Barely Undercover: Legal Heat Book 2(97)

“Why don’t you be honest for once? You married me so you didn’t have to share me. Not because you wanted to protect me. Not because you loved me. Because you’re weak and insecure, and you didn’t think I’d stay with you once I got a taste of someone else. You’ve always been insecure. You hit me at the beginning because you were worried I would leave you for someone else. You hit me in the middle because you couldn’t control me. And you hit me in the end because you knew you had lost me.”

“You know what your problem is, Roxie?” Holding her wrists over her head with one massive hand, Levi undid his belt buckle with the other and whipped the belt out of the loops in one long pull. “You have a big fucking mouth. You always talked too much. And you always thought you were better than me.”

He cracked the belt like a whip, the sound echoing in the tiny room. “I’m gonna put an end to that right now. I’m gonna teach you a lesson you’ll never forget. Then I’m gonna take my knife—the knife Fang gave me when I became full patch—and I’m gonna mark up that pretty face so no one will ever want you again. After that, you’ll be damn grateful for any attention I give you.”

His words had the desired effect. Terror burst from her chest and she screamed. Over and over. Until Hang Nail pounded on the door and warned Levi he was attracting unwanted attention.

Levi’s eyes glittered fever-bright as he pulled the knife from his boot. “Looks like I’ll have to gag you. I haven’t even touched you and Hang Nail is beating down my door. Imagine how you’ll scream when I cut you. We can’t have someone calling the cops.”

She shook her head violently. No gag. No cutting off her air. No cutting off her words—the only weapon she had left.

“If you gag me, you can’t kiss me,” she whispered, fighting back the wave of nausea in her gut.

Levi scowled. “Kiss you? Why the fuck would I do that?”

“Maybe you’re right. Maybe there’s still something left of what we had together. Maybe it got lost in the excitement of joining the Wolverines and we drifted apart. But you knew in your heart it was still there. That’s really why you married me.”

His expression wavered between suspicion and longing. Finally he grunted. “Don’t think this will change my mind about cutting you. I can’t have you running away again ’cause if you do I’ll have to kill you or I’ll never live it down.”

Lana’s stomach clenched violently as she struggled to soften her voice. “You were my first, Levi. I’ve never forgotten that first time. Put down the knife and kiss me like you did that day by the lake.” She wiggled a little, testing his hold. His weight was like a boulder holding her down, his knees pinning her to the bed.

“You think I’m stupid?” he snorted. “I know you. The minute I put the knife down, you’ll stab me in the gut. The knife stays in my hand.”

Damn. He did know her well.

He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers in a hard, bruising kiss. Wet and slimy. Tasting of ashes and stinking of death.

Lana shuddered and hid her revulsion by squeezing her eyes shut.

“I’ll beat you first,” he mused after he pulled away. “Then I’ll fuck you. Then cut you. Then fuck you again.”

She forced herself to be still, think her way out. But her mind blanked, weighted under silent screams of terror. Gritting her teeth, she shut off her frantic brain and let instinct take the lead. “Oh, Levi,” she breathed, opening her eyes to gaze up at him. “Kiss me again.”

He stared at her, weighing her words, and then he smiled, a stark baring of stained, yellow teeth beneath the thin red slash of his cruel lips.

She knew before he even moved that the next kiss was meant to harm. He leaned over and smashed his mouth against hers. Cruel and brutal. Teeth scraping, tongue plundering, lips bruising. She shuddered at the pain, but still she opened her mouth and let him in.

Then she bit him.

Her teeth sank through his bottom lip and he howled in pain, dropping the knife as he tried to pry her teeth away. The metallic tang of blood flowed over her tongue, making her gag. But still she held on, biting so hard her teeth scraped together through the soft flesh of his lip.

Levi screamed. He yanked her hair and punched and slapped at her head until she saw stars instead of the rage in his eyes. Only when he slid his hand around her throat and squeezed, cutting off her air, did she consider letting go. And only when her vision began to fade did she release him.

Levi shot back down the bed, clutching his torn, bleeding lip. Head still fuzzy from lack of oxygen, Lana lifted her legs to her chest and hammered them into his groin. Levi howled and fell backward off the bed.