Page 50 of Lust Hate Love (Fallen Angel 4)

Before I could tell him that this was all a colossal misunderstanding, that I hadn’t meant what I’d said and had just been blowing Viper off, Levi stormed out of the café, leaving me standing there surrounded by strangers—and suddenly, that felt like the loneliest place in the entire world.

Thirty-Four

Killian

LEVI HADN’T SAID a word to me in almost twenty-four hours. After overhearing the conversation with Viper, he’d simply vanished, refusing to answer his phone or come to the door. I didn’t know if he was even at the hotel, and Liam wasn’t around either.

I’d fucked up. Obviously I hadn’t wanted to tell Viper how deep I was falling, not when I hadn’t even told Levi. And there was no telling Levi only to scare him off. So I’d lied through my teeth, brushing off Viper’s questions with a nonchalance I didn’t feel. I hadn’t expected Levi to hear what I said, but now he had and now he thought he was a casual fuck, which was the furthest thing from my mind.

He had to know better, though. Right?

As I loaded my bags into the trunk of the van picking us up for our flight home, a hand clapped down on my shoulder. Viper.

“Anything?” he asked, and I shook my head. “I haven’t seen him either.”

I sighed, shoving my carry-on into a tight space bookended by two massive Louis Vuitton suitcases, which could only be Jagger’s. “It’s fine. I’ll fix it.”

“Gonna be an awkward flight home if you don’t.”

“Yeah, no shit.”

I glanced around, looking for Levi, but he hadn’t come down with us, which was odd for him, considering he always wanted to make sure everyone got to our destinations in one piece.

Taking a seat in the front row of the van, I kept the space beside me open as the rest of the guys and Imogen filed in and took up the remaining rows. I tapped my fingers along the armrest as I watched the front of the hotel for Levi’s familiar shock of blond hair.

Surely he was coming, right? He always flew with us, and it’d be crazy to buy a seat on a different jet.

Before I could stress over that too much, Levi walked out of the hotel with his bag and Liam beside him. The first thing I noticed were the blue and yellow checkered pants, because how the hell he pulled off such loud outfits and still looked so fucking gorgeous was beyond me, but it worked for him. More than works for him, I thought, biting down on my lip as I watched him approach, pants riding low on his hips.

The second thing I noticed was the lack of a pissed-off expression on his face, thank fuck, which made a flicker of hope light up inside me. Maybe things weren’t as off track as I feared.

The door to the van was yanked open suddenly, and there he was. Levi leaned inside, scanning his eyes over us as if making sure everyone was accounted for, but it didn’t escape my notice that when he got to me, he looked over my head, avoiding my gaze completely.

“Liam,” Levi called out, nodding for him to get in the van. Liam took the spot I’d saved for Levi. Levi slammed the door shut and then hopped in the front passenger seat.

Guess the whole “no pissed-off expression” was more of a sign of professionalism and less what he was feeling on the inside.

Yep. I was fucked.

The radio blasted the whole way to the airport, and then Levi was the first one out of the van, practically sprinting through security to stay away from me. He didn’t turn around when I called his name, and he wasn’t in the lounge with the rest of us waiting to board.

Fucking great. Viper had been dead-on when he said the plane ride home would be awkward. I couldn’t exactly have the talk I wanted to with a bunch of eavesdropping assholes around, could I?

Beside me, Halo sat on the edge of Viper’s armchair, reading over the lyrics we’d worked on yesterday and making notes in pencil in the margins. Every so often, he’d look up at where Imogen stood with Slade and Jagger, the three of them off in their own little world, and I wondered if he’d clued in yet to what was obviously happening there. I sure as hell wasn’t looking forward to the day when he figured out his innocent little sister wasn’t so innocent at all—at least not with those guys—and though I didn’t know specifics, their body language said more than I cared to know. Hell, Jagger wasn’t even being subtle, not with the way he fingered her necklace that definitely hadn’t been there when she arrived in Australia.

Thank God Halo—and Viper, apparently—were oblivious, because—

“What the fuck?” Halo slapped the papers in his hand onto Viper’s lap, his focus never leaving the threesome as he marched across the room, his fists curling at his sides.

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