22. ~Colton~

22

~Colton~

"You're making it aggravatingly difficult for Hex ," Mason's voice came eerily calm as I stormed into the living room, the complete opposite of the faux relaxed demeanor he was putting on.

Well, judging by him sitting on the edge of the couch and working on his lock picking hobby on the coffee table, it was more like him fighting to make his fake control real. He only really brought out the lock picking when he was agitated. Considering there were four different locks out this time instead of the usual two at a time, it seemed to support my theory.

"Good," I bit back as I stopped in front of the sleek white marble coffee table that Lev had picked out, just like everything in the house. The guy had good taste, no doubt.

Rounding it to get up closer, like in his face or some shit, wasn't a good idea with how riled up I was right now.

I'd barely been able to concentrate in my classes all day because of all this bullshit. Sure, yeah, I had a known issue with my focus and all that, but today had been more than that. It was because of what Mason and his soldiers had pulled this morning. And all the shit before that too. It was all just escalating.

I'd stayed away late into the night inside the recording studio. Not even recording, because I hadn't had my time booked, just sitting in on some other students' sessions quietly—all to avoid coming home while he was still up. That hadn't exactly worked out with him still wide awake past fucking midnight. I'd known if I hadn't been able to sleep on it before seeing him, I wouldn't have been able to contain myself when I laid eyes on him.

That was how I calmed down, taking a nap, or sleeping it off through the night. Some people unleashed anger with violence, others stuffed their faces with junk food, some when for a drive, but mine was sleep.

"You're being fucking insane with all this bullshit, Mason!" I yelled, slamming my hands down on the coffee table and rocking his locks and all his specialized picks too.

He grunted, but didn't look up at me, focusing on the immediate task ahead of him instead.

Responding in a nonchalant tone, he said, "That's your opinion. Your biased opinion, I might add."

Urgh. I hated when he got like this, giving me that fake calm and condescending tone, like I couldn't possibly be right over him, like he was some all-knowing entity seeing things I couldn't begin to comprehend.

"You've crossed a goddamn line!"

"Please. Hex has committed far worse offenses against its marks before."

"Not against somebody Lev cares about deeply!"

"You mean, his latest fixation? His obsession?"

"It's never been a person before. Only a goal or a project."

"So, he's branched out. It's still beyond dangerous for him. And if you weren't in the process of being smitten with her too, you'd be with me on this."

"What the shit do you need me for when you've got your ridiculous army of blackmailed soldiers at your beck and call? Rosemary too? Jesus, Mason. Involving that snake? Tell me it's not to gain access to her family's criminal empire?"

"Like I told you and Lev, I'm gathering my army of key individuals all recruited for specific purposes—either for their own skills and on their own merits, or for that of those closely connected to them."

"You talk about Lev being dangerous, but it's you who's crossed that line this time. You need him there to balance that out for you. You always have. Hex has never run without the two of you at the head together."

"Cutting Levi out reduces complications more than you can possibly imagine with you now standing on the periphery."

"Don't talk down to me. I'm right about this. You might consider Lev a loose cannon and volatile, but unlike you he's incorruptible. Without him there to balance you out, your actions have become dangerous."

When he just continued working on his lock picking and not even gracing me with his eye contact, I slapped the table again, making it rock and jostling him. "You need to back off Brianna Walker now and apologize to Lev, even swear to him that you'll never come at her again."

"The fuck, I will."

"This obsession, as you keep calling it, is different this time. He's different with her."

His head shot up. "Different, how?"

"He's… gentler with her. He even apologized to her and—"

"He apologized to her?"

"Yeah."

A deep frown etched his brow. "Lev doesn't ever say sorry. Not for anything."

"Exactly my point."

Hope sparked as it looked like I'd finally gotten through to his stubborn ass. One majorly sweet ass, no doubt, but right now the shit he was causing was dampening that for me. I hadn't even sent him a single flirty text for days on end.

