“As you’ve tried to point out, we’re not the same people we were, so that doesn’t mean you know what I’m like,” I said with a snort. “Or are you going to pretend you know me better than I know you despite all that time not being around one another?”
“Nothing quite as arrogant as that,” he said softly as he leaned back when the coffee came, thanking the woman before taking a sip of the brew. “Ah, this is better.”
I stared at him before deciding to sigh and bite the bullet. “What did you do?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re too smart to play stupid,” I told him wryly. “Waytoo smart.”
He reached for the creamer and sugar, pouring both in before taking a sip. “It would help if you were specific.”
I rolled my eyes. “You can say all you want in front of Micah, but it doesn’t work on me. I know damn well that losing your mom, especially in the way you did, hit you like a truck. And youdon’t magically get over that and let things go just because it’s been years.”
His eyes landed on mine as he stirred absentmindedly. “What do you want me to say?”
“You can tell the truth,” I said in a low voice. There was no one else sitting near us, but I knew better than to speak too loudly. “I already have an idea what you’ve been up to for years. I don’t have the details, and I’m not the brightest bulb in the box, but I can put a puzzle together well enough to make a good guess. You barely reacted to the news that those two had disappeared. Which means you either knew or...well, if you had something to do with it, you’d have known too. So?—”
“Are you asking me if I killed them?”
“Did you?”
“No, I didn’t kill those two men.”
I leaned forward. “I can still catch things. Like how you said you didn’t kill those ‘two’ men. How about one of them?”
Levi took a sip of his coffee, his eyes alert, but his shoulders weren’t as tense as when I had found him on the cliff. “And what would that answer get you?”
“So that’s a yes, a partial one,” I snorted.
His cheek twitched. “Everyone always thought that when it came to getting answers or understanding something, it was me, never suspecting that my ‘bodyguard’ was the one who always had to solve the latest mystery. Even when the answers weren’t ones that he wanted or should have known.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I’m sorry, but when the fuck did you become the dictator of what someone else should or shouldn’t know? Are you sousedto ordering people around that you expect it?”
His lip twitched. “You’re assuming a lot.”
“I mean, that’s how you’re acting,” I said with a derisive snort. “But here with the rest of us in the real world, not inwhatever world you’ve been living in for a decade or whatever, you don’t get to act like the boss or parent and decide things for other people. So, unless you plan on explaining how I’m going to die a horrible death if I find out the truth, and convince me you’ll follow through on it, you’re not going to scare me off from asking for the truth. Deal with it.”
“I’d forgotten how stubborn you can be.”
“Really? Of all the things you could forget, you went for one of the most obvious things about me?”
He sniffed. “No. But memory, nostalgia, and a lingering fondness made it a pleasant memory. I forgot how irritating it actually is. I would thank you for the refresher, but that seems like sending the wrong message.”
I stared at him. “I can’t tell if you’re treating me like some henchman or?—”
“Henchman?”
“Or a child. Either way, I’m going to pour that coffee into the lap of that expensive suit if this keeps up.”
Levi said nothing, but the grimace told me he believed I would, which was good, because that was a threat I was willing to follow through on if he kept getting on my nerves. I understood, at least as far as my imagination allowed, that he had gone through a lot that changed the boy I knew into a man. That didn’t mean I was going to put up with his bullshit, and if there was one thing that you could rely on with Levi, it was that he came with a lot of bullshit. Even before Augustine had gotten his hooks into him and started twisting him to be more useful, Levi had been prone to evasion and sometimes, outright lying when he didn’t want to talk about or deal with something.
Levi gave a heavy sigh, setting his coffee mug down. “What are you doing?”
“Last I checked, I’m sitting here, having what might be a civil conversation, but it feels like it’s not all that civil. I’m still pissedat you over all these years, and you’re still trying to keep me out of shit.”
“That’s what I mean. Why are you even bothering? You clearly still hold a grudge.”
“You know what?” I began, leaning forward and narrowing my eyes. “Calling it a grudge makes it sound like you stole my girlfriend or something back in middle school. When in fact, the person who was supposed to be my best friend decided he was going to be a piece of shit, leave me behind, and then when he comes back, wants to act like he’s above it all.”
