Page 131 of Never Fall for an Angel

He shakes his head, his face growing red with anger.

Good, because that makes two of us. I was seconds away from finally having my girl back.

“All the more reason to go,” he says finally, the weight of that one single word settling in the air between us.

I let the gun drop, tossing it back on the desk and grabbing the whiskey bottle.

“And she didn’t shoot me.”

“Bullshit.”

I eye him for a moment, before crossing to the front and pulling out the file I keep in the top drawer. Tossing it on the desk in front of him, I wait while he opens it to stare down at the first picture inside.

I notice he’s quiet, faced with the proof we’ve been searching for, for the last fourteen years.

He freezes, silence falling over the room so thick, you can hear the waves crashing against the rocks outside.

Then, he chuckles. The sound low and dark, sinister.

“Fucking finally.”

He tosses the folder back to the desk and leans back in the chair.

After a long moment, he finally speaks.

“You know this is never going to end, so long as he’s alive, right?”

I grit my teeth. Of course, I fucking know.

“So long as she’s alive, I’ll never stop hunting.”

Levi chuckles under his breath, shaking his head in disbelief.

“I’ll be damned,” he breathes and I hate the fucking grin that pulls on his lips. “You fucking love her . . . don’t you?”

Love her? Fuck, I don’t know.

Does it even matter?

I can never love her because loving her means giving her a death sentence that she won’t walk away from a second time.

I can never love her. Even if there’s a part of me that knows I always have.

“Of course, not,” I scoff. “I’m fucking obsessed.”

I can see by the look in his eyes that Levi doesn’t believe me, but that’s fine. He can think whatever he wants.

My world may revolve around Mila Carpenter and that pretty fucking smile, but hers has never revolved around mine. I’ve made sure of it.

When this is over, she’ll go back to living her life and I’ll go back to wasting mine, dreaming of her.

Pretty fucking ironic, isn’t it?

“You’re setting her up to hang if we don’t take care of this. You know that, right?” he asks quietly and I can see for the first time since he showed up, what he’s really worried about.

He’s worried about what I’ll do if they find her.

Crossing to the window, I look out over our island. Lightning strikes somewhere far off over the ocean.

---