Page 3 of Pretty Little Lies

We were doomed before we ever started, and it’s better this way. At least I’ll know he’s safe and on the other side of the divide with his boys, rather than trying to sneak over here and risk his life.

I try to shove back the vision of seeing the pads of his fingers frantically hitting the keyboard of his phone. The anxiety that is coursing through his messages and I quickly forget about me.

Maybe that’s a fault of mine.

I’m the oldest, therefore, I always find the need to help, to heal and tend, the problem-solver and the one that’ll go to bat for you if someone is trying to knuck up on someone’s well-being.

Reeve is not my responsibility. I have my hands full already with my own squad and family.

But it still doesn’t stop the desire to want to.

I suddenly make eye contact with Dad in the living room, as if he’s been watching me the whole time.

At first, I feel like he caught me doing something—because I am—but I raise my hand and give him a little wave before grabbing some pancake mix from the small pantry.

My phone buzzes again in my palm, and I promptly glance down at it.

REEVE: Stay out of trouble. I’ll come see you in a few days.

And, the thing is, I have no doubt he’d come by.

I just don’t want him to.

Which is crazy because, at that exact moment, the front door to the house flies opens, almost slamming against the wall and my first thought goes to him.

Frantic to see me, not able to wait any longer since I’m not texting him back.

But when Levi’s body shows up between the foyer and the kitchen, I’m disappointed that I can’t relieve some of Reeve’s stress.

And in hindsight, I kinda wish it were Reeve now.

Because standing before me is Levi seething in pure, towering rage as he pins me to my spot with said menacing glower.

The baby blue tee he’s wearing screams that his muscles are tense and wanting to rip into something other than the fabric covering them.

I step forward on instinct, but something wards me off to give him his space. The tension that just filled the room is thick and almost suffocating as I try to get my next words out.

But they lodge there because I’ve never seen Levi so pissed and my paranoia is warning me that I’m the cause to it.

“What happened?” I finally press, watching him inhale and exhale in deep and unsteady breaths.

Levi flexes his inked fingers, pinning me down as though he wants to murder me.

“Lev, what the hell?—”

“Why didn’t you—” His brows tightly clench before he’s erasing the rest of the distance between us and getting right into my personal space.

The smell of fresh motor oil fills my nostrils and I crane my chin up to look up at him, hating how devastatingly upset he appears. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

If I would’ve blinked, I would have missed the way his features softened a bit before they skewed back up again in a perplexed state of whatever the fuck.

“Why didn’t youcallme the moment you got…”

I give him a baited second to press on, but he doesn’t, so I ask, “The moment I what?”

“Are youserious?” he leers through his teeth, careful to keep his voice down so that Dad and my sisters don’t hear him. “You’d hide something like…” A heavy exhale pushes through his lips and his whole muscled-up frame shakes in tandem. “Bay…I’m gonnakillthat motherfucker.”

There’s no fucking way.

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