Page 49 of Assassin's Mark
Chapter Twenty-Three
“What—”
That was all he got out before my palm connected with his cheek. Levi caught my hands in a tight grip, flexing his jaw as if to work out the pain. Eyes I’d often thought were cold blazed down at me, delving deep, searching for things I didn’t want him to see.
I dropped my chin, hiding—my tears, my anger, the damn need that surged even now. When I jerked myarms, Levi’s grip got tighter. “Eli, what happened?”
“You’d know if you’d been here, brother.”
“What. Happened?”
I was thankful for the veil of hair curtaining my expression as Eli explained. It gave me time—to hide away my heart, bury my feelings. Wrap myself in a numb blanket of denial, where none of this was happening to me and all I needed to do was wait out the nightmare so I could returnto the real world beyond. I wasn’t numb enough not to flinch when a string of curses left Levi’s lips over my head, though.
“Were you able to hack the reporter, find the source?”
“Not yet. It just hit the radar,” Eli said with a wave toward the computers. “We—”
“Do it.”
Was Levi really trying to get me to believe he hadn’t done this? I wasn’t that naive, not anymore.
“Abby…”
I shook withemotions I couldn’t control, but kept my feet right where they were. I refused to fight him for the freedom that was rightfully mine. “Let me go.”
“Just let me—”
“No.” My chest heaved under the strain. “No!”
I don’t really know what happened next. One minute I was captured in Levi’s simple grip, and the next I was a wild thing, bucking and hitting and kicking. I don’t even know if I truly hada target. All I wanted was escape, desperately. To get around him, get through the door. To be anywhere but here, anyone but me. Sounds flooded the room—a female voice that wasn’t my own, harsh words and barked orders, a gut-wrenching wail that made my heart hurt for whoever uttered it—and then I was swept into the prison of Levi’s arms.
I didn’t fight him then. I was too busy crying.
A doorbanging shut startled me out of the hole I’d dropped into—Levi kicking the bedroom door closed, I realized a few moments later. He carried me to the bed we’d shared for days, and sat on the edge. If I hadn’t known he hated cuddling, I would swear that was what he was doing—more likely trying to protect himself from more bruises. But I ignored the knowledge in the back of my mind and held on tight.My only security in the shattered world I now lived in.
Wasn’t that thought proof that I’d gone mad? I didn’t know anymore.
Long moments later, beneath the shudders and sobs, something else registered, something…odd. I couldn’t put my finger on it at first until…God. He was rocking. Levi sat silent, the only sound the pounding of his heart beneath my ear, but his body moved—he was rocking me.Only the slightest bit, but the motion was there all the same. Soothing me. Calming and comforting me. At first I stiffened, afraid to sink into it, afraid of the same reaction I had gotten in bed this morning, but the subtle movement continued, and eventually I melted into it, into the hard body surrounding me.
A relieved breath I hadn’t known I was holding escaped when he didn’t dump me onmy ass.
Levi’s chin brushed the top of my head as he tilted down, bringing his mouth to my ear. “I didn’t do it, Abby. I would never—”
“You have before.”
He didn’t reply; how could he? I was right. But the feel of him against me, still tense, said he wanted to argue, wanted to force me to hear him, believe him.
He didn’t.
And God help me but I was relieved. I didn’t want this moment to end.
It had to, though. The end came with a quiet knock on the door. I buried my face harder against the thick wall of Levi’s chest and ignored the door opening, but I couldn’t ignore the voice.
“I got it,” Eli said quietly.
“Who?”
The word rumbled through my ear, more vibration than sound, but Eli heard it.
