Page 52

Della

I jolt awake.

“What was that?” I whisper, staring up at the ceiling in my almost pitch-black room.

It’s sweltering under my comforter, but outside, the tip of my nose is cold, and I’m in no rush to get up and investigate the sound that woke me.

“Please don’t let my decision to spend one more night in this apartment be a mistake.” The kind that gets me killed.

I hear it again.

A scraping thump.

Twisting my head toward my window, I frown.

What the hell is…

“Rise and shine, sleeping beauty!” A man's voice calls out from outside my window. It’s followed seconds later by someone screaming at him to shut the fuck up. People have to work in the morning.

The voice is faint but heart-achingly familiar.

Levi .

Smiling, I wrap the comforter around myself and turn on the lamp on my way to the window, muttering a curse when I trip over one of the many boxes Xavier helped me pack after I quit my job.

There’s not much more left to pack. Xavier said Levi and Vincent would be free to help me move tomorrow. They couldn’t earlier since they were busy with guests, whatever that had meant.

I shove my window up.

Levi is standing on the street, just outside. Ripped jeans, creased T-shirt, and a sexy grin twisting his lips. Like a bad boy from the wrong side of town here to lead a good girl astray.

He drops whatever was in his hands—stones. They rattle as they roll into the gutter behind him.

He slips his hands into his jeans pockets and grins at me. “Hey, beautiful!”

The way this man throws out beautifuls with his dimpled cheeks and pretty light green eyes will be the death of me.

I rest my elbows on the edge of the window and play it cool. “Hey.”

“You’re a heavy sleeper. I was considering climbing your building.”

“What stopped you?”

“I remembered I can’t climb shit.”

I laugh. “Thanks for not doing it. I might have missed you if you fell and cracked your head open.”

“ Might ?”

I bite my lip as a bubble of happiness grows in my chest. It’s been far too long since I last saw him. “I would more than miss you, Levi.” My voice is low, but it carries across the feet between us, and his expression softens.

He continues with a smile, “And I didn’t want to scare you if you woke up and found someone hanging off your windowsill.”

“I wouldn’t have been scared. I’d have shoved you off it first and asked questions later.”

His mouth quirks. “That too.”

“Are you here to serenade me?”

“Do you want me to?”

I had a candlelit dinner with Vincent, followed by mind-blowing sex that made me so late for work it wasn’t even funny. Xavier stole me away for a lunch date and a surprise reunion.

Vincent said that Levi and Xavier would give me something I wanted and something I needed.

River was a want.

Does Levi think I need to be serenaded?

I consider it, then shake my head as the wind blows my hair into my face. “No. It would be nice, but that isn’t what I need from you.”

His amusement falls away. “What do you need?”

“A kiss might be nice. Maybe a hug. I missed you.”

“I missed you, too. The kiss and hug can come later. I have something for you.”

My eyes go to his pockets.

He chuckles. “Nothing like that. We have to take a drive.”

“A date?” I perk up.

“In a manner of speaking,” he says enigmatically.

I cock my head, chewing my lip as I study him. It’s late. I’m tired, and it’s freezing out. I’m not exactly eager to leave my cozy bed. “Fine. I’ll bite. What’s the dress code?”

“Something you won’t mind getting dirty.”

My curiosity goes through the roof. “Like with strawberry syrup?”

His eyes dip to my chest, and his gaze is hungry. “Not that kind of dirty.”

“I’m out of strawberry syrup,” I call down, and I ask myself what the hell I’m doing hanging out of my window in the middle of the night, discussing strawberry syrup with an alpha who might or might not be in love with me.

“You’re not making this easy.”

“What am I making hard?” I ask innocently.

“Shit.” He groans, scrubbing a hand over his mouth. “Keeping my mind on task. That is what you’re making hard.”

“Just that?” I snort. “I stocked up on chocolate sauce. The runny stuff that?—”

He turns around and quickly walks away. “I’ll wait for you in the car.”

And I swear he adjusts himself in his pants before he gets in.

Grinning, I stick my head back in my apartment and go looking for something I don’t mind getting dirty.

Ten minutes later, I’m dressed in a navy hoodie, black jeans, and ankle boots. I claim a kiss from Levi as I slide into the passenger seat of his Ford Mustang.

He starts the engine as I buckle up, and we head to a mystery he won’t reveal.

“Is it dirt bike racing?” I ask.

“Nope.”

“Paintball?”

“No.”

“Hiking?”

“Nope.”

“Bouldering or rock climbing?”

His cheek dimples as he flashes me a grin. “You give me far more credit than you should.”

“Um, sheep herding or axe throwing?”

He chuckles. “Where are you getting these ideas from, or do you have a list of outdoor activities you’re working through?"