He sat back against the couch and blew out a breath. "Look, I'll—"

The entrance door of the mansion slammed so hard that it reverberated all the way through to the living room.

"Ding dong, motherfucker! Hellraiser's home!" Lev's voice rang out a moment later.

I grimaced as I heard that dangerous and vindictive tone to it. Oh no.

That was relegated to the least of it when Lev tracked us easily to this room—one of three living rooms in the place, and stormed inside.

"Holy shit," I choked out at the shocking state of him.

Blood.

Blood everywhere.

It was dousing his cheeks, forehead, and even his hair.

His knuckles were covered in it too.

He was wearing one of his hooded leather jackets, the kind he used when he went out street fighting, along with a pair of black tactical pants this time, his collapsible bo-staff holstered at his right hip, along with a couple of blades secured to the legs of his pants. And all of it was splattered in blood. Especially the bo-staff that was slick all the way down.

Mason shot to his feet and rounded the coffee table, his gaze anxiously traveling up and down Lev.

"You like?" Lev asked, caustically as he caught him looking, getting off on his reaction.

"What the fuck have you done?"

Lev cocked his head to the side. "You don't remember?"

"Remember what?" Mason gritted out.

"My warning, of course. ‘You strike at her and I'll annihilate every single fucker on this list. Mark my fucking words. Don't test me.' " He slapped his hand to his heart. "My bad, you really don't recall, Killjoy ?"

Shit.

"Lev, let's just—" I started, moving to intervene before Mason blew his top and things imploded.

But Mason shot past me and then he was slamming his hand into Lev's chest, using all that powerhouse muscle at his disposal and shock factor to run him into the wall beside the door.

Lev jarred against it painfully and Mason didn't make it easy for him to recover, keeping one hand bearing down on his chest and the other wrapping around his throat.

I shook my head in dismay as Lev choked out a wild, unhinged laugh. "That's it, Scourge, break for me." He wheezed, but kept pushing forward, as his maniacal laughter sounded again. "Like your fucking soldiers just did for me."

" What?" Mason seethed, shaking him violently.

"Get on your fucking knees, baby. Beg for my forgiveness. Suck my fucking cock for my troubles." Lev reacted in the lightning-fast and skillful way he was known for and dislodged Mason's grip in two brutal moves, then slammed his boot into his gut, knocking him back with a push kick. "Choke on it!" he roared.

Lev's insanely quick moves bit Mason in the ass again, as Levi kneed him in the gut, then used Mason hunching over in response to yank on his shoulders, forcing him to his knees.

Then he fisted his hand in his thick, caramel-brown hair and used the hold to grind Mason's face into his pants, angrily rolling his hips in the process. "Is that what you need to calm the fuck down with Hex? A good cock?" Lev growled. "Too much fucking denial for you!" Blood from Lev's pants smeared Mason's face in moments and as Mason struggled, Lev abruptly released him, shoving him away.

"You little fucking bitch," Mason gritted out as he pushed back to his feet.

He went for him, but I was there in the next second, holding him back with a steady palm to his chest, doing the same to Lev too.

Mason was basically frothing at the mouth while Lev's black gaze was boring into him.

"You want to hurt each other more and you'll have to go through me, you'll have to hurt me ."

I saw a crack in Lev first, light filtering back into his eyes.

And then he took a step back and held up his hand—not at Mason, at me. "You're not getting hurt, brother."

Mason cursed, then eased off too, stepping back and folding his arms across his chest.

I didn't move, though, still standing between them as an effective barrier. I knew better than that.

Lev took my hand and pressed a kiss to my knuckles. "Sorry you were here to see that."

Before I could respond, Mason demanded of him, "What did you do?"

"Paid a visit to your lovely little farmhouse. Put a dent in your resources."

"Lev, the blood," I choked, looking him over again.

