Page 107 of Defiant Beta

Always.

I hug him back. “Do you know how to put nails on a baseball bat?”

He laughs and squeezes me, careful of my back. “Nah. But it can’t be that hard to figure out.”

I stop desperately wishing we could leave this nasty room and start hoping Xavier will take a little longer to free us.

No one has ever held me as if they’re shielding me from the world.

I’m not sure I’m ready to let this feeling go so soon.

Chapter 33

Della

“She slapped you across the face?”I ask, my eyes widening in disbelief as I stare at Xavier.

We’re gathered around the kitchen island, which has become our meeting place. I have no clue why. The black wooden stools are as hard as rocks.

Freed from our filthy motel cage, I ran upstairs to shower twice. Levi did the same. We’re both in sweats now, and my hair is still damp because Xavier said he had a good reason for being late to free us, but didn’t want to get into it in the car home.

“Yup.” Xavier makes a face at me. “And the science teacher had a ball gag?”

“Hmm-mm.” I pop the tab for my soda and gulp the fizzy lemon drink.

“Let’s go back to the face slap,” Levi says, sitting on the stool beside me. “You were trying to rescue her.”

Since the motel, it's damn near impossible to look him in the face. Letting myself be vulnerable has never come easily, even with Everleigh, but I feel a bit lighter now. Maybe it’s because Levi held me for so long. I have never felt so safe and protected in my life.

And even though Xavier hit Levi in the back of the head with the door when he turned up to rescue us, Levi still held me for a couple of seconds longer, as if he hadn’t wanted to let me go.

“She had a rescuer, and it was the guy I shoved to the ground.” Xavier rubs his bearded cheek. “Turns out this thing isn’t just a perfect itchy disguise. It also cushions a slap. Barely felt a thing.”

My stomach grumbles. I never finished the toast Xavier cleared away while I was in the shower, and soda isn’t cutting it.

Levi offers me his bag of Cheetos.

I shudder. “No, thanks.” I’m hungry, and it’s past lunchtime, but no way am I eating that crap.

“We can order out, or I can make you something?” Xavier offers.

I shake my head. “I’m good. If Thomas was rescuing her, what was she doing in the trunk of his car?”

“It’s how he got her out of the school,” Xavier explains. “He was letting her out when I came along and ruined their almost perfect getaway.”

“I thought he’d quit.” Levi licks his neon orange fingers.

Xavier catches me eyeing Levi’s bag of chips with disgust and flashes me a grin. I’m not a food snob, but I swear I can taste the artificial chemicals from here. Somehow, it smells even worse than spray cheese, and I thought nothing could smell that bad.

“So did I.” Xavier hops on a counter and kicks his feet so playfully that I can’t help but smile. “Not sure what excuse he gave to get back on campus, but he left with an omega in the trunk of his car.”

“You haven’t said who she was,” I remind him. “Just that she popped up and slapped you.”

Not that Xavier seemed to mind. His gray eyes were sparkling when he told us what happened. I’m not sure that I would take a slap as well as he did.

Behind me, a door slams shut. Vincent enters the kitchen, his eyes weary, a hefty file in his hand.

“You look like you’ve had a day,” I say when he sinks into the seat next to me.

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