High-Sided (Armed & Dangerous #3)(9)

A set of headlights blared from the top of my driveway and I stood to see who it was. I thought it would be Levi, but it turned out to be my father, in his old, red truck. “Uh-oh. This isn’t going to be good.”

Sean got to his feet and joined me, trying his best to keep his bandaged hands out of view. My father pulled down to the front of the house and took his time getting out of his truck. The rain poured harder, but he slowly walked up, seemingly not caring that he was getting wet. He hadn’t even looked at us either, which wasn’t a good sign.

Trudging up each step like the world was on his shoulders, he finally lifted his head when he got to the top. He stared at us and I waited for him to speak, but he never did.

I held up my hands. “I know what you’re going to say, but I’ll go ahead and tell you upfront, they deserved it.”

His brows furrowed. “What are you talking about?”

I glanced at Sean and he was as clueless as me. “I figured you came because of the fight,” I said, turning my attention back to him.

He shook his head. “What fight?”

“The one between Mark and Jacob and me and Levi,” Sean answered. “We thought that was why you were here; to bitch us out for being stupid.”

Eyes wide, my dad’s face went pale. He got a good look at Sean’s face and hands. “What was it about?” Sean’s jaw clenched and he glanced at me. “What was it about?” my dad repeated, near shouting. He grabbed Sean by the shirt, his expression wild and dangerous. I’d never seen him so out of control, not even when he fired Ethan.

Sean snarled and jerked out of my father’s grasp. “The cocksucker touched your daughter and made a comment about f*cking her. If you were there, I’m sure you’d have done a lot more damage than I did. Personally, I wanted to beat his head against the concrete.”

My dad stumbled back, almost as if he was drunk. “When did this happen?” he asked, his voice thick.

“A couple hours ago,” I said.

He ran a hand down his face and leaned over the front porch railing. His breathing became shallow and his knuckles turned white from clenching the railing so hard.

“Dad, what’s going on? You’re scaring me.”

His body shook and he jerked around, his face and eyes red. “I got a call. Levi’s dead,” he choked out.

I sucked in a ragged breath and shook my head, throat closing up. “He’s on his way here. That can’t be true.” There was no way he could be dead. We’d seen him not too long ago.

Tears fell down my father’s cheek and he closed his eyes. “He’s gone, Kassidy. The police say it looks like someone ran him off the road.”

Disbelief and rage consumed me, swallowing me into a pit of darkness. I couldn’t think, breathe, or even attempt to comprehend what he’d said. Levi was my lifeline, my friend and protector. It must be a mistake, I couldn’t lose someone else so close to me.

My legs gave out and my father caught me in his arms. As soon as he touched me, I broke down. The scream that escaped my lips sounded foreign, almost like it came from a completely different person. All I could feel was my heart being ripped in two as I remembered my last moments with my best friend. We’d spent most of the week at odds with each other, until today, when he’d gotten into a fight because of me.

“Jacob,” I growled low. “I’m gonna kill him.”

My father jerked me back, his eyes wild with rage. “You are going to stay here with Sean. After what you both just told me, I know exactly who the police should go after first, unless I get there before them.” He took off for his truck and I raced after him, but Sean held me back.

“Kassidy, stop!”

“I have to go with him,” I cried. I felt dizzy and sick, but most of all, I was furious.

How could Levi be gone? I never got to tell him goodbye or hug him one last time. I didn’t want to remember our last days together with me being pissed at him for keeping secrets. Sean held me tight and gently helped me to the floor. Burying my head against his chest, I cried for what felt like hours.

“They need to pay,” I growled low.

He held me tighter. “They will, Kass. We won’t let them get away with it.”





Logan


For the first time in my life, I experienced true freedom. It was an exhilarating feeling, being able to hop on my bike and ride to wherever I wanted. The twists and turns of the mountain roads were my favorite. We stopped at a stoplight in downtown Oklahoma City, and looked around. There was a hotel up ahead, so I flipped up my visor and looked over at Micah. “Let’s go there and crash,” I shouted, pointing at the hotel.

He nodded and followed me there. Once we checked into the hotel and got to our room, I took a shower and collapsed onto my bed. “What’s there to do here?” I asked.

Micah snorted. “Not a damn thing. Why do you think I wanted to room with you? I’m not gonna find shit as far as * here.”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re such a dirtbag, you know that?”

He grabbed the remote control and shrugged. “It’s fun, what can I say? You should try it sometime.”

“I don’t f*ck randoms.” I’d done it plenty of times over the years, but I was done screwing around. It got old after a while.