Page 139 of Never Die for a Sinner
I leave her alone in her bed, and when I step out of her room, I don’t go to mine. I wouldn’t fall back to sleep anyway.
What do you want from me?
Fucking everything.
Unfortunately, forever’s a long fucking time, and sooner or later, she’ll learn the truth.
AVA
It’s only three days after my argument with Levi that I wake up feeling like I spent the night deep throating door knobs at the Seattle Airport.
My throat is sore. My nose may as well not exist, and I feel like I just barely cheated death with the headache and dizziness I’ve got going on.
Do I have a fever?
Probably.
Can I afford to take the day off?
Absolutely not.
So, like the pathetic, working-class citizen I am, I force myself to get up and get to work.
The house is nearly empty, although people have been coming and going all day. To my knowledge, Bella and Paulina are at the lodge, and Christian has been confined to his office all morning. Levi, on the other hand, has been MIA for the last three days.
Not that I noticed or anything. I don’t give a flying crap where Levi Cross is.
It’s not like I care. Not really. So, he had a nightmare and woke up terrified, holding me like some demonic force was trying to drag me away from him.
People have nightmares all the time. Why should I care about his?
Oh right. Because for some reason, I do.
As brutal as he was when he told me to mind my own business, I can’t stop thinking about the fear in his eyes when I woke him. Levi doesn’t get scared, so whatever it is, I know it was brutal.
Regardless of how he treats me when I get too close, a part of me aches for him because I know he went through something awful as a child to make him the man he is today. He just needs someone to listen and not judge, and the idiotic softie in me screamsI can help him, even if he’s expressed how much he doesn’t want my help.
He still thinks I’m the enemy, even if I’ve tried to show him a thousand times I’m not, and I know, someday I’ll have to accept that and move on. Preferably, before my feelings get involved any more than they already are.
And let me tell you, they’re definitely involved.
“Goddammit,” I grumble, looking down the ladder attached to the library wall at the duster I’d dropped to the floor. I’m trying to dust, but clearly, it’s not working out.
Why couldn’t I come from a wealthy family? Why do I have to battle dust bunnies when I’m sick instead of lounging around with an IV of the best antibiotics money can buy?
Looking down turns out to be a mistake because the room sways around me, another bout of dizziness making everything tilt on its axis.
And then the ground rushes up at me.
Uh-Oh.
“What the fuck?”
I stumble down the ladder, barely managing to land on my feet before big arms that can only belong to one person wrap around me, holding me upright.
Unfortunately, I think I would have rather fallen.
“Ava,” Levi growls, steadying me. His hand doesn’t leave the small of my back.
