Chapter 14
ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS. I LOVE YOU.
LEVI
Fighting against the heavy weight holding me hostage, I slowly climb to the surface of consciousness, only to have reality hit me as the smell of antibacterial cleaner and the sound of machines beeping reminds me of what happened. When Wesley called, he told me that our informant found out Juan was hiding at the apartment of one of his longtime girlfriends.
When we arrived on the scene, two officers and SWAT were waiting for us. What Fawn didn’t know was that morning we’d finally been able to procure a warrant for Juan’s arrest after his SUV turned up in Brooklyn with blood evidence inside. We hadn’t gotten the DNA analysis of the blood samples back from the crime lab yet, but we suspected when we did we would find out it belonged to Elia Albergastey, Tamara’s mother. When SWAT went into the building to arrest Juan, Wesley and I went with them. It was all good until Juan’s girlfriend decided she wasn’t willing to let her man be arrested and pulled out a gun from under the couch where she had been sitting quietly up until that point.
After that, all hell broke loose. The officers holding Juan got distracted by the bullets flying and let him have just enough leeway that he was able to grab a weapon from under the entertainment unit. That was when he shot me. After that, everything is a blur.
“I love you.” I hear it again, only this time I know it’s not a dream. Fawn. Jesus, she must be flipping out. I hate that she’s seeing me like this, but then her words register and I force my eyes open. “Oh my god, you’re awake,” she whispers, then reaches out, fumbling for something on the bed.
Soon a voice is calling through the quiet room, “How can I help you?”
“He’s awake, you said to call when he’s awake,” she says quickly while running her fingers down the side of my face, like she’s attempting to make sure I’m really here.
“The doctor will be there in a few minutes.”
“Thanks,” she says, then leans in, carefully placing a kiss against my lips. “How are you feeling?” She closes her eyes, shaking her head. “Never mind, don’t answer that. It’s a stupid question,” she mutters, opening her eyes back up, and I chuckle, then groan in pain when I reach up to touch her. “Don’t move, you crazy man, you’ve been shot. You need to take it easy,” she scolds softly.
I ignore her, wrap my hand around the back of her neck, and pull her toward me, ignoring the pain shooting through my shoulder.
“I love you,” I say, and she leans back suddenly with wide eyes that search mine.
“What?” she whispers in disbelief.
“I love you, baby.”
“You do?”
“Yeah,” I say softly, and she drops her forehead to my chest, making me bite back another wince.
“I should have told you I was in love with you when I realized I was,” she whispers, and I shake my head. She didn’t need to tell me; she’s shown me every day.
“I already knew you did,” I mutter, and she pulls back to look at me.
“Is it that obvious?” She smiles, running her fingers softly down my face again.
“I don’t know if it’s obvious, but I see it in the things you do, feel it when we are together. Love is just a word unless there is action behind it, that’s how I knew.”
“And you love me?”
“Yeah, baby.”
“When did you realize you loved me?”
“After Thanksgiving.”
“And you didn’t tell me?” She frowns, making me smile.
“I’ve shown you every day,” I say, then look over her shoulder when the doctor walks into the room clearing his throat.
“While he’s checking you over, I’m going to let everyone know you’re awake,” she says. I don’t want to let her out of my sight, but I know I don’t have a choice.
“Are my parents here?”
“Not yet. They’re on their way. Traffic is insane getting into the city—I guess the president is in town.”
“All right, come back to me,” I demand, and she nods, kissing my jaw before leaving the room.
Once she’s gone I look at the doctor, who’s studying the beeping machine at the side of the bed. “What am I looking at here?” I ask him, and he finishes writing, then looks at me.
“You’re alive.” He shakes his head. “The bullet went straight through, but it hit your subclavian artery on the way, which caused most of the damage. You lost a lot of blood—just a few centimeters more and you could have lost your arm, so I’d say you’re a lucky man.” Not so lucky, seeing that I had on a bulletproof vest and still managed to get hit. “We rushed you into surgery, stitched everything up, and gave you two separate transfusions. You’ll be here for a couple days, but you’ll be okay.”
Nodding at that, I stay put and let him inspect the wound. While he’s doing that, another nurse comes in to let him know the room I will be moved into is ready.
As soon as they both leave, Wesley pokes his head in through the door. “Where’s Fawn?” I ask him, and he grins.
“What, you don’t want to see me?”
“Not really.” I smile at him, and he shakes his head, walking toward the bed.
