Page 57 of When Kings Fall

Brianna: Who I fuck stopped being your concern a long time ago.

Tommy: Big girl language, yeah? He been teaching you that?

“Motherfucker,” Levi rumbled dangerously. “What’s the number?” he said, easing from me and shifting his weight, his fingers flying over the keys of his laptop in the next moment.

I reeled it off to him.

He cocked an eyebrow. “You didn’t even have to look in your contact list, just know your ex-boyfriend’s number off by heart, hmm?”

I rolled my eyes. “Please. You know I have really good recall.”

He grinned. “I know, just teasing you to lighten the mood that the shithead ruined.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this,” I said, a moment before I responded with another text.

Brianna: Don’t be a pussy. Get to your reason for contacting me.

Tommy: Your old man.

Brianna: What about him?

Tommy: Knew you wouldn’t respond to his calls or texts, so he’s hit me up to do it. Stop what you’re doing with Knight. All of it. You don’t and that freedom you’ve had is gonna take a turn.

Brianna: Is that a threat?

Tommy: He doesn’t want you getting hurt or going down that road again. He’s raging all over the fucking place. Smashed up one of the diners after Roman Knight left and filled him in. The fuck he’s gonna get involved in that Lynch shit again, turned the smarmy fucker down flat. Knowing you’re going the other way has him worried and pissed as fuck. Stand down, B. Fall in fucking line.

Levi eyed the text, his eyes sparking with that dark fury.

Instead of doing the obvious and moving to handle it, he simply told me, “Give it to him, baby.”

I smiled at his faith in me.

More than that, it was a major deal for him not to step in, because he was extremely protective of me and possessive—aside from with Mason and Colt when it came to me—yet here he was with his response serving as a bolster to remind me that I was empowered now and no longer under the thumb of overbearing men treating me like a porcelain doll.

The boys all recognized that now.

But those from my old life still didn’t. They actually never would. I had no illusions about that.

Brianna: I won’t back down. Do what you need to.

Tommy: You’re making a mistake.

Brianna: As you will be if you come at me. Pass that along to my father like the little messenger bitch you’ve become.

With that, I grunted and put my phone down on the nightstand. “Fuck,” I groused, shoving my hands through my hair.

“Nicely done,” Levi said, stroking my hair.

“Thanks and—why do you have that dangerous glint in your eyes?”

His eyes darkened too. Oh no.

“Levi, what’s wrong? You know, aside from the obvious that just happened?”

“He doesn’t know how to cover his tracks properly. I was able to track his phone. He’s not with your father, not at any of his businesses, or Curt’s home residence. He’s not at his own apartment either. Where he is right at the moment of contacting you just now is at the same industrial estate that I tagged Osiris at for a brief period.”

“What? No. That can’t be.”

---