No Love Lost (Masters & Mercenaries The Forgotten #5) - Lexi Blake Page 0,140

who could help him, including his future father-in-law. The current VP not only had stock in Kronberg, he met several times with McDonald herself and had a close relationship with McDonald’s father. He’ll dump Levi like a hot potato.”

Kim got quiet. “He’ll dump Levi and move on with his life. In the end, Levi was nothing to him.”

“He made his choices,” Ian said softly.

“Of course he did. He deserves every fucking thing he gets. And more. When you think about it, he’s getting off easy.” A bit of his old anger bubbled up. They were still here. She still had some kind of feelings for the bastard even after all this fucking time. His old insecurities welled inside. “Do you even want to pursue this? I guess I should have asked. Maybe you want…” Fuck. He wasn’t doing this. He wasn’t falling back into this pattern. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say that.”

She stood. “Oh, but you did. I assume what you were going to say was maybe I want it. Maybe I want Levi to continue to come after me. Maybe I’ll miss having a sick stalker coming after me. Who knows? Maybe I’m some pathetic creature who craves his attention.” She sighed and turned to Jax. “Can we do this downstairs?”

“Kim, I’m sorry.” He knew he’d been an ass, but he didn’t understand what she’d meant. She’d looked like she felt sorry for the bastard. “Let’s go to my office and talk. Please.”

She was already at the door. “No need. I’ll see you later. After all, we’re still going to Sanctum tonight. Or maybe I should ask Levi.”

Damn it. He’d fucked up. “We’re still going unless you want out. I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.”

“I made a deal. I keep my deals. I don’t break them when I get my feelings hurt,” she said and strode out the door.

Every word felt like a kick.

Jax gathered up his papers. “I’ll go and show Solo what we found. Adam, you can handle walking the rest of them through it, right?”

“Sure,” Adam offered. “Though if I’d known I was getting a show, I would have popped some corn.”

“Why don’t we take a break before Adam starts his presentation?” Charlotte stood up and sent her husband a look.

Ian sighed. “Yeah, let’s do that.”

Adam shook his head, but he was already out of his chair. “You guys are no fun. Anyway, I should go and make sure we’ve got eyes on Levi if we’re doing this today.”

“As long as Solo and Beck are good, we’re a go,” Tag replied. “I say the sooner we get Operation Summer’s Eve underway, the better.”

“We’re not calling it that,” Charlotte said with a groan.

“It’s because he’s a douche, baby,” Tag replied.

Ezra stood up and moved close to him. “You want to take a walk?”

He stared up at his brother. So much had gone wrong, but it might have started with him. “I’m sorry I made you feel like you couldn’t come to me. I don’t know how I would have reacted back then, but I know I would have still loved you.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t trust you, and then I let too much time pass. I’m sorry I had a part in what happened between you and Kim,” Ezra said softly. “She doesn’t care about Levi. She loves you. She always has. Maybe you should go downstairs and try to talk to her.”

Before he could answer, Ian was leaning forward. “I need a word with Beck, Father. If you don’t mind.”

Ezra put a hand on Beck’s shoulder and nodded Tag’s way. “Sure. I’ll go check on Roman.”

It had felt good to say those things to his brother. Why couldn’t he and Kim do the same?

They all filed out and he was left with Tag. He knew exactly what was coming. “I didn’t mean to hurt her.”

“And yet you did. I thought you were past this.”

He felt sick but he forced himself to breathe. “I did, too.”

Tag sat back with a sigh. “Thank god you’re not, man. For a while there I’d thought you’d become some weird perfect therapy patient. Kai was walking around like he’s some guru because he fixed you. I always knew deep down that you were as fucked up as the rest of us. All you needed was one specific trigger.”

He didn’t like the sound of that. “Kim is not a trigger.”

“She is totally a trigger for all that anger festering inside you,” Tag insisted. “See, you have