Page 82 of Level With Me
His temple was beaded with sweat—the only tell that he had any nerves about this. That and the tenseness of his body.
I flattened myself against the wall a few feet before the hole and lifted the 2x4 up like a bat. My breathing came short and shallow.
Blake released my hand and kept going. He was just squatting down when a hand flew out of the hole, grasping Blake’s shirt.
He yelped. I shrieked. Then I brought the 2x4 down as hard as I could, which, as it turned out, wasn’t very hard, because of the way my body was angled. The wood hit the wall on the way down, slowing its momentum, and when it landed on the arm, was more like a heavy slap than a bone-crushing blow.
But it was enough that the person on the other end yowled, releasing Blake.
For a moment, everything was still.
Then awareness hit. I knew that yowl. It was the same sound that had come out of my brother Jