“I told him I would protect him,” Levi muttered.
Ever shook his head. “That doesn’t matter. When everyone lets you down, it's hard to believe anything anybody says. You know that.”
Levi did know that. How many times had his mother promised to sober up? How many times had she gone through rehab? Failed out of rehab? Apologized for all the horrid things she’d done to him as a child only to tell him he’d deserved it all the next time she was a case in?
“Ever’s right. You can’t make assumptions. You don’t know how bad things are for him. I think you should take that into account,” Lake said.
Jericho called him the diplomat. He was the sweet one, the soft one, the mediator. He preferred talking to fighting and reading to almost anything else. Levi thought that was why Lake and Cree spent so much time together. They both liked to be alone…but together.
They could sit for hours side by side, each doing their own thing without uttering a single word and be perfectly happy. The thought of that made Levi’s skin crawl. He needed to stay busy or his intrusive thoughts would creep into the daylight and drag him into his past.
All eyes swung back to Nico. “So…what’s he look like?” Ever asked, making a come-on gesture with his hand. “Out with it.”
Nico threw one more smug look at Levi then turned to the others. “He’s really…pretty? Even though someone did a real number on his face. He’s like”—Nico squinted, like he was trying to think of the perfect word—“delicate looking. Soft pretty.”
“Soft pretty?” Ever echoed, brow furrowed.
“Yeah, like how Felix is hard pretty. You’re soft pretty, too,” Nico explained. Ever beamed at him and Nico basked in it before continuing. “He’s got good cheekbones. Pretty brown skin. Big brown Bambi eyes. Curly brown hair. Definitely looks broken. Not at all Levi’s usual type.”
“What’s Levi’s usual type?” Ever said, eyes full of innocence.
His friends all smirked. It was no secret—amongst them, anyway—that before Ever, Levi had harbored a bit of a crush on the Russian mechanic. A crush that had lasted approximately a decade before Ever had crushed it under his dainty little feet.
Ever didn’t know that. Arsen didn’t either. Levi preferred to keep it that way. He had moved on. But clearly, his friends weren’t done teasing him about it. “Not true. He’s exactly my type.”
“Uninterested?” Lake added.
Even Felix piped in. “Oblivious?”
“Why is everyone being so mean to me today?” Levi grumped, flopping back against the couch. “I’m sad. Doesn’t anybody care?”
Ever’s face fell and he scurried from behind Seven to perch behind Levi, doing his best to trap his broad shoulders in a hug. “I care.”
Levi had really wanted to hate Ever in the beginning, but it was impossible. “Thanks,” he said, leaning back between Ever’s splayed legs so the smaller boy could fidget by playing with his hair, blunt nails combing through his strands absently. “The love of my life literally snuck out of my room in the dead of night and I don’t even have his phone number. Just this stupid note.”
Levi pulled the sticky note from his pocket, holding it up for all of them to see.
“Oh, XO, that’s good, right?” Lake said cheerily. “Right?”
“Yeah, calm down, Cinderella. We’ll find your man,” Felix promised.
Nico plucked the sticky note from Levi’s hand. “Who’s Mal? A pet?”
Levi grimaced. “His brother.”
“Anotherbrother?” Cree asked.
“Mm,” Levi said. “Micah—the one who can’t keep his hands to himself—had Mal put in prison. I’m assuming he’s holding his release over Shiloh’s head.”
“Oof,” Cree said.
“Oof, indeed,” Levi agreed. “This blows. I just want to know he’s somewhere safe. He looked so small and sad.”
“Aww,” Nico soothed, pulling a Blow Pop from his back pocket. “Here you go, you big baby. Suck on this. It’s black cherry. Your favorite.”
Levi blew out a heavy breath, but unwrapped the candy and stuck it in his cheek, gnawing on the stick with his teeth.
“Your boy might be pocket-sized like Ever but he seemed tougher than he looked,” Nico assured him.