“She’s down greeting your family and hers. They all just arrived, so I told her I’d wait with you.” Damn, my parents and Fawn’s together do not bode well for me being alone with my girl and healing without drama.
“What happened after I got hit?”
“We got Juan. He’s going down, and no one can save him this time. His girl is talking—she’s currently trying to save her own ass.”
“Thank fuck.”
“Yeah,” he mutters, then runs a hand over the top of his head. I notice he’s still got blood on him—it’s most likely mine. “You scared the shit out of me.”
“You? Fuck, man, we should have known to check the apartment for weapons, given his history.”
“Yeah,” he mutters, taking a seat next to the bed. “Fawn was a zombie until the doctor came out and told us you were going to be okay. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a woman so damn scared in my life.”
“I would be the same if something had happened to her,” I whisper, not even able to stomach the thought. I can’t imagine getting a call like the one she got. I can’t imagine thinking I might lose her.
“My baby,” I hear, and I turn my head toward the door and watch my mom rush across the room toward me. “I . . . Don’t ever scare me like that again, do you understand me?” Mom cries, placing her hand against my cheek.
“Sorry, Mom.”
“Just don’t let it happen again. Why weren’t you wearing your vest?”
“I was . . . I—”
“You need a better one, then.” She shakes her head as she leans in and kisses my cheek. When she steps back, my dad comes over.
“Son.” He shakes his head, reaching out to touch the top of my head. “You doing okay?”
“I’m good. The doctor said I should be out in a couple days.”
“Good.” He nods, and I can tell he’s working at holding back the emotions written all over his face.
“Jesus, man, you sure know how to get attention, don’t you?” Lucas says, coming over to stand on the other side of the bed.
“Jealous?”
“A little. I wouldn’t mind lying around for a few days having people wait on me hand and foot,” he jokes, and I shake my head at him as he leans down, touching his forehead to mine. “But seriously, I’m happy as fuck that you’re okay.”
“Me, too,” I agree, then watch Fawn’s parents come over.
“We had to come,” Katie says, leaning down to give me a kiss on my cheek. “I’m glad to see you’re okay, we’ve been worried sick.”
“Thanks for coming,” I say, and she smiles as Aiden touches the top of my head like my dad did moments ago before stepping back without a word. Getting hugs from the rest of my family, I frown when Eva walks into the room with a woman I know. Jesus, this bitch just doesn’t fucking stop.
“Levi,” Heather says as she comes toward me, and I look at Fawn, who is now standing next to my bed. Her face goes pale, which pisses me the fuck off.
“What the fuck, Eva?” Lucas asks, and she turns her eyes to him.
“She wanted to see him—she could have lost him.”
“I can’t believe you would do this right now,” Mom says glaring at Heather and Eva.
“I just . . . Eva told me what happened and I wanted to . . .”
“That’s nice and all, but if you’re who I think you are, then you need to leave. If Levi wanted anything to do with you, he would have called you, but he didn’t,” Libby says, and I hold back a smile. Libby is hard as nails when it comes to her family.
“She’s right. I appreciate your concern, but we have nothing to talk about,” I state firmly, and Heather looks around the room before looking at me once more.
“We were going to get married. I still care about you,” she says, but I know it’s a lie. She didn’t care about me when we were together, and she sure as fuck doesn’t care about me now.
“If you don’t leave, I will call security to escort you out,” Fawn says as Heather starts toward the bed.
“You can’t do that,” Eva says. Fawn’s eyes go to her.
“I can and I will. You shouldn’t have brought her here.”
“Who do you think you are?” Eva asks as her face turns red.
“Eva, take Heather and leave,” Mom says.
“Seriously?” she asks, looking at Mom, then at Lucas.
“Yes,” Lucas says, and she narrows her eyes.
“Whatever, I’m leaving,” Heather says. Eva looks around the room, glaring at everyone, before she disappears out the door with Heather.
“Good riddance,” Fawn mutters, and I chuckle, then groan again. Her eyes fly down to me. “Are you okay?”
“Kiss me.”
“No.”
“Kiss me,” I repeat, and she sighs, then leans down, pressing a kiss to my lips.
“Love you, baby.”
“I love you, too.” She rests her hand against the side of my face, kissing me once more, softly, before taking a seat on the chair next to my bed, where she pretty much stays until it’s time for me to be released from the hospital.
