Page 18 of Power Play

“Come on, Lo,” I whisper, holding out my arm. “Come with me.” She hesitates for a moment, but then she steps into my arm. I drape it around her shoulder and walk her out of the room, down the steps, and into Tyson’s car. She doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t ask me where we’re going. She just leans her head back in the car. And I’m so fucking thankful she knows she’s still safe with me. Because in this moment, I’m pretty positive I’d kill for her.

Starting with Dickhead Dietrich.

I pull off in the direction of town, and we drive in silence for a few minutes. She just looks out the window, breathing softly as can be. A few minutes later, we pull into a drive-thru, and I order two things of fries and two sodas. I pull into the back of the lot and park the car, handing her one of each. She just stares down at them at first, her hands shaky. I put my drink down and reach a hand out slowly for hers. I wait for her to take it away, but she doesn’t. So slowly, I lower mine on top of hers, and I squeeze it.

“Hey,” I whisper. Slowly, she raises her eyes to me. “You’re safe. Whatever you need to do right now, you are safe to do it.”

Her bottom lip starts to tremble, but as much as it wrecks me, I’m relieved that she’s not robotic anymore. That was starting to scare me more than the idea of her losing it. I wait another beat, and then I take her other hand. I look into her eyes, and then she can’t hold it in anymore. She sobs, her whole body shaking, her hands trembling so much that the soda shakes. I take it from her, putting it in the cupholder, and I bend over the center console. I wrap her in my arms, clutching her head to my chest, and I let her cry. I feel her tears soaking through my shirt, and I wrap my arms around her tighter. She reaches her hands up, gripping onto my arms so tight that her nails dig into my skin.

And while I hold her, I have to remind myself to breathe. That taking care of her in this moment is way more important than shoving an icepick through that fucker’s nutsack—as much as I want to put this car in drive and find out where the fuck he lives right fucking now.

When she calms down a little bit, she pulls off me and wipes at her face. I reach down into the drive-thru bag and hand her a wad of napkins. She wipes her eyes and nose and takes a long breath. Slowly, she turns and looks at me. I don’t say anything at first. I reach out my thumb and swipe away the mascara from under her eye, and I let my hand rest under her chin.

“Lo,” I whisper, and she looks up at me. “We have to—”

“Don’t,” she says, shaking her head and pulling away from my grasp. I lower my hand and look at her, my eyebrows knit together.

“Don’t?” I ask. She shakes her head again and looks up at me.

“Don’t,” she repeats. “We don’t have to do anything. And we’re not going to. And you have to swear to me that you won’t tell Tyson I was here tonight. Please.”

I swallow and close my eyes. I try and control my breathing. I can’t even fathom not doing anything about this. Just letting it fucking go.

“Lo, I saw—”

“You didn’t see anything,” she says. I tilt my head.

“Lo.”

“Levi,” she says, “you didn’t see anything. Except him leaving a room.”

“Lo, I know what I saw. I know what happened. We have to tell someone,” I say. She shakes her head again.

“Levi!” she cries out, and it makes me jolt. My eyes widen. “Swear to me you won’t tell Tyson I was here tonight. And swear to me you won’t tell anyone about what youthinkyou saw tonight. Please.” Her eyes are big and full of tears, pleading as she blinks them out. And I think my whole heart just crumbled to dust in my chest. “This isn’t yours to tell,” she whispers, her lip trembling again. “Please, Levi. Please,” she begs as the sobs begin to take over her body again. I reach across the center console again, pulling her back into my chest. I kiss the top of her head and squeeze her tight.

“Okay, Lo,” I say, hating myself for what I’m about to say. “I promise.”

When she calms down again, I ask her where she wants me to take her. She says back home, so I do. When we get to the Calway house, I go inside first, checking around to make sure everything is safe. When I give her the all-clear, she nods slowly, then walks into the house. She looks around the huge foyer, like her eyes are seeing it for the first time. And then she turns to me.

She doesn’t say anything. She just looks up at me, her big brown eyes bloodshot from the tears.

“You okay?” I ask her. “Do you want me to call Tyson? Or Demi?”

She shakes her head as soon as the question leaves my lips.

“No, I’m fine. I’m just gonna get some sleep,” she says. I nod.

“Okay. You have my number. Call me if you need anything,” I tell her. I watch as she starts to walk up the stairs, and I walk out the front door, pressing the lock button as I do. But just as I’m about to walk down the steps, I freeze.

There’s no fucking way I can leave her like this.

I pull my phone out of my pocket and dial Tyson.

“Hey, man,” I say.

“Hey, where you at?” he asks.

I sigh, trying to think of a reason good enough to bail on my best friend on the first night back in town. By his standards, the only thing that would be acceptable is sex.

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