Page 3 of When Kings Fall

2

~Levi~

She wasn’t home.

According to the eyes I’d had Mason put on her again, she was studying late at the library.

Trying to avoid us.

Well, me.

Thanks to Chloe’s big fucking blabbering mouth.

Clearly it had been some form of payback on the part of that train wreck for me pulling her out of Stonewell U by playing on her mother’s issues with her being here in the first place and not attending the elite fashion design institute in the City of Tolhurst like Celeste Anders had desired in the first place for her daughter.

I leaned against my Harley as I waited off the dirt road across from Brianna’s apartment.

Again.

But this time I wasn’t here to observe her in her natural habitat.

Or, stalking her, as some less open-minded people might tar it.

I was here to decimate a threat against her.

Against all of us by extension.

We were at that stage with her now where if anyone came at her, they also came at us.

All right, I’d been in that stage for six fucking years, but now I had Colt and Mason there with me too.

Mason and I had determined that Royce’s mercenaries would target her at the apartment, rather than anywhere else. These guys were ghosts, they didn’t draw attention, so they’d never come at their targets in a crowded area, or anywhere at all public. No, they’d break into her apartment quietly, then attack from within.

My plan was to put them down while she was in class back at the campus, and then we’d tell her what was going on, give her the whole truth.

This threat from Royce changed things and as bad as it was, it did mean we could finally be done with the secrecy that had been twisting me up.

Her and I had come a long way and I couldn’t handle the idea of that being set back, and our closeness being compromised made me sick to my stomach. It was already eating me up inside that the whole Chloe thing had put a dent in things. Fortunately, it was connected to the rest, so once I was able to lift the veil of secrecy, I’d be able to explain why I’d had to do it.

Until then, being cut off from her was something I had to weather for a little while longer.

Movement caught my eye and I watched as a black unmarked van carefully pulled into the lot.

I pushed off my motorcycle and kept myself concealed as I approached the building, keeping an eye on the van as four overly musclebound guys decked out in the cliché all black—jeans and leather jackets—to blend into the night emerged.

They were here.

It was time.

I darted up the opposite entrance to the stairwell and took the steps two at a time toward Brianna’s floor.

Fortunately, Mason had managed to empty the building citing a fake gas leak or something—we’d have time to discuss the details later, once this immediate threat was taken care of.

I made it to the fourth floor just as I heard heavy footsteps rushing up the opposite stairwell, coming in hot.

Sliding my tactical knife from the sleeve of my hoodie, I spun it in my hand, then readied a long-practiced fighting stance.

The first one appeared, rounding the staircase, and I reacted instantly, tossing my knife and watching as it embedded in his chest. Unfortunately, not his heart, as Mason had outlawed me taking their lives tonight.

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