You got it, sunshine
I tap my phone against my palm, debating. It could be nothing. Maybe something from Britt. Or Kali. Or even Taylor. We’re creeping into the holiday season, after all.
A strange ache tugs at my chest. Alysa… Would she have sent me something?
Instead of firing off a string of texts, I settle on one name. I’m not sure why he’s the first to come to mind, but my fingers move before I can second-guess it.
Less than ten minutes later, Levi is strolling up to our cabin. I’d slipped out the back and have been waiting, nerves prickling under my skin.
I tell myself there’s no bomb in that package.
… But the fact I even have to remind myself of that says enough.
“Hey there, Ayden.” He lifts a hand in a casual wave, the other buried in his pocket, his long coat pushed neatly behind it.
If suave could be defined by a single man, it would be Levi.Even in the snow, he moves with this graceful ease, polished and unbothered. Presentable doesn’t even begin to cover it.
I swallow, giving him a weary smile. “Thanks so much for coming, Levi.”
He shrugs, brushing it off like it’s nothing. Which is strange—like I’ve done anything to deserve him being so attentive.
“What’s up?”
I wet my lips, my eyes drifting to the porch where the brown box waits, silent, ordinary, but I swear it’s anything but. “I had a delivery. Maybe I’m overthinking, but with everything going on, I just?—”
He doesn’t even let me finish before brushing past me, stepping up the stairs to the porch. He’s standing before the package and my anxiety spikes.
“H-Hey! Be careful.”
“Who dropped it off?” he asks, glancing back at me.
“Postal employee. USPS. He had the van, uniform, everything. I’m sure he was legit.”
Levi nods, hitching up his pants before crouching. “Odds are it isn’t a bomb then.”
My chest caves in at the word. Sure I was thinking about it, but hearing it out loud? It hits different.
“Hard to time something like that with general delivery.”
Suppose that makes sense. Not that I’d have ever thought of it that way.
He reaches down to his sock and slides out a switchblade. The knife spins between his fingers like it belongs there before he drags it cleanly under one flap of the box, then mirrors the motion on the other side.
“You weren’t expecting anything?”
“No, and I reached out to Keo to see if maybe he’d had something sent to the house. He also wasn’t expecting anything.”
He pulls up the flaps, but it’s still taped down the middle, so it doesn’t open.
“Hmm. No covert poison mechanism.” I swear my heart’s pounding in my ears, and not in my chest.
Then he slices straight down the center as I step up to get abetter look. He never touches the cardboard with his hands—only the blade, neat and precise, turning the box with precision. Inside sits what looks like a black leather bag. Or something like it.
“Do me a favor, Ayden.”
He glances over his shoulder, offering a smile so smooth his eyes disappear.
“Sure.”
