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“No,” I answer, “She doesn’t normally take long to come out of it.” Looking down at her, I sit on the bed and rub her back, doing anything I can to soothe her. “This shaking is a lot worse too.”
“I… I’m so sorry,” she chokes out. Even her breaths shake as she trembles in my arms. “I never wanted to hurt you. Not you. I…” She leans forward, retching into the trash can by the bed while I rub her back. Lev rewraps his towel around him, coming to kneel at her feet when she stops.
“I can’t stop…” She looks down at Lev, and I can tell his heart is breaking. “I can’t make it s..stop when it gets this bad. I have to tell you…” She grabs her stomach like she’s in pain and tears fill her eyes. “I.. have to tell you the t..truth.”
She starts to hyperventilate and Lev takes her head in his hands. “That’s okay, just breathe. You don’t have to be sorry. We’re here. We will get through this together.” He walks her through taking some deep breaths and some of the tension begins to leave her body. I keep rubbing her back, not knowing what else I can offer her.
Evie’s still shaking when she leans into my chest, letting her eyes fall closed. I sit back on the bed, moving to lean against the headboard. Lev follows, taking Evie’s hand in his. Her body seems to give out eventually as the shaking stops and the tension leaves her. That’s probably the quickest she’s ever fallen back to sleep.
“Does this happen every night?” Lev whispers.
I look down at her sleeping form that fits perfectly into my chest as I cradle her. “About two weeks after the accident, it would happen every night. In the past month there have been maybe four or five nights she hasn’t woken up like this.”
“Fuck,” he says, scooting closer and pulling Evie's legs into his lap. She doesn’t even move. “I bet that little stunt that Bryce pulled made it worse. Or the fact that she now knows most people here want to hurt her.” He shakes his head.
I look at the clock, it's two in the morning. “Why are you showering in the middle of the night?” I ask Lev.
He stares down at Evie for a moment before answering me. “I haven't gone to bed yet.”
“Did you just get back?”
“Not exactly.”
His short answers start to piss me off. “Want to elaborate?”
“Not really.” He sits up slightly, moving so he’s no longer touching me.
“Look at me,” I command him. He ignores me, keeping his eyes down, staring at Evie’s feet. I take my free arm and reach over and grab his face forcefully. I jerk it to me, but he keeps his eyes down. “You don’t do that. We don’t do this. Tell me what the fuck is going on right now or I’ll have to treat you like the brat you’re being,” I whisper yell.
His eyes snap up to meet mine, a twitch in his lips giving away that he liked my little threat. Fuck, between him and Evie, I’m screwed.
“I went to see Slade,” he confesses, finally. His jaw clenches and his nose flares as if he’s angry with me for making him tell the truth. He really is a brat.
“And?” I press, still holding his jaw in my hand. I squeeze slightly so he knows how serious I am. I want the full story.
“I left him bleeding and begging for us to kill him.” If I wasn’t so pissed off with his attitude and still working through what I just saw Evie endure, I’d be hard as a rock with those words. In fact, even with all of that, I can feel myself growing hard.
“Why?”
“Because I needed an outlet, I needed someone to feel pain for what happened to her today. I knew I couldn’t talk to Alexi until I dealt with how I was feeling, so I took it out on someone who deserved it.”
“What did you do to him?” I ask, letting go of his face to adjust Evie on my lap so my erection doesn’t poke at her side.
“He called her names, so many fucking names.” He runs his hand through his hair, pulling on the ends. “So, I carved all of them into his chest.”
I can’t tell if he’s bothered by what he did or not. He seems restless like there’s still something he needs to get off his chest. “Did that make you feel better?”
“It made me feel like I was serving justice. But, no, it didn’t make me feel better.”
“Did you talk to Alexi?”
“I did. I apologized. He swore to me that he was doing what he could to protect her. He feels bad, but there’s something else going on with him. I can’t tell what it is, but ever since that shipment got stolen, I feel like he’s lying. I tried to get him to open up, but you know Alexi. He’s holding something in and I can’t figure him out. He can’t figure out where to aim his anger either. Students are terrified of him right now.”
“Maybe it’s his father?” I know he was pissed at him about what happened to his men, but Alexi was already beating himself up enough about that. Was there another plan in play that we didn't know about?
“I think it’s more than that.” He lets out a frustrated breath, leaning his head back. “But he won’t talk to me. I’m pretty sure it has to do with Evie”
I move my hand around the back of his head, pull him to me, and kiss him deeply. He sighs as I pull away. “Thank you for telling me.”
