“Moping?”Levi’s face heated. “Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?” Levi jerked off his flannel and tossed it on the ground. A few bruises it would be, then. “You and me. Right now. Wouldn’t be in this mess if you hadn’t bailed on us in order to work at Blue Casino.”
Jaeg stepped between them, a hand on each of their chests. “Whoa. You two haven’t fought since we were kids. Pull it together.” He stared at Levi. “If this is about a woman, get her out of your system.”
Adam glared at the others. “And I’m sick of you assholes blaming me for the shit you’re in at Club Tahoe. If you don’t want to work there, hire someone else!”
“Unlike you four,” Levi growled, “Ifeel a sense of responsibility to fulfill our father’s wishes.”
“Since when? You’ve never done what Dad wanted.”
“Since he died.”
“And you’re still alive,” Adam shot back. “So live your damn life. Even Dad wouldn’t have wanted you to run Club Tahoe if he thought it would make you this miserable. Maybe, just maybe, he thought it would give you a sense of purpose after the accident. And maybe he also saw something in you he thought would be good for the club.”
Levi didn’t say anything. Because he wasn’t this miserable working at Club Tahoe. It wasn’t his dream job, but it had grown on him. He was motherfucking pissed that Emily was pulling away.
An announcement came over the scanner. A fire in an apartment building.
Levi swiveled his head, listening intently. “That’s Emily’s address,” he said to himself.
A second later, he was running full tilt downhill toward his house, his brothers yelling after him.
The key to Adam’s truck was in the ignition. He hopped in and cranked the old beast, throwing it into drive and tearing down the road. Good thing he’d followed Emily home that one night; he knew exactly where to go. He might have also memorized her address when she first started working at Club Tahoe.
Levi had checked out Emily’s HR paperwork to make sure his dipshit lawyers were correct and she was actually of legal age. Now he couldn’t remember why he’d thought her young. She was youthful looking, but even then he’d been trying to find reasons to keep his distance—a way to convince himself she wasn’t right for him. Because he’d felt the spark.
He’d been denying his feelings all this time, and now she was caught in his worst nightmare.In danger, possibly at risk of losing her life.
The reason he’d become a firefighter all those years ago wasn’t because he wanted to protect the mountains he loved, though he did. And it wasn’t because a firefighter had been a perfect fit for his need for physicality and order, though it was. It was because he’d never wanted to lose another person he cared about the way he’d lost his mother, and, figuratively, his father.
The best way to prevent losing those he loved was to become someone able to protect them. To protect Emily. Because helovedher.
Emily filled a hole he hadn’t even known existed. A place in his heart that had never been opened. And now that it was, it hemorrhaged without her. He’d been bleeding, taking out his pain on all those around him.
Emily was his. He might not be a fireman anymore, but he’d be damned before he sat back and let her come to harm.
He pulled so hard on the steering wheel he nearly ripped it off.
Calm down, asshole. You’ll get to her.
Chapter 28
Stupid man.Emily swiped at the tears pouring down her face. The only way she knew how to get over something that had really upset her was to cry it out. Only these waterworks had been a three-day deluge.
She cycled harder on her stationary bike, Spandau Ballet playing in her earbuds on repeat. Her eyes were so swollen she didn’t dare go outside for a walk, looking like she’d been battered. Besides, the Oreos were in the apartment.
She reached for one and jammed it in her mouth.“Soopid ann,”she said, bits of Oreo flying from her lips.
Levi was wrong. What they hadwasspecial. How could he not see that?
Stubborn, bullheaded brick wall.She’d been ramming up against that wall repeatedly. Well, no more! She was finished. Her own sister had predicted this outcome, because Lisa knew Levi as well as anyone. Emily wasn’t some exception to the rule. She was the rule—no different than anyone else he’d been with. Only he’d at least committed to Lisa. All Emily got was sex.
Okay—good sex.
Hotsex.
But she deserved more from Levi or any man.
More than the occasional phone calls she’d received from her father when he felt like it.
