Page 69 of Always Love You More
“Works for me,” Levi interrupts.
“Oh,” she breathes, as if it all just clicked. “Who’s your brother?”
“The new kid,” Levi says, answering for me again. “You met him at the last party.”
Party?
Noting the confusion on my face, Levi clarifies, “An after hours thing.”
Right, another thing on the side of the divide that I’m not a part of.
“I’m sure we’ll catch you at the next one, though. Now that you’re with my boy and all.”
I watch as he slides his empty plate back and fishes for a pack of cigarettes, pulling one out and tucking it between his lips. He turns, tilting the pack toward Jameson’s mother before offering it to me.
I wave him off. “I’m okay, thank you.”
“What is it with you and your brother, hmm? Don’t you know it’s rude not to accept things that people offer you?”
What’s that supposed to mean? What kind of things is he offering Johnny?
He extends the pack of cigarettes. “Come on; I know you smoke.”
Hit number two: Making it clear that he keeps tabs on me.
I tuck my chin and pull a cigarette from the pack.
“Good,” he says before lighting his wife’s, his own, and then handing the lighter to me.
“Thanks,” I mutter.
“You know,” he starts, exhaling a cloud of smoke, “lying’s not a great way to make a good impression.”
Anxiety coils through me as I bring the cigarette to my lips. “What?”
“A girl like you would never turn down a free smoke,” he answers matter-of-factly. “You don’t think I haven’t noticed the bag of joints Jameson rolls for me has been light since you’ve started hanging around?”
Shit.
“You think I don’t have cameras in that room?”
Jameson goes still beside me. He clearly wasn’t aware of the cameras, either.
“But you’re the kind of girl who will take anything you can get, isn’t that right?”
“I—”
“Are you using my son, or just stealing from him?”
I begin to respond but Levi continues on.
“You know who I am. What I do. Yes?”
I swallow. “Yes.”
“And yet, you steal from me? You insert yourself in my business? Come between me and my son?”
Jameson leans forward. “She—”
