Page 117 of Defiant Beta

I roll the amber contents of my glass, move to take a sip, realize I crave the woman upstairs more than the drink, and return the glass to the white marble counter. “I’ve started thinking that we need to start living more than we have.”

“Me too.”

I jerk my head up at Xavier’s quiet words.

He’s staring out of the double doors that lead into the backyard. “There was a girl at the school. River. I was on my way to rescue you from the motel when I saw her sitting on her own. At first, I didn’t even see her. Then I told myself to ignore her. It didn’t matter that she seemed to be upset. She’d get over whatever was upsetting her, or someone else would come along and talk to her.” He looks at me. “I tried not to think about how many people I’ve walked past the last few years, telling myself they didn’t matter when they needed help. Every person Della bumps into, she stops to help. We need to be better. All of us need todobetter.”

“Was she okay?”

One side of his lips kicks up in a crooked smile. “I convinced her to run away.”

I blink at him. “You didwhat?”

He shakes his head. “I didn’t intend to. What Della was doing at the school is what we should all have been doing. That cage is the worst kind of prison because the inmates don’t even know they’re trapped.”

“So, what happens now? With Della? With the investigation?”

“I like her,” he quietly admits. “Even when I tell myself not to. I like her. And the investigation?” He shrugs. “We’re out of suspects. The Council and the city are turning on Vince, so we need to pull him out before someone tries to end him.”

“We have to get those alphas who hurt her,” I say, hoping Della is still asleep as I voice a thought I’ve been having with increasing regularity. “Finding Aly’s killer is important, but we have to get the guys who hurt Della, Xavier.”

He raises his glass, not so much in a toast as a fierce promise with the determination glinting in his eyes. “We’ll skin the motherfuckers alive before we put them out of their misery.”

They tried to break an unbreakable woman. A woman I started falling for the first time I put her on her ass in a fencing lesson and she refused to stay down.

A woman I would set the world on fire to protect.

I clink my glass with his. “Where’s Vince? We should talk to him—and possibly Lucas Security—about tracking them down. Vince said they had a deal.”

Chapter 36

Della

“Sleeping with her was a mistake.”

I yank my face away from my closed bedroom door and stumble back, tightening my grip on the sheet around me as it slips, tripping me.

The sound of Xavier and Levi’s footsteps moves down the hallway.

I wait until I hear their steps hit the staircase before turning to face the bed with rumpled sheets. Levi stayed here all night. I went to sleep with a silly smile on my face and his arms wrapped snug around me.

Now, it hurts to look at it. To know we had sex, I fell asleep in his arms, and then I woke up alone, to the sound of him telling Xavier it was all a mistake.

My eyes prick with tears, and I order myself not to cry. He made me feel so beautiful and so loved. Not just before sex, but after.

I woke in the middle of the night, still wrapped up in his arms, and he slid into me again.

It was all so fuckingperfect.

I should have known better than to believe that last night meant anything.

The burn at the back of my eyelids intensifies. I stomp into my bathroom, shoving my sheet to the floor before my bare feet hit the cool tile. It takes everything I have not to slam the door behind me.

Anger is good.

Tears?

Hurt?

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