"Don't worry, cupcake, they're all still breathing. Although, I'm sure when they wake up, they'll wish they weren't for a few weeks."

"Fuck," Mason ground out, scrubbing his hand over his jaw that was stained with blood after what Lev had done.

"How many were there?" I asked him.

"Ten." He glared at Lev. "She was there too lending a helping hand?"

"She had nothing to do with it."

"Your connections in town then? Sammy's guys?" Mason asked.

Well, more like demanded. It sounded like he was looking for a target for his wrath.

I saw it registering with Lev too, who told him clearly, "It was just me."

"How the shit?" I exclaimed. "Ten? That's—"

"You've been training over the last year you were gone."

"Come on now, Mason, you know damn well how good I was before I even left."

"No, this is more than that. To take on ten—most of them big fucking guys too—alone like this, it's another level entirely." Realization combined with condemnation flamed in Mason's eyes. "So much for that supposed internship, huh?"

Lev didn't give anything up, responding, "I'm a spectacular multitasker."

Mason shook his head at him, then turned away, pacing the room with hard, angry steps. "Did you even think before you went on a rampage tonight? The cleanup it's gonna take to handle what you did… losing that many Hex members… fuck, Levi!"

"I thought about it in great detail."

Mason scoffed. "Bull. You reacted out of rage, and this was a kneejerk reaction, plain and simple."

"Nah," Lev said, coming a little closer, but stopping a few feet out from Mason when I flashed my eyes at him as a reminder to keep distance. "I thought about how debilitating it would be to your current operations against your mark. I thought about how it would fuck up your soldiers' faith in you and undermine your rule. I thought about how it would be a shitshow when it got back to Chase's father, in particular, given who he is. I thought about how he would likely hit back by going to Peter Hall and the glorious ways that would come back on you, especially how it would put you on a leash so you're forced to back off."

A dangerous growl rumbled from Mason.

"I warned you!" Levi yelled, undeterred. "I told you not to come after her! You don't fuck with my woman! Do you fucking hear me? If you don't back off right fucking now, what I did tonight will look like child's play. End it, Mason, lift the mark."

"Your woman? All this, going against our brotherhood, for her?"

"It's you who's gone against the brotherhood and completely lost sight of it. Your obsession with controlling every little thing has brought us here. You hurt me, you hurt Colt. And the crazy part is you can't even recognize that you've become what you're so afraid of— I'm the voice of reason in this."

Mason started.

Shaking his head and blinking as though that would will away the harsh reality Lev had just laid out, he turned to me. "He's wrong, yes?"

I sighed and shoved my hand through my mohawk. "No. He's not, brother. He's right on the money."

Mason took a moment, looking between us. "All right, I may have gone harder than needed because of my worry about you being back here, Levi, and needing to reel you in again. And, yeah, the power reviving Hex made me feel after so long without it played a part too. But it doesn't take away from the fact that the girl is still dangerous."

"How's that?" Lev asked, and I saw his eye twitch. Oh shit, what was going on?

"She's the daughter of a motorcycle club president. The club princess of a one-percenter club. Steel Dawn MC."

"She's what?" I exclaimed. "Wow, I didn't get that vibe at all. I mean, yeah, she has an edge and a toughness about her, but still."

"She was, " Lev corrected. "The club is long gone now, disbanded years ago."

"A club that was rumored to have done business with Knightsridge Engineering."

"That's how I know her."

Mason frowned. "Why didn't you just tell me that?"

"Because it was six years ago, shortly before the kidnapping. I thought you'd react worse given the timing."

"No, there's something more here. And because you're so determined not to tell me, it just proves how dangerous this connection to her is to you, that it needs to be severed. She needs to go, Levi. Out of Stonewell."

"There's no fucking way—"

"Yeah, she's not going to be doing that," a voice boomed from the door.

We all spun to see none other than Brianna herself standing in the doorway.

Her fierce gaze drilled into Mason. "It's time we had words, Scourge ."