Page 190 of Pretty Little Lies

“Wha—no. It’s not like that. Before we dated, we were best friends. It’s not…Levi just has a temper. His pride was hurt with you guys stepping in, and he did shit he shouldn’t have.”

“So, you just forgive every motherfucker who touches you?” He spits that question out like he’s fully disgusted with me…or disappointed. “Just like De Leon. How many times did he touch you when I was around?”

I lost count.

“Drop it,” I grind out, because the mention of myrealex in this conversation is going to amp me up real quick. “I’m not cheating on you.”

“I don’t like it.”

“And I don’t like that you’re a Wildes, so…” I shrug.

“You’re a Wildes, too, baby,” he hisses out, trying to hold his composure. “And Wallace isn’t going to continue to be in your life when he’s disrespected you. Not around me.”

“That’s not fully your decision now, is it?”

He arrogantly cocks his head to the side. The sheer pride that lives abundantly in Torin’s veins matches my own. We like to have the last word and we sure as hell love to make surewe’re perfectly clear. “Isn’t it, though? I have some say, Wildfire. You’re fucking mine.”

My body heats with that declaration because it doesn’t seem to get old. My brain doesn’t mind it at all either, which is the scary part sometimes.

Yet, the big picture here is that Levi plays a major role in my life and there’s never going to be a day where I nix him out of it.

I just don’t know how to bring him in now that all this has happened.

“I’mnotcheating on you,” I repeat again. “I wouldneverdo that to either of you.”

A muscle in Torin’s jaw twitches, but it doesn’t shut him up, unfortunately. “We’ll see about that when you come and live with us.”

My face skews atthatidea. “No, I’m not.”

“Yeah…you are,” Pretty Boy utters, keeping his eyes locked with mine. “We have the space. The girls will have their own room. Your dad, too. We’ll have around-the-clock care?—”

“We can’t.” I rock my head back and forth, because that would mean Levi out of everything, and I won’t do that. “But, thank?—”

“You will,” he counters, giving zero fucks about the matter. “Because we’re going to take care of our own. And my girl isn’t going to live on the fucking streets when we have more than enough?—”

“My dad isn’t staying at your house when your fuckingfatheralready tried to kill him.”

The hardness in Torin’s face falters a bit, as if he didn’t think of that before, and Reeve steps up to his left.

“She’s right,” Reeve mumbles. “He can’t be there.” Torin doesn’t answer right away, causing me to shift uncomfortably at his silence. It’s literally the most dangerous thing about him. “We gotta trust her, brother. If she trusts Levi with her sisters…I don’t like it either, but we need to throw some respect on her decision making.”

Torin’s nostrils flare, obviously not a fan of his best friend’s words, but he lets out, “Alright. Whatever she wants…for now.”

My body eases a bit, and it’s then that I notice Reeve’s solemn attitude, which almost matches Baby Wildes’s. “What about you?” I ask him. “Are you okay with?—”

“Are you fuckingstupid?” Cairo’s voice suddenly barks out, frightening me with a jump as he emerges around Reeve and into my sight. “Why am I not surprised thatyouwould go past your limit?”

I think I just suffered a mild heart attack, and I check my chest to make sure I can still feel my heart beating. “What the hell iswrongwith you?”

Cairo ignores me, his haughtiness driving me absolutely out of my mind as well as the damn scare he just threw at me. Then ping-pongs his index finger between Torin and Reeve. “Don’t you have two boyfriends now? That’s their fucking job to hear your mental problems.”

“I don’t need—” He actually lunges for me, or that’s what it seems like. I think he took a giant step because he’s so fucking tall, provoking my chin to rise to meet his dark eyes.

“You need a fucking spanking and someone to throw you into a wall, Little T. I swear to fucking God, I’m over here trying to get your house back, and you’re over here trying to fuckingdie.”

“I wasn’t trying?—”

“Do it again,” he grits out through his teeth, and the tone his voice takes causes goosebumps to line up my spine in a violent shake. “And I’m going to show you how much of a fucker I can be when pissed, got me? Level down on the fucking reckless shit.”

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