Watching Fawn walk into the living room with the phone to her ear, I set my computer aside, then tag her hand as she tries to pass me. I pull her toward me, forcing her to take a seat. I dodge her hand as she reaches out to smack me away as I try to kiss her. “Yes, I will be there Saturday at noon,” she says to whomever she’s talking to, and I kiss the side of her neck, smiling as she tries to elbow me, never putting enough force behind the action to actually do damage, since she knows I’m still healing. It’s been four days since I was released from the hospital, and even though I still have a lot of healing and physical therapy to do, I feel back to myself.
“Okay, I’ll see you Monday, Mrs. Thompson, and thank you for the update,” she says, pulling the phone away from her ear and hitting the “End Call” button. “Seriously, you need to stop. You are going to end up hurting yourself,” she grouches, glaring at the smile on my face.
“What was the phone call about?” I ask, ignoring her glare. She narrows her eyes when I try to pull her into my lap.
“Mrs. Thompson talked to Tamara’s grandmother today. She wanted to let me know that Tamara will be moving. She didn’t want me to worry when Tamara wasn’t at school when I return to work next week.”
“What’s going on Saturday?”
“They are having a service for Tamara’s mom. Her grandmother asked Mrs. Thompson to let me know so I could go show my support if I wanted to.”
“You feel up to that?”
“Yes,” she says quietly, then turns sideways on the couch to face me completely. “I’m glad that Tamara’s getting some kind of closure. I just hope now she can work on healing.”
“Me, too, baby,” I agree softly. The DNA from the SUV came back as that of Elia Albergastey, so we knew something happened to Tamara’s mom in that vehicle. The CSI team concluded that one person could not lose that much blood and survive without immediate medical help, which left us to conclude, sadly, that Tamara’s mother had been murdered.
“What are the moms doing?” I ask, hearing banging in the apartment next door, and she rolls her eyes.
“Who the hell knows? I swear, they are going to make me lose my mind. Whose idea was it to let them help me move, anyway?” she asks, looking at the wall between our apartments when the banging gets even louder.
“Yours.” I smile, and her nose scrunches up.
“I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“You were thinking that you wanted to take care of me, so you needed their help to move you out of your space and into mine,” I remind her. The day I got released from the hospital, Lucas asked me if I could help him find a place in the city, and Fawn told him that she knew of the perfect spot, then went on to say that she was moving in with me. I was a little surprised but honestly happy as fuck that she was moving in earlier than February. My family is a little disappointed that Lucas is leaving the town we grew up in, but they understand completely that he needs a change—and since he filed for divorce from Eva two days ago, he needs that change to come with at least a hundred miles attached to it.
No one was happy about Eva showing up at the hospital with Heather, but Lucas was so pissed, he finally broke down and told everyone he was leaving his wife. Not that she really cared. Apparently she had been having an affair for the last year and was all too happy to tell Lucas that she was already planning on moving in with the guy. Thankfully, though, she agreed to give Lucas full custody of Madeline, since her new man isn’t exactly interested in raising another man’s child.
“That’s true—at least one good thing is coming out of their stay,” she mutters, bringing me out of my head.
“It hasn’t been that bad.” I smile, and she glares.
“It hasn’t been that bad? Really, are you crazy?” she huffs, making me grin. “Okay, I will admit the first couple of days it wasn’t so bad because they were occupied with you, but now I swear, every time I go over there, they are talking about weddings and babies. And your mom is constantly trying to convince me to move to Connecticut so she can help raise her nonexistent grandchild. I think that is the only time they really fight.”
“They fight?” I ignore the comments about my mom since I’ve been hearing it firsthand for the last few days. She keeps saying that I need to think about moving home, where there is less crime. I know what happened shook her, but that kind of shit could happen anywhere, and unfortunately, in my line of work it’s a risk you have to take.
“They don’t really fight, they just bicker about crap like where we’re going to get married, where the baby—that doesn’t exist—is going to be baptized, who is going to babysit said baby, who’s going to be Nana and who’s going to be Grandma. You know, crap like that. I’m pretty sure they are both certifiably nuts.” She sighs, looking at the wall again when the banging starts back up.
“I say we just give them a baby.”
“Give them a baby?” Her head swings my direction. “Did you hit your head?” She laughs, but I don’t. I want that with her. I want her to be my wife, I want her to have my babies, I want everything with her. “You’re serious?”
“I’m not saying I want a baby tomorrow, but I do want babies with you. I can only imagine how beautiful you will look pregnant with our child, and I know you will be an amazing mom. You love kids and are great with them.”
