Chapter 40
Levi
Settlingintoournewroutine of life was nearly effortless. It may have taken a few extra days for Tessa to process everything that had happened and to accept the terms of future tasks to come. But other than that, a week of our version of fucked up normalcy couldn’t have gone any easier.
“When’s the next tour?” Tessa asked, plopping her ass onto one of the barstools in the kitchen as Lucas rummaged through the fridge for a snack that wasn’therfor once.
“Two months? I think? Levi would know that information; he’s the one who schedules them. I just show up and look pretty.” He pulled his smug head out of the shelves with a yogurt in hand before closing the door. He pulled open a drawer for a spoon, then strolled closer to her.
“Two months, and this time you are staying on for its entirety. No more of this ‘switch out with me, I’m all depressed and want tostay home’bullshit.” I mocked from the living room couch. “This tour is yours, and as we’ve always done, I will take the next one. And if you’re a good boy, I’ll even let her tag along for a couple stops so you don’t have to go too long without your princess.”
“First off, I’m not a dog, and I’ll act how I please. Secondly, it was one time, and look what happened? I found my girl in the end.” Lucas smirked, peeling back the lid on his cup before licking it clean, taunting Tessa with his tongue in the process, eyes heatedly locked on hers.
“Ifoundourgirl, you just couldn’t keep your dick in your pants long enough and sprang on her like a feral animal with a breeding kink.”
“You know, I would find what you just said offensive… If you weren’t right. Guilty as charged and fucking proud of it.”
“Do you two actually fight? Like ever?” She teased, her gaze flicking between mine and my brother’s right before she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest, sinking back on the stool.
“We make love, not war, babygirl.”
“Because god fucking knows that if we were to start a war, it would only be in your honor, princess. The face that launched a thousand half-naked men.” Lucas paused eating to gesture with his hands as if he were reading from a headline written in the sky.
“Cute. You should put that in a Hallmark card.” Tessa quipped, pushing herself to stand and skirting around my brother to refill her wine glass, all while he fixated on her ass, fighting the urge to smack it.
“Hey, can’t blame a guy for trying.”
“No, but I can blame him for using the cheesiest pick-up lines imaginable.” She joked, pursing her lips while pulling the bottle of white wine from the fridge.
“Oh, you haven’t heard the worst of his lines, babygirl.” I got up from the couch, retrieved the remote from the mantle under the TV, and flicked through the various news channels over my shoulder before landing on TMZ. “Remind me, brother, didn’t one of them end with your date stabbing you in the chest with her fork before the night was over?”
“Eh… She liked her steak rare. I guess she saw me as a fresh piece of meat.” Lucas shrugged, laughing before he dropped his spoon on the counter, the color draining from his face as he stared straight ahead at the screen.
“Lucas?” Tessa frowned, peering over her shoulder at him as if he’d frozen in time before following his gaze. “What’s—”
I turned around to see what had thrown them both into a state of shock, and in an instant, my stomach bottomed out.
“Holy fuck…”
Ourhomefellsilent.Nothing but the TV and the sound of a wine glass shattering on the floor, as we all gaped at the shit show unfolding before our eyes.
Without looking at her, I could feel the hurricane building in my girl as she took a step forward, its wake with a current ready to drag her under at any given second.
“Levi,” Lucas hissed while snapping his fingers at me to focus, and I almost dropped the remote as I fumbled it between panicked hands, trying to turn it off.
“No…” She rushed out under her breath, completely entranced by what she was seeing. “Turn it up…Please…”
“I don’t—I really don’t think this is a good—”
“Just do it…Fuck sake… Do as she asked, Levi…” My brother stopped me, knowing that nothing good would come of what we were witnessing. But she’d already seen the start, so there was no avoiding it, and we had far more problems heading our way if this was just the tip of the iceberg.
All we could do now was protect her from the fallout as best we could.
“Famed Actress Tessa Bradley has been found, and you won’t believe where. It appears as though for the past month and a half, she’s been hiding not too far from home. In Las Vegas, Nevada—”
I dropped the remote onto the counter, my eyes locking with my brother’s before we both turned our attention to our girl as she witnessed the unraveling destruction of her once pristine reputation.
“A valuable resource has provided us with photo and video evidence of Tessa working at Pulse, a popular nightclub on The Strip, under the guise of a cage dancer by the name of Evie Sinclair—”
