Party Foul - Abby Knox Page 0,70

for so long, they both nearly forgot the most immediate predicament.

“Uh, babe? I have a question.”

Shivering in his leather jacket, she asked. “What’s that?”

“Where are we going?”

“Oh, that? I don’t know, I hadn’t thought that far.”

“Well, can you, like, turn around and park this barge back at the wharf, because the bad guys are gone now.”

“No can do, Levi. I can turn, but we’ll crash.”

“Why?”

She shrugged and said sheepishly. “Grandpa never showed me how to do that part.”

Chapter Thirty-Four

Fiona

* * *

The frigid late-January air made Fiona shiver as she stood in line for her first official coffee as a student at Newcastle Community College. For the first time in a long time, it was merely the seasonal chill, and not a sixth sense of doom.

She no longer had the creepy feeling that someone was following her; instead she felt a constant presence all around her. One of Levi Spanos, the tall, dark, dangerous denizen of the Crow Bar Brute Squad.

Even when he wasn’t around—like right now, because he was off doing his apprenticeship—she felt secure in knowing he was merely a phone call away. So was his grandmother, for that matter, who was in many ways equally as formidable as Levi.

In their time together, she had even managed to win over the deeply wary remainders of the Brute Squad. So much so that she no longer got offended when they busted her on her high-brow tastes, and they no longer got defensive when she called them out on their own individual bullshit. Even Billy was warming up to her, as much as someone like Billy could ever be warm. She had to remind herself he was on Levi’s side no matter what, and sometimes that kind of love has rough edges. Fortunately, between Mavis and Levi, Billy had reined it in a little bit when it came to Fiona.

Kaylee and Pete had been found suffering from exposure after being dumped at Mayfield Park, but were otherwise unharmed. The two friends had begun mending their relationship, both realizing that they had work to do tracing back much further than the influence of Christoph. Kaylee apologized for being harsh with Levi, and, for his part, Levi held nothing against her.

When Levi was near, he was a wall. After everything they’d been through, between the kidnapping, following, and attempt on her father’s life, they had a lot to work through as a couple. It would take a long time before Levi felt completely reassured that she was safe when he wasn’t around. They were working on that—together.

For now, after all of that trauma, she felt right in taking comfort in his alertness, even if it was a sign of overprotectiveness. She could use a big arm around her.

She didn’t shop the boutiques on River Drive these days, except when she met up for a girls’ day out with her mom. She and Levi were saving for a condo in the up-and-coming mill district in Dockside. After they paid the fines for damages at the shipyards for Levi busting through the gate, as well as fines to the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, each involved in rescuing Fiona and Levi and returning the stolen vessel to berth via tugboat. Shenanigans at sea turned out to be expensive, even when they’d been acting in self defense.

While Fiona waited for her coffee, she started in surprise when out of the blue, that big, warm and familiar set of arms folded around her. The jolt of surprise gave way to a flood of happiness.

She turned and kissed him on the mouth a little too long, not caring who saw them or what they thought.

“Hi,” she said. “Aren’t you supposed to be at the job site today?”

“The job finished early, so the boss sent me home. So I thought I’d try to catch you before class started and wish you luck.”

She laughed. “I thought the job was way out in the suburbs.” Doing the math in her head, she figured it had to be about a 30-minute drive to campus from where he had been working that morning.

“I just wanted to see you.” He kissed her forehead with a loud smack that warmed her insides the way only Levi could.

“OK, but you can’t come to class with me,” she reminded him.

He shrugged. “I know. But I can stand guard in the hallway, just to make sure.”

“Babe.”

“You just gotta let me. Just today. Next time, I’ll wait outside the building. And the next time,