“You’re serious,” she repeats with wide eyes, and I carefully pull her over and adjust her on my lap to straddle me.
“I’m crazy about you, and I want all of those things with you. Is that so hard to believe?”
“No . . .” She rests her hands on the underside of my jaw while my fingers skim along the skin under the edge of her T-shirt. “I guess I never really thought about having a husband and a family before now.” She smiles, then leans close, brushing her lips over mine. “Please don’t mention this conversation to our moms—they are already hard enough to deal with as it is, and if they get wind that one day we want kids, I have no doubt they will toss my birth control out the window.”
“I won’t tell them.” I smile, and she reaches out, touching my shoulder where there is a bandage covering the wound.
“Have I told you today that I love you?” she asks, lightly touching the gauze with her fingers.
“This morning,” I murmur, and she looks up at me.
“Well, I still do, just so you know, and maybe even more than I did this morning.”
“That’s good to know.” I smile, roaming my hand up the back of her shirt, enjoying her smooth, warm skin against my palm. Feeling goose bumps break out across her skin, my cock, which has been hard since she sat on me, hardens more. I love that she’s so affected by my touch.
“Levi,” she breathes, sounding nervous, and I know that nervousness is because she’s worried about hurting me.
“I need to be inside you,” I tell her, lifting my hips, letting her feel exactly what she does to me.
“We . . .”
“You won’t hurt me.”
“Are you sure?” she questions, running her palm over my erection, and I bite back a curse. It hasn’t been months since I’ve been inside her, but a few days is way too fucking long to go without her.
“You have to promise to stop me if you’re in pain,” she murmurs, sliding her hand inside my sweats and taking my cock into her palm, stroking it.
“I’m in pain now,” I point out, and she rolls her eyes. Sliding my hand down the back of her sweats, I grab her ass, then move around her hip and slip my fingers between her legs.
“I swear, if I hurt you, I’m never having sex with you again,” she says against my mouth as her hips rise and fall and she rides my fingers in sync with her hand pumping my cock.
“Get your clothes off, baby,” I urge, needing to be inside her. Standing quickly she rips her shirt off over her head, then kicks off her pants and panties, all the while keeping her eyes glued to my hand that is running over my cock.
“Christ,” I groan, dropping my head to the back of the couch as she leans forward, taking me into her mouth. Spreading my legs farther, I make room for her as she kneels in front of me, wrapping her hand around the base of my cock while using her mouth on me. Feeling her nails scrape down my thigh, I lift my head and meet her gaze. Her eyes are as wild as her hair, and she looks beautiful taking me down her throat. “Come here,” I command, not willing to come in her mouth, which I know I’m seconds away from doing if she doesn’t stop. She sucks me harder and goes deeper. I groan, then bite out, “Fuck,” as I tug her hair, pulling her head back.
“I wasn’t done,” she complains, and my teeth snap together as she licks over the head of my cock. Lifting her and ignoring the pain it causes in my shoulder, I drop her to the couch and spread her legs wide, then bury my face between her thighs. I could live on her taste alone—she’s like nothing I’ve ever had before. Licking and sucking her clit, I listen to her breathing become heavy, then move my hand up her stomach and take hold of one nipple, twisting just enough to make her pussy walls contract around my tongue thrusting inside her.
She moans, her fingers latching onto my hair and holding me in place as she winds her hips, trying to get more, but I’m not going to let her come like this. Fuck no, I need to be inside her. I need to feel her pussy contract around me. I need to feel her tight walls sucking me deeper. Sitting back, I pull her up with my arm around her back and set her on my length, groaning as she clamps down on me.
“Levi,” she whimpers as I raise my hips and force her down onto my cock.
“Ride me hard,” I demand, and she does, her hips rising and falling rapidly, making me wish I had a mirror so I could watch myself disappear deep inside her. Feeling her walls start to ripple, I know she’s close, and I know she’s going to pull me over with her when she comes.
“Kiss me,” I say, holding on to her tightly. The second her mouth touches mine, I thrust my tongue between her lips and listen to her moan down my throat as she comes hard, so fucking hard that her walls tighten almost painfully around my cock, which sends me over the edge with her. Breathing heavily, she collapses against my chest.
“Did I hurt you?” she asks after a moment, and I shake my head no and relax back into the couch, holding on to the woman who changed everything for me. The woman who has made me want more out of life, the woman I want to spend my life with.