Reaper (Dark in You 8)

“I only heard the gist of said ‘drama.’ What exactly happened?”

He hesitated again. “I don’t particularly want to talk about my history with her.”

Neither did Piper, but … “We’re not. We’re talking about the aftermath.”

Sighing, he shrugged. “About a week after she unceremoniously dumped me, she started sending me ‘I made a mistake texts’ and leaving lengthy voicemails on my cell that were pretty much elaborations of those messages. I never responded. And when her attempts to contact me nonetheless continued, I blocked her number.”

Piper winced. “She will have hated that.”

“A few days later, she came to me swearing she was being stalked. She looked appropriately terrified and begged to be assigned a bodyguard. I didn’t buy her little tale, but I said I’d have one of the Force look into it and that he’d act as a bodyguard if necessary. She protested, saying I was the only person she’d trust to protect her so she needed me at her side.”

Oh, the woman had no shame.

“I told her I couldn’t act as her personal guard. She started crying and accused me of not believing her; of dismissing her fears because I wanted to get back at her for ending the fling. She sobbed a bunch of other things before finally realizing the emotional blackmail was having no effect. She called me cold and cruel and then marched off. I thought that would be the end of it.”

Piper shot him a look of disappointment. “Such naivety.”

Amusement flashed in his eyes. “I learned that the following weekend, when I was at a bar with a group of people. Some guy strode up to me and accused me of texting and calling ‘his girl’ all the time. He had a bunch of people at his back, including Celeste. She acted like she was trying to calm him down when, really, it was obvious to me that she’d got him all stirred up in the first place.”

“I heard a little about this. A fight broke out, right?” At his nod, Piper added, “She claimed you got jealous seeing her with another guy, lost your shit, and picked a fight with him.”

Levi snorted. “She lied. In truth, I tried reasoning with him. But he was too smashed, too wound up—he was looking for a fight, and the guys with him were egging him on. He jumped me. His male friends jumped mine. It got ugly fast, but he and his crew soon found themselves on their asses.”

“I heard you and your friends came out on top. Celeste didn’t escape unscathed.” To be exact, she’d had a broken nose, a split lip, a bruised cheekbone, and scratch marks on her face. “Is it true that one of the women in your group pounced on her?”

“Yes. Paloma takes no shit. It took two of her mates to drag her away from Celeste.”

Piper blinked. “Really? I don’t know who this Paloma is, but I feel like we could be BFFs for life. And she has more than one mate? Lucky her.”

“One of the other women, Ella, was so pissed I had to talk her down from hexing Celeste.”

“Hexing?”

“Ella is an incantor, she’s an expert at wielding magick. She’s also very eager to meet you. She heard I’d found my psi-mate and called up to not only congratulate me but badger me to introduce you to her.”

“So you two are close?”

“I wouldn’t say we’re close, but I consider her a good friend. And no, there’s never been anything between us other than friendship.”

“I wasn’t going to ask if there was.”

“But you were wondering.”

She was, dammit. “Did Celeste pull anything else after that scene at the bar?”

“No. I suspect it’s partly because she got her ass kicked, and partly because Knox paid her a visit. He gave her a verbal reaming and threatened to have her detained if she didn’t back off. He didn’t want me to do it myself because it would have rewarded her games with my attention. He evidently got through to her, because she barely spoke to me right up until you and I made our announcement to her, Whitney, and Joe.”

Piper bit the inside of her cheek. “It must be annoying that you’ll have to shake her off all over again.”

Levi scoffed. “Celeste is nothing but a pesky fly.” The woman wouldn’t be on his radar at all if it wasn’t for the mere fact that her behavior affected his anchor. “I’m done talking about her—she’s not important. I want to talk about you.”

“What about me?”

“You were attacked yesterday,” he gently reminded her. “I didn’t press you to talk about it last night because I wanted you to rest.”

“What is there to say? I’m still mightily pissed and struggling to understand why I’m suddenly the target of someone with rather murderous intentions.”

“And?” he prodded. “Come on, you can do better than all of one sentence.”