally within reach and out from under your father’s thumb… it was something I’d been waiting on for so long. But I wanted to come back and reintroduce myself to you with something major to tell you. That being that I’d taken out Lynch. When that couldn’t happen, I pivoted, deciding that I’d come to you and recruit you to my cause, get your help. I knew all about your skills and resources, I just hadn’t wanted to involve you if I hadn’t needed to, because I also knew about your trauma. And when I came back here, I saw that it was worse than I’d even imagined because you were in such denial that you’d completely reinvented yourself and thrown away the old you—the real you, baby.”

“Shit, Lev,” Colt said. “You must’ve felt so alone. I’m so sorry, brother.”

“It’s okay, I’m not anymore.”

I beamed out at him. “No, you’re not. Neither am I. Neither are any of us.”

“I’m so sorry we were all forced to come here, though, to lay low like this.”

“Because of Royce Humphrey. What happened there?” I asked.

“I tracked down Kyle Trass to get confirmation on the name of the organization Lynch was using now. Osiris.”

“Apt,” I grunted.

“Exactly my thoughts.” He sucked in a breath. “I kept the fucker alive in case I needed to use him down the road. While Mason and I were using Royce’s network to track Lynch through, making him appear as though he was the one pursuing Lynch with the intent to rip the growing power of Osiris out from under his former boss, Kyle and Royce came into contact earlier than their usual monthly check-in call or meeting, and it tipped Royce off to me.”

“All right,” I murmured, my thoughts wandering now as I felt that numbness wearing off from all the slap-you-in-your-face reality I was being inundated with. “That’s everything?”

“My dad is involved now. He’s going to reach out to yours and once I get a location, they’re going to devise and launch a strike with us in tow against Lynch, and we’ll decimate the fucker and his rising organization. We’ll take out Royce and Kyle too. In the meantime, while we’re at the safehouse and I’m working to get a lock on Lynch again through covert means so my dad and yours aren’t linked to it which could risk Lynch targeting them, my dad has put out word that I was gravely injured in that attack I thwarted at your apartment.”

“Jeez,” I uttered.

“We left the guys alive, Lev,” Mason pointed out. “I mean, it’s feasible that you took a hit and kept fighting through it, but it’s still a reach that Royce might not believe.”

“They’re not alive anymore,” Levi told us. “Roman took care of that.”

“What?” Mason said.

“With his underhanded business partners?” Colt asked.

“No. Personally. It was where he was headed when we parted ways and he sent me up here to reconnect with you guys.”

“Jesus fuck,” Mason breathed. “Roman Knight going the personal route… that’s another level.”

“Well, this whole thing hurt him too. Like it did Curt.”

I rose to my feet, all of it hitting me at full force now. “Okay,” I only just managed to voice. “Thanks for the… the report. It’s… good. We’ll… I need to take a breather.”

With that, I rushed out of the room without another word.

10

~Levi~

Five and a Half Years Ago

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