Page 79 of When Kings Fall

As a child, he’d been the most gentle and caring little boy. To everyone he’d met.

Even when I’d brought him into Knightsridge Engineering more so to prepare him for his role as heir apparent, I’d gone to great pains to only expose him to the legitimate aspects.

The only exception had been my business with Curt Walker. He was a dangerous individual, but he had a soft spot for children on account of having a daughter he absolutely adored. Bringing Levi into that had been a perfect compromise and a way to teach him about the dangers involved in running my empire, schooling him on how to read people, how to strike complicated deals that had high stakes attached.

But beyond that, I’d been concerned that drawing him any deeper into those aspects of my work would dim the bright spark that he’d possessed, that it would taint his beautiful innocence, that it would poison his pure and unjaded heart.

Then the kidnapping had happened and it had destroyed everything I’d guarded him against.

It had destroyed my boy.

There were those in life who never recovered from being shattered to pieces.

For the last six years, that had been the fate I’d thought had befallen Levi.

Until now.

I watched from the shadows through to the kitchen as he sat up at the kitchen island while Brianna tended to the injuries that he’d sustained.

It was uncanny witnessing such a thing where he was concerned.

Since he’d been liberated from captivity at the hands of those madmen, he’d never allowed me or anyone else to treat any damage he’d sustained. He’d even learned to perform stitches on himself to avoid it.

He saw it as a weakness.

Even suffering a single hit was a failure in his mind.

It went back to six years ago. That shame that they’d afflicted him with.

Everything went back to six years ago for him.

But now there was finally a positive element.

Her.

Brianna Walker.

Curt’s baby girl.

Well, that was how he’d seen her for too long.

She was a far cry away from that now.

I’d seen it for myself earlier.

Although, I hadn’t needed to see it to have been able to draw that conclusion. The fact that Levi had taken a liking to her in the intense way he never had before when it came to women had been enough to go on. Only someone strong, self-reliant, and powerful could catch Levi’s interest in that way. That type of woman was also the only type that would be able to handle my son.

“Gonna keep lurking, or are you actually gonna make it inside the kitchen, Dad?”

I smiled to myself. Little miscreant.

“My doctor is finishing up seeing to Mason and Colton,” I informed them. “They’re well. Just minor cuts and bruises, fortunately. Although Mason has sustained a couple of bruised ribs, but they’ll heal well with a little rest.”

“Thank goodness,” Brianna breathed, looking pained that it had come close to being a great deal worse.

The boys had insisted that she go first with treatment, absolutely not having it when she’d wanted Mason to get a nasty slice to his arm dealt with first.

It was beyond chivalry. It was a deep affection and adoration that they had displayed toward her.

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