Felix rolled his eyes. “This is Prada. Beetlejuice could never.” He plopped down on the couch, throwing one leg over the other dramatically. “So, what’s up, babes? What’s the drama? I have a date with some amazing ladies later about a womb for rent and that real estate is harder to close than a rental in New York.”
That’s right. Felix and Avi were trying to breed. Maybe he should say Felix and Zane were trying to have a baby using their husbands’ genetic material. That seemed strangely more accurate. Felix with a baby? Diapers and spit-up didn’t seem his speed, but Felixwaskind of maternal. He’d been the one to take care of them when they were sick and he’d held them when they cried, which was often when they were all kids. How were they all old enough to be contemplating marriage and babies?
When did that happen?
Seven snickered. “Levi prude-shamed his attempted murderer and then tried to kidnap him.”
“It wasn’t a kidnapping,” Levi snapped, shaking his head. “He was…hurt. I just wanted to keep him safe.”
Felix waved a hand. “No judgment, babes. I married a Mulvaney. They consider kidnapping a courting ritual. I take it he rejected your…romantic gesture? Is that why you’re in full sulk?”
“I’m not sulking,” Levi said, sulking.
Why couldn’t his friends see that everything he’d done was for Shiloh’s protection? His heart squeezed like it was trapped between two giant fists. He’d hoped Shiloh would see that, too. But he’d seemed so broken, so hurt, like Levi was full out rejecting him and not just hitting pause. He’d had every intention of picking up where they’d left off this morning. As long as Shiloh had been in a better place, anyways. But when Levi woke up, he was gone.
Levi looked to Ever, who sat perched behind Seven on the sofa, compulsively pulling Seven’s hood up on his army green sweatshirt, then lowering it down, fidgeting.
“I didn’t stop because of his lack of experience,” Levi said, irritated. “I stopped because he told me I didn’t have to be nice to him, that he’d sleep with me either way. I’m not exactly a romantic, but I’d like to know someone is letting me inside their actual fucking body because they want to be there and not because they think they have to. I was trying to do the right thing.”
Seven shrugged. “I’m still hung up on the kidnapping.”
“I didn’t fucking kidnap him. Oh, my God,” he snarled, exasperated. He turned to Ever. “Do you think I fucked this up?”
Levi gave him his biggest, saddest eyes.
Ever scrunched up his cute little face like he was thinking, popping Seven’s hood up once more then tucking it behind his tiny elf ears. Levi watched as he then rubbed them like a worry stone, rendering Seven nonverbal, his eyes rolling in bliss. He was part St. Bernard, Levi just knew it.
“Well,” Ever hedged, “you were right to not sleep with him. He didn’t seem like he was mentally where he should be. You know? So…yeah. But the kidnapping…I don’t think Jericho would like that.”
“I didn’t kidnap him,” Levi said again, flopping back on the sofa. “And I cleared it with Jericho beforehand…sort of,” he added.
“Sort of?” Arsen called, clearly eavesdropping. “How do yousort ofclear a kidnapping with Jericho?”
“Heismarried to a Mulvaney, too,” Ever pointed out unhelpfully.
Levi rolled his eyes. “The night I met him?—”
“The night you kissed him to stop his assassination attempt,” Arsen supplied, also unhelpfully.
Levi huffed. “Yes, that. I called Jericho after it happened. I told him what I’d seen…what Shiloh had said…”
“What did you see?” Ever asked just as Felix said, “What did he say?”
Having a conversation with his friends was becoming impossible. “IsawShiloh’s brother, Micah, smacking him around before sending him into the store to kill me. And Shiloh said he was supposed to kill me to send a message to Jericho that Micah was, like…gunning for him or whatever.”
“Dramatic,” Felix said in a sing-song voice.
Ever’s eyes went wide. “So, he was under…” He did a series of facial gymnastics, like he was thinking, then snapped his fingers. “Duress. He was under duress.”
Levi’s head bobbed, relieved someone was actually starting to get it. “Yeah, it was obvious he didn’t want to be there. He didn’t want to be holding a gun to my head. So, after he basically said I was supposed to be a warning to Jericho, I called Jericho and told him what I saw. He said I could help Shiloh.”
“He said you could help Shiloh by kidnapping him?”
Levi shrugged. “Not in those words, exactly.”
Seven snorted. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
Levi shook his head. “Excuse the fuck out of me for not wanting to give him back to the guy who beat the shit out of him.”