I’m sharing my bucket list of everything I want to do when a small, unremarkable sign catches my eye, and my stomach clenches.

“Della?”

We whiz past the sign, and I turn to face Levi. “Yeah?”

He bounces his gaze between me and the main road. “A while ago, you said something to Vincent. He seemed to think you were joking, but I don’t think you were.”

Another sign leaves me breathless, and my palms sweat. “So?”

He takes my hand, lifting it to kiss the back while his eyes flicker from me to the empty road ahead. “This isn’t a date. I have one planned, but not tonight. Afterward, if you still want it. This is something you need.”

He turns onto a side road.

When I see an abandoned factory ahead, I want to fling my door open, throw myself out, and run as far away as I can.

“Della?”

I wrench my eyes toward Levi. He’s stopped the car, cut the engine, and unbuckled his seatbelt. I missed it all. All I can think about is the dark room with the metal door and the freezing concrete floor.

“What?” I ask, my voice gravelly as terror, thick and insidious, threatens to choke me.

He slides his hand around the nape of my neck, his touch grounding me. His eyes glitter with rage. “Revenge. I think that’s the thing you need.”

And I know why we’re at this factory in the middle of the night, why he told me to wear something I didn’t mind getting dirty, and what thing he thought I was joking about.

Because he was right, I wasn’t joking at all.

“Where?” My voice is stronger than it was a moment ago. Harder, too, but there’s a reason for that.

“You sure?”

My eyes return to the factory.

I’ve never seen the outside. But I’ve been here before. I nearly died here.

An inconsequential sign is a sharp stone lodged deep in my subconscious. The men who brought me to this place stuffed me in the trunk of their car. I shouldn’t know about that sign, yet I do.

Maybe they mentioned the sign while they were drowning me. Maybe one of them said something while I was half-conscious once they’d finished raping me.

“Della?” Concern softens Levi’s voice. “If you want?—”

I pull my hand from Levi’s and unbuckle my seatbelt. I push my door open and step out, gravel crunching under my boots.

It’s freezing here, a building exposed to a biting cold on all sides.

Wind whips around me, toys with the fine hairs around my face, and I shiver. Inside and out.

Levi is warmer than I am when he takes my hand and squeezes. It’s another grounding moment I hadn’t known I’d desperately needed. “I love you.”

He kisses me. Hard . The exact kiss I needed. “I love you, too, beautiful.”

My eyes return to the factory.

He squeezes my hand. “Are you ready?”

“I’m ready.”

He gives me a probing look before heading to the right side of the building, approaching a set of double doors. “This way. Xavier and Vincent are waiting for us.”

I follow Levi as he guides us through a warren of dark corridors and closed doors, our footsteps echoing in hallways that smell musty and old.

Then we turn a corner. Xavier and Vincent are standing outside a metal door, their heads bent together, talking quietly.

They fall silent and twist to face me.

Everyone is in black. Boots. Dark hoodies. Black jeans. Things a person wouldn’t mind getting dirty.

“Della?” Vincent moves toward me, concerned. “If this isn’t?—”

“Are they in there?” My voice is as cold as the wind that whipped me in the face.

“Yes.” Vincent steps aside as I walk to the door, twist the handle, and push it open.

Three men sit tied to chairs, thick, dark rope trapping their arms to their sides, and black hoods over their heads. Their sharp, panicked breathing echoes in a room almost devoid of light.

Next to the door, there are two baseball bats. One has nails embedded at the end, while the other does not.

This wasn’t the room where they nearly killed me. It’s identical, but the musty smell and the way the shadows hit the corners aren’t quite right.

“What’s going on?” One of the alpha’s voices is shrill with his fear. “I hope you know what will happen to you when we get out.”

I remember him.

I will never forget his voice.

The way he sat on top of me as he pressed a taser against my breast. The way he whipped me with a belt until I begged them to stop. The way he shoved my head into a toilet until I passed out.

I stalk toward him, my lips flattening as his scent confirms it. Maple and tobacco.

I rip the hood from his head, and my gaze clashes with Zach, the dark-haired, blue-eyed alpha whose cruelty nearly broke me.

Fear slides off his face as I drop the hood on the floor.

He sneers. “ You . When I get free, I’m going to end you.”

“The bat.” I don’t take my eyes off Zach as I hold my hand to the side.

“Which one?” Levi asks.

“Spiked.”

Footsteps sound behind me. The bat with the nails is placed gently in my hand. My fingers curl around the wooden handle, and I test the weight in a two-handed grip.

Not too heavy. Not too light.

Perfect .

Zach’s laugh rings out, his arrogant face disbelieving. “You honestly expect me to believe you’ll use that thing? You ?”

A searing wave of fury floods my body, more intense than I’ve ever felt in my life. He’s still smirking, still disbelieving, when I swing the bat at his head.