Page 46 of Relentless (The Titans of Founder's Ridge 2)

LEVI

The past fewweeks have been terrible, quite possibly the worst weeks I’ve ever watched people I love experience. The night of Homecoming, Con, his dad, and Hoodrat’s dad were attacked leaving a gala. Hoodrat’s dad ended up being fatally shot. She hasn’t been the same since it happened, which is understandable as he was her only family. Since we went to Chicago to release her dad’s ashes in Lake Michigan, she’s seemed to start turning a corner though. She’s quicker to smile, but she’s still not as feisty as she used to be.

Con, Griff, and I went out last night and got matching tattoos to surprise her with at our Christmas Eve dinner today. We gotFamilia Ante Omnia, which translates roughly to family before all,inked onto our biceps and had the same saying engraved on a ring we had designed for her to wear on her middle finger. I’m bummed that Ives can’t be there, but the three us have a special dynamic with her. It’s kind of fitting that we’re pampering her considering how dick-ish we were to her at the beginning of the year.

Dad and Jennifer are getting divorced, thank fuck. She hasn’t been back to the house since that explosive dinner. Dad has been talking to Parker, trying to get him to agree to let Ives stay here for the school year. I was nervous at first since our dads have some sort of beef with each other from way back, but Dad came in clutch, pulling out the win. Parker’s only stipulation was that we had to have supervision in the house twenty-four/seven when Dad’s in the city during the week. Lame but whatever, we can keep sneaking around.

I’ve slept in her bed or she in mine every night the past few weeks. With football season over and her swim season just starting, we’re still missing a lot of time together during the day. Cuddling up together at night just feels right. If you had told me a year and a half ago I’d be as into cuddling as I am into sex, I would have fallen over laughing.

“Hello,” I call out as I let myself into Griff’s pool house.

“Hi,” Griff walks out of his bedroom pulling a sweater over his head. “How’s it going?”

“Good,” I shrug. “Wish Ives was here. You?”

“Glad I’m missing the chaos over there,” he points to the main house which has almost every light blazing. “All my sisters and their families have descended. I’m a living playground for the kids as soon as I walk through the doors.” He says it like it’s an imposition, but his smile betrays his feelings of deep love for his big, crazy family.

“Hi,” Hoodrat says as she walks in the door. She’s got a red wool peacoat over a black dress, and her long, white blonde hair is all wavy. My chest fills with warm affection when she doesn’t hesitate to walk over and hug me. “Merry Christmas.”

“You, too.” I let go of her and laugh at the possessive scowl on Con’s face. You would think years of knowing me and months of being in a relationship with her would make him calm down. I reach out and pull him into a man hug, thumping him extra hard on the back and laughing when he punches me in the gut.

Griff and Hoodrat are in the kitchen getting ready to pull the food his chef prepared for us out the oven. I pull Con over to the windows in the living room.

“How is she doing?” I nod my head in her direction.

“Today and tomorrow are going to be hard. She spent some time with my dad earlier. I think that helped her feel better. She’ll get to meet Claire tomorrow, too. I’m just trying to keep her mind off her dad. It’s been hard as fuck to keep her from discovering the new tattoo though.”

I nod and close my mouth when she and Griff bring the food out and set it on the table. We sit down and eat, enjoying the time we have to be friends today. When we’ve finished dinner, we hand the box with her ring. She tears up and slides it on her finger, giving us all the bird to show it off. Exactly what we wanted, and it looks great on her finger. Then we each take off our shirts and show her our matching tattoos. Connor drags her back to a bedroom while Griff and I clean up.

We’re playing a game of air hockey when Lilith comes racing out of the bedroom with her phone in her hand. She looks at me wild eyed and tells me that Ivy texted that her dad is making her move. I don’t wait for anyone to say anything else, I’m out the door and running toward the trail between Griff’s family’s estate and ours. I’ll be able to run over there faster than moving cars out of the way here.

The snow isn’t too deep yet, and I’ve been walking or running this trail for so long I could do it blindfolded. I know where all the roots stick up and each dip and turn. Even if I didn’t though, I’d still be running like someone was chasing me. I jump the fence between our properties instead of going around to the gate. When I pull open our back door, I hear yelling from the foyer. It sounds like my dad, Parker, and another familiar male voice that I realize belongs to Isaac when I poke my head around the corner.

Isaac’s standing between our dads, his arms extended. For a second, I think about helping him out, but no, I’m going to find Ivy. She’s my number one. I backtrack through the kitchen to the back staircase and take the steps three at a time.

Her bedroom door is cracked open, and the lights are on.

“Ivy?” I call breathlessly.

“Here,” she sniffs from the closet. When I walk through the door, I see her dumping clothes into several suitcases. Her eyes are red-rimmed, and her cheeks are red and damp from crying.

“What’s going on?” I gulp as I look around at her closet.

“Dad found out,” she points back and forth between us, “about us. I have to move back home to Hartford with him and Isaac.”

“No.” I shake my head emphatically. “We’ll deny it, it’s not like there’s proof.”

“There is proof. Someone sent him a video.”

The words hit me like a sucker punch to kidney, my stomach drops to my feet. “What? From where?”

“I don’t know. Someone sent it to Mom, and she shared it with Dad.”

“You haven’t seen it?” My mind races to find a way out of this for us, some way for us to be able to stay together.

“No,” she turns and starts grabbing shoes. “There’s no way out of this. I know you’re reaching for some way, but it’s done.”

“How can say that? How can you be okay with this?” Her apparent acceptance of this cuts deep.

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