I eyed him warily. “How?”
“A lot of money and a few favors,” he said, rolling his neck. “Getting this done without Augustine finding out is going to be...interesting.”
If Nic thought it was interesting that Levi didn’t want Augustine to know, she didn’t show it as she retrieved everything she needed. Considering how much shit they’d both given me, I didn’t think this was the time to bring up the fact that Iwasn’t comfortable with needles. I couldn’t explain why needles bothered me, but they always had. Something about the sight of them sent my guts squirming and my heart fluttering, but again, no way in hell was I going to bring it up.
Levi watched me carefully, and from the way the corner of his mouth twisted up, I could tell he remembered my thing about needles. It helped to have something to focus on, even if that something was trying to burn a hole in my head with his eyes, as if daring me to complain. Stubbornness was familiar, though, and I stared back, as if to say there was no way in hell I was going to give him the satisfaction of hearing me complain again. Even when she pushed the needle into my skin, I kept my eyes on him, never letting a facial muscle so much as twitch as I stared at him.
Snorting, he pulled out his phone as it buzzed. “Yes?”
Nic waved over her shoulder. “Go somewhere else while I’m working.”
Levi nodded, not batting an eye at her telling him what to do, and went into the room where I had once found him and Will having an impromptu morning meeting. I could hear the conversation, but since he didn’t sound upset, I thought it was okay to tune it out.
“You’re not going to ask how this happened?” I wondered.
Nic leaned back, depositing the needle into a portable container and eyeing me in disbelief. “You must not be one of his, or you’re new to the business if you think I’d be stupid enough to ask after Family business.”
“I, uh...yeah, not one of his,” I said, not liking the phrasing, but now really wasn’t the time to argue. “It’s complicated.”
“I assume there’s history between you. I rarely see him being familiar with someone I’m brought in to work on. And I never see him act so casual around anyone,” she said with a shrug as she opened her bag and brought out more supplies and gloves before pulling off the ones she had on and tossing them intoa plastic bag. “I knew something was amiss when he made me come in immediately upon finding out I was in town. And then I find a good-looking man bleeding in his living room? It’s not hard to make the connection.”
“I’m starting to feel like a piece of meat,” I muttered.
“You don’t listen very well, do you? I already said he was too comfortable with you. Trust me, if you were just one of his random cast-off lovers, I wouldn’t have noticed any difference in how he acts. In fact, he has more compassion for strangers than he does for his own people half the time,” she said with a frown.
“Damn, I know he can be cold, but you make him sound awful.”
“I don’t know who you think you’re dealing with, but in case it has escaped your notice, you’re dealing with the man rumored to one day take over as head of The Family. Anyone slated for that job isn’t going to be the most moral of people,” she said as she began to prepare the stitches. “That said...he’s far better to deal with than his father.”
My brow shot up at her tone. “Jesus, was Augustine the one who took your license or something?”
I’d meant it as a joke, but I saw the shadow cross her face and instantly regretted saying it so flippantly. “He might as well have. To make a painfully long story short, I was a doctor with an addiction to medications. He used me to move things around so I wouldn’t be caught, and when I was inevitably caught, he never lifted a finger to help me. It was only when it looked like I might serve real time in prison, he stepped in.”
My lip raised. “Let me guess, he’d keep you out of prison, but you had to make sure your services were always available to The Family. They’d pay you, of course.”
“Of course,” she said, her lips twitching slightly, maybe appreciating someone who hated the prick as much as I did. “A deal with the Devil, as they say.”
“And here you are, helping the Devil’s son.”
“Perhaps, but the son is not the father. Levi has little pity for those who choose this life, and he’s not afraid to use them to the fullest. But he also won’t drag someone into this life and chain them down. He treats me with far more respect than his father ever has, and he routinely makes sure I don’t have to dip into my own accounts to pay for the medical supplies I need to do the job,” she said as she poked the needle through my skin. “I won’t claim he’s a good man, but he’s no monster. And in this world? That’s a miracle.”
I didn’t know if that was downplaying who Levi was or giving him more credit than he deserved. It was hard to say because I’d just seen a whole new side of Levi, and while, yeah, part of me had expected it to exist, it was something else to see it firsthand. The first guy he’d shot had been surprising, but only because I hadn’t realized Levi was there, or that he had a gun. It was the second one that shocked me. Not that Levi had killed him, but the utter lack of hesitation to end a second life, and the way he cleaned up any mess that might have connected us to it, instead of thinking about the life he had taken.
It was cold, efficient, and utterly without remorse. Precisely the sort of thing you’d expect of a crime lord, but not what I expected of Levi. Trying to make sense of it meant trying to take the crime lord I’d seen and the Levi I knew and put them together in one picture. I had thought I’d been doing that all along, but now I knew I hadn’t. He had always been both of those things, but where I hadn’t really seen the crime lord before, I think he had forgotten about the Levi side.
“Give it to Roland,” I heard Levi say as he entered the room. “He’ll know what I want...yes, I’m sure. Do it.”
“Something wrong?” I asked as Levi hung up.
He glanced at me, and I saw hesitation on his face before he turned away. “Just following up on business.”
“Are you being private because the good doctor is here, or because you think I’m going to freak out?”
Levi looked at me, amusement breaking the cool mask. “Good doctor? What exactly have you two been gossiping about?”
“The topic you told me not to bring up around her,” I informed him. “Turns out your dad isn’t just a prick, but a super prick.”
“Well, I could have told you that without forcing Nic to regale her story,” he said with a shake of his head as he went to the liquor cabinet. “Are you going to give him meds, Nic?”
