Page 48 of Aching for His Discretion

“You were listening,” he accused, and I immediately shook my head.

“I wasn’t,” I whispered stupidly, and he gazed down at me intimidatingly.

“I could believe you… or I could question why the fuck there is a connection between you and three of the biggest cases I have this week, including the death of one man and the absence of two others.”

“There isn’t. I promise,” I pleaded, and he scoffed.

“You mean to tell me that you have no recollection of anything happening while living in an apartment with walls that are paper-thin? Why are you the only student that is so invested in how that drugged-up criminal was killed? And why is it that Alec Harrington, who is also missing, is notoriously known to bother students doing better than him… example being you?” he asked.

I could feel my hands getting clammy. “I-I don’t know anything. I just want to go to the library and finish studying,” I whispered, shaking my head.

He simply looked down at me with an empty stare, and my heart rate increased as I could tell he knew I was holding back at least part of whatever truth he was searching for.

“Are you lying to me... Teegan?” he asked, and I shook my head again, not daring to utter a single word. He sighed as he leaned in closer, his presence dangerously looming over me as my heart raced.

“If I find out… that you’ve been lying to me, little girl, you are going to be in serious trouble, not with just the law or authorities…but with me,”he said angrily, his words shooting a tingling feeling down my spine as they sounded… oddly familiar.

“And do me a favor,” he muttered, and I bit my lip as he leaned into my ear and whispered, his words sending a feeling of sheer panic through my bones.

“Say hi to Mr. Amante for me, will you?”

Stepping into Levi’s car, I immediately looked out of the window as he shut the door for me. I found myself lost in my thoughts as he rubbed his hand over my knee, and we listened to the soft murmur coming from his car radio.

Say hi to Mr. Amante for me, will you?

Theodore was playing me. He knew much more than I thought he did, and it was scaring me. For some reason, I knew he was going to be looking into me too and that his intentions, in the beginning, weren’t as innocent as simply asking a few questions...but how much more did he know that I didn’t?

Upon reaching Levi’s apartment complex, he parked the car and sighed.

“What’s the matter, Tesoro?” he muttered.

“Nothing.”

“Don’t lie to me, baby. I know it’s not nothing... Say something. Say anything,” he pleaded, and I took a deep breath as I contemplated whether or not to share all that I’ve been harboring for the last few hours. Needing it off of my chest, however, I sputtered my sentences as if I felt out of breath.

“My neighbor Mitchel is missing. You and the boys are the only ones who I’ve seen near him and around his complex. There is a private investigator investigating both his disappearance and my involvement. I lied to him and my landlord about not knowing if anyone was there. A man died in the emergency room a few weeks ago from after bleeding out on the floor. He was administered lidocaine for his ‘procedure’ of having his arm brutally severed, and I coincidentally sent you a message telling you exactly what lidocaine does. The PI is investigating that, too. To top it off, Alec has stopped tormenting me only because he’s gone missing, and his father must either give up his entire reputation and a large sum of money, or God knows what happens to him. And you can probably guess who the PI thinks is connected to his disappearance,” I said in one breath.

There was silence in the car. All I could hear was my heart beating in my ears and my labored breaths.

I couldn’t bear to look at his face. There was too much evidence stacked against my perception of the perfect man beside me, and I was trying my hardest to hold onto the flawless image of him that I had planted in my mind.

He sighed for a moment as he grabbed my hand.

“Tesoro,” he muttered, and I sniffled as tears came to my eyes.

“Please tell me you’re not dangerous, Levi. Please tell me you had nothing to do with anything. P-please,” I whispered, and he shushed me softly.

“Tesoro. I… am not dangerous, and I promise I had nothing to do with anything. Look,” he began, and I watched as he pulled his shirt over his head and pointed to a few healing stitches thatlooked homemade on his other arm that didn’t have the bullet wound I treated.

“Unfortunately, a few days after my hospital visit with you, I was cut with a bit of glass while doing some remodeling in one of my clubs. There had just been a bar fight, and there was glass, broken chairs, and everything you could have thought of. I asked what the lidocaine was for only so I didn’t have to go to the hospital and so Nico could clean, numb, and stitch my wound for me. Silly, I know, but I didn’t want to tell you because it was something small, and I didn’t want you to worry,” he muttered.

Slowly, he pulled out his phone. “And as for Mitchel, take a look at my phone. These were the last few messages I sent to him. I haven’t seen him either,” he muttered.

I opened the phone and scrolled through the messages.

The boys got all of the trash out of your apartment.

Mitchel: Thanks. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you.

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