Page 254 of Never Fall for an Angel

“I don’t deserve her . . . but she’s mine. I’m not giving her up.”

“Well, you almost died. What the fuck were you thinking?” he grits, working hard to keep his voice low.

My jaw clenches, my stomach unruly from all the meds they’ve been pumping in me through that damned needle.

“I was thinking that the man who killed our mother, raped my wife, and then thought he could kill her wasn’t going to get the chance to try every again.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Levi grumbles, scrubbing a hand over his face. “He could have killed you.”

“But he didn’t.”

He lets out a huff, but he doesn’t fight back, though I can see he wants to. I get it. He’s mad because he was scared. Levi doesn’t get scared.

“I’ve got to hand it to her. She’s a fucking badass,” he murmurs, his gaze on Mila behind me.

I finally allow myself to look at her, and when I see her, my chest aches. She’s sleeping, her lips parted over her soft, even breathing. There’s a bruise over her cheek that I fucking hate, a cut healing on her lip, but otherwise, she looks peaceful.

“She punched the fuck out of Talia before the cops arrived. When they were loading you in the back of the ambulance.”

I look back at him in disbelief, then look at my wife.

Nothing would have surprised me at this point. At least . . . nothing but my gentle, sweet, way too fucking kind wife.

He nods, amusement in his eyes.

“Surprised me, too.”

“And Sebastion? Talia?”

“Sebastian died,” he murmurs darkly. “They found him stuck in the house, nearly burnt to a crisp.”

“And Talia?”

“She was arrested,” a soft voice says from behind me, and my spine fills with cement.

Both Levi and I look to Mila, who’s now sitting upright in the chair, her eyes tired and her expression guarded.

Fuck, I never thought I’d see her again. The urge to hold her consumes me, but Levi opens his mouth, cutting me off from asking for her.

“Turns out, you were right. She and Sebastian met when they were both at the asylum, and she was just heartbroken enough after her little stunt with you that she let herself get drawn into his shit.”

“Guess her father couldn’t save her from this one.”

The room falls silent, and Levi looks between Mila and me, giving her a slight nod. “I’ll give you two some alone time.”

“Levi—” I start, but he stops me.

“Tomorrow,” he murmurs, glancing at Mila in the corner of the room.

He turns to walk towards the door, stopping to place a hand on Mila’s shoulder. “Fuck him up, scrap.”

The moment the door closes behind him, the room falls silent. The air hums with all the unspoken shit neither of us is saying. The pain, the anger. The love.

“Mila.” I’m surprised by the rasp in my own voice.

Fuck, there’s no way she’s really in front of me right now.

Her gaze burns into mine, and I k now what she’s thinking. Everything Talia and Sebastian did. We were just pawns to their manias. Their real obsession was themselves.

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