Page 72 of Veil of Death and Shadow

I stared at him, my blood pumping angrily into my hand until pain was the only thing I could feel.

He smirked. “Unclench your jaw, okay? I promise I won’t hurt you. Please just let me take a look, I’m used to assessing these kinds of injuries.”

I exhaled, watching him, then shifted my jaw from side to side. It was tight. He was right, I had been clenching. For some reason, that only annoyed me more. Slowly, I extended my hand towards him, figuring this would be the quickest way to get him off my case. “It’s just a cut. I’ll be fine.”

He arched his brow, then took my hand. “You’re not used to people trying to help you, are you?”

I hissed, pulling my hand back when his thumb brushed over my knuckles.

“Sorry,” he whispered, almost absurdly gentle now as he examined my bones, the pads of his fingers pressing down with a light pressure, his eyes shifting between my hands and my face as if trying to gauge how much each movement hurt. “You know, you have almost comically bad punching form. First time, I take it?”

I pulled my hand back with a snarl.

It wasn’t, but the last time hadn’t gone so well either. Not that I was going to tell him that. “Haven’t had a ton of practice. I’m not usually a violent person.” I bit my lip, before adding a grumbled, “But the asshole deserved it.”

“Yeah, he did,” he said, his jaw tight. “He deserved worse than that, actually, but he’ll get what’s coming to him.”

“Unclench your jaw,” I said with a smirk, then narrowed my eyes. “What did you say to him anyway? He looked more afraid of what you said than he’d been of my fist.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

I studied him for a moment, not entirely sure why I was being so stubborn. It wasn’t Levi’s fault that Ace tried to drug me. It also wasn’t Levi’s fault that I hurt my hand. If anything, I owed him.

But something about him just made me want to wear an extra shield, a coat of armor.

“Thank you,” I snapped.

“You know,” his face broke into a grin that had the outline of his left dimple making a guest appearance, “I can really feel your gratitude.” He rubbed his chest, his eyes brimming with constrained mirth. “Truly, like the rays of the sun. Maybe even warmer.”

Instinct had me ready to lash out again, but I swallowed the urge back and winced. Might as well have swallowed razor blades.

I took a deep breath, ready to try again. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to take tonight’s events out on you. None of this was your fault.” My gaze dipped down, unable to hold his stare. Once my body and brain were in defensive mode, it was nearly impossible to pull them quickly out. “Thank you for calling him out. I don’t know what would have happened if—if?—”

The thought died on my lips, and when I was brave enough to look back up at him, his expression was grim.

“Thank you as well.”

“For what?”

“For stopping me,” he said. “I’m supposed to be keeping a low profile, and I don’t know what I would have done if you didn’t tell me to let him go.”

I nodded, remembering the look on his face when he held Ace against the wall.

How far would he have gone?

After a long, tense moment, he cleared his throat, his gaze dropping down to my hand. “Well, I don’t think you broke anything, but it’s not a bad idea to swing by the ER just to make sure. I can take you?—”

“No.”

While I was truly grateful for my job at the Tavern, it didn’t exactly come with winning benefits. And any free insurance I had through the state was basically trash. The only thing that would make the rest of my night worse than it already was would involve sinking into debt because some prick tried to take advantage of my momentary lapse in judgement.

Levi shoved his hands in his pockets and studied me. I could tell he wanted to press the issue, but whatever he saw in my eyes must’ve convinced him not to. He glanced down the street, then back at me. “Alright. No hospital. But there’s a convenience store down the street. Let me get your hand cleaned up at least, put some ice on it.”

Though my knee-jerk reaction was to fight him on that, too, I relented. I needed to take the wins when and where I could. “Fine.”

We were silent as we made our way down the block, and I followed him awkwardly while he grabbed a bag of frozen peas, some bottled water, alcohol, and bandages, mentally calculating how much this concession was going to run me.

But when we got to the counter, he refused to let me pay.

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