Page 81 of Read With Your Heart

I didn’t give it a second thought. I rush through the house and collect my jacket and my bag. I toss my phone in it and tell Lys I have to run an emergency errand for Levi, but I’d be back soon.

I should have called Leon. I should not have been going to that house alone. Why is it that smart women do not always act smart?

However, I did not want to believe Levi would trick me. If Trent wasn’t dead, I’d kill him, and it wasn’t even a joke. I just couldn’t wrap my head around what Levi just told me.

Trent was dead.

How? When? What happened? I ignore the sick feeling inside me.

Leon wasn’t going to be home for dinner. He was working late. He couldn’t have done this. He just couldn’t have.

My heart hammers in my chest as I park in the familiar drive. My hands shake when I exit my car in the dark night and head to the front steps of the main house. From the road, you can’t see the cabin. You’d need to pull behind the house in order to see a light on in the distance, near the tree line, more than a football field away from this old, ranch-style home.

A blurry-eyed Levi answers the door after I knock on the metal frame of the screen. The red-rimmed, swollen eyes immediately confirm my fear. Trent really is dead.

I step inside the house and pull Levi to me. He doesn’t bawl like the baby he once was, but he lets out a sob before I guide him to the couch. His father is passed out in his typical chair, bottle of vodka to the side with a short tumbler beside it.

“Does he know?” I whisper as if I’m going to wake his father when I know better. There’s no stirring Robert when he’s like this. Levi shakes his head, covering his face with both hands before scrubbing at it.

“Tell me what happened?”

“We had a fight,” he begins. “Trent was upset. I’d seen his face. He told me Leon did that to him, and he was going to get his revenge. He was going to get his wife back from that man.” Levi shivers, leaving out some of the more colorful language I’m certain Trent used.

“I told him he should leave you alone. You seemed happy.” Levi shakes his head like it was the worst thing he could have said. Like my happiness was the worst thing in the world.

“He said some things . . . and I just . . .”

“It’s okay. You don’t need to repeat what he said about me. Just tell me more about the fight.”

“He was so pissed. I’ve never seen him like that, almost manic. He was pacing and ranting. He was holding the bottle in his hand just like Dad.” Levi’s eyes drift to the gallon next to the recliner.

“I told him again to leave you alone. He told me you were his wife. You belonged to him.” Levi turns his face back to me. “But I told him he’d lost the privilege. I knew what he’d done to you. I saw him. I heard him.” Levi’s voice cracks. “And then he brought another woman here. It just wasn’t right.”

My weak grin in response to him is conflicted. This growing young man was defending my honor when it wasn’t his responsibility to protect me. I should have taken him with me when I left. He needed to get out of this mess.

“He was even more upset when I told him he didn’t deserve you. You were too good for him.”

I gasp. “What did he do?”

“He slapped me, but I shoved him back. He wasn’t expecting it, and he stumbled and fell on his ass.” Levi sits straighter, conflicted about standing up for himself. “He told me I’d regret that, but he was happy to see I was turning into a man.” Levi glances at me again, and I’m certain there are a few other choice words he’s omitting. Nicknames Trent liked to call his younger brother that connected him to the female anatomy, or just a female in general.

“I told him I hated him when he was like that.” Levi closes his eyes, and I squeeze his thigh. My hand has been resting there as encouragement to tell me everything, but the extra pressure tells him I know what he means. There’s an inner conflict when you hate the person you are supposed to love so much.

“But I loved him, too,” Levi adds, his voice cracking. “He was my brother. In his own sick way, he was a good brother. I didn’t want to be like him, but he was still my hero.”

I understood. As sick as it was, like Levi said, I understood what he meant. His brother had given up a lot to be the dad their father hadn’t been, but Trent wasn’t fatherhood material. Trent hadn’t had a good role model himself. I glance at Robert one more time.

“So what happened?” I sense we’re nearing the end, and the story isn’t going in the direction I’d feared. I’m relieved before Levi even tells me, and I curse my own doubts of Leon. He’d never harm Trent like this.

“He went to the cabin and then called me to meet him. I didn’t want to go out there.” Levi peers up at me with fear in his eyes over what could have happened to him. “I told him ten minutes, but I took my time walking back there. He called me again and again, and finally, I sent him a text telling him I was almost there.”

Levi shivers. His hands at his knees curl into fists, and I reach forward to cover one. “He must have gone out the back of the cabin. He knew I was almost there, but I wasn’t fast enough.” Levi’s breath grows more exaggerated. His clenched fists nearly turn white. “I heard the gun, and then I just ran. I ran around the corner of the cabin, following the sound to the edge of the woods, and I just . . . I just . . .” Levi breaks into a full-body sob, and I wrap my arms around his back and waist, pulling him to me. Holding him like the man-child he is, rocking him back and forth over my lap.

“Okay,” I say. “Okay, you don’t need to tell me more.” I continue to rock him and rock him like the baby boy he once was and try to soothe the hurt that I fear will fuel the adult he’ll become from this horrible situation.

I’m still holding Levi when a sharp rap sounds on the metal frame of the screen door, and I jump. Levi jolts upward, and his eyes snap to mine. “Who could that be?”

“Did you call the sheriff?” I question.