Page 26 of When Kings Fall

“Hey, I know our woman. She likes that,” Levi said. “It’s not the first time. I know about the 26 you keep for protection.”

“26?” Mason said. “As in a Glock 26?” He shook his head at Levi. “You’re the only one who calls them just by the digits.”

“Not the only one, but sure. And, yeah.”

“Of course you know about Tommy giving that to me,” I said, with a roll of my eyes.

“Your ex?” Colt chimed in.

“Her predatory ex, yeah,” Levi clarified.

“He wasn’t—” I stopped myself. “Let’s get down to it here, all right?”

“She’s right, focus up,” Mason said, backing me.

“Sorry,” Levi said, although I could tell that it was one of those times where he didn’t actually feel sorry at all. He was stoked that he’d given me a present.

Mason snapped his fingers in front of Colt’s face as he was staring off into space. “Focus, brother.”

Colt blinked. “Sorry, I was thinking of gift ideas.”

“What? Why?” Mason asked.

“Because I keep getting upstaged by the two of you. First Lev with the butterfly nightlight, then you with the sandwiches gesture, then this knife thing. My duet recording is nothing compared to that.”

“You’re wrong,” I said, stretching out my hand to rub his arm on the adjacent couch. “It was heartfelt and really sweet. Don’t sell yourself short.”

“Really?”

“I promise.”

He smiled out at me and kissed my knuckles. “You really are a cutie.”

“Beneath the dark angel thing,” Mason countered.

“Don’t you forget it,” Levi told him.

“Levi,” I groused.

“Right, yeah. Getting down to business. Filling you in.”

“Start with Chloe and we’ll go from there.”

He shoved a hand through his curls and sauntered away so he was standing in front of the couch and the armchair, facing the three of us. “All right, so, yeah, it was my doing getting Chloe out of the picture. Out of Stonewell U and the town. But it wasn’t so I could remove an obstacle.”

“Because you’re never about that,” Mason said with dripping sarcasm.

Levi tossed him a look. “She wasn’t an obstacle to me. She’s Brianna’s friend, I didn’t want to take that from her, that support system. Even though I’m not a fan of her being a fucking trainwreck who you ended up having to basically babysit so often.”

“Levi!” I cried.

He held up his hand. “Sorry. Just bringing the honesty.”

“Jeez,” Colt said, shaking his head.

“Get back to it, Lev,” Mason told him. “Maybe, without that sort of thing.”

Levi sucked in a breath, then went on, “As I was saying, yeah, even if I had seen her as an obstacle, it wouldn’t have stopped me anyway. Even if she’d still been around, I would’ve found my way to you. You know it as well as I do.”

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