Levi shook his head. “It does matter. You were a little kid and that guy was an adult.”
“Wasbeing the operative word,” Shiloh mumbled. “He’s not anything anymore.”
He’s not anything anymore.Was he saying the guy was dead? There was an ominous inflection behind those words, like Shiloh knew far more than he should. Levi waited to see if he would continue but he seemed content to leave it at that. Levi wasn’t.
“What does that mean, Shiloh?”
He turned sideways, craning his head to meet Levi’s gaze. “He…had an accident.”
“An accident?” Levi repeated.
Shiloh nodded, dry swallowing loudly. “Mm. He ‘fell’ off his balcony.”
“Micah?” Levi asked.
Shiloh shook his head. “Micah forgot about him the minute he paid him off. It was Mal.” As soon as the words left his mouth, he seemed to panic, holding his hands up. “I mean, I think it was. I don’t know that it was. I can’t, like, prove it or anything.”
“Good,” Levi muttered. “I hope he died screaming.”
Shiloh turned startled eyes towards him, mouth softening. “It was him. Malachi. I know it was. He’s really…protective of me.” He shook his head before Levi could even say anything. “But he’snotlike Micah,” he swore. “He wouldn’t hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it. Please don’t think of him like that. He’s not bad, he’s just…wired wrong.”
“Wired wrong?” Levi repeated. He knew a few guys like that.
Shiloh nodded. “Malachi’s brain just doesn’t work the same as others. He says it’s like those old skits where there’s an operator that’s just pulling cords from one hole and sticking them into another, connecting random people together. That’s what he says his head is like, just someone pulling a thought from one part and plugging it into another. He says it’s why he’s so…weird.”
“Weird enough to kill?” Levi asked.
Shiloh shrugged once more. “What about you?”
Levi gave him an amused look. “I assure you, you don’t need to worry about my level of experience. If there were rankings, I’m pretty sure I’d be at expert level by now.”
Shiloh snorted. “Aren’t you full of yourself?” He shook his head. “I meant killing. Have you killed people before? My brother said you’re part of Jericho’s hit squad. That he uses youand your friends to run off competition so that Jericho can keep all the action for himself.”
Levi barked out a laugh. “Jericho? He thinks Jericho is a…what? Criminal mastermind?”
“I guess.”
Levi shook his head. “Jericho’s married to a Mulvaney. He has so much money at his disposal, he’d have to start burning it in giant piles every day just to even make it through the interest that money earns. He’s not a criminal. He’s a mechanic with a fussy doctor husband, an equally prissy cat, and two preschoolers.”
“So, he’s not making you guys kill people?” Shiloh asked, not turning around this time, just sort of slumping against him to tuck his head up under Levi’s chin.
Levi wrapped his arms around him again, resting his chin on the top of Shiloh’s head. What was he supposed to say to that? He couldn’t lie to Shiloh, not after he’d just asked him to bare his soul. “He doesn’t make us do anything,” Levi said carefully.
Shiloh was quiet for a long moment. “But youdokill people?”
Levi swallowed, then nodded, his chin flexing against Shiloh’s curls. “Yeah, we kill people. We kill really bad people. The people who hurt other people.”
Shiloh nodded but made no move to run. “Okay.”
“That’s it? Okay?” Levi asked, relieved.
“I believe you.”
Three simple words that had Levi wrapping his arms around Shiloh to squeeze him. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Shiloh said, then sucked in a breath that broke into a jaw-cracking yawn.
Levi smiled. “Why don’t we get some sleep? We can revisit our kissing situation in the morning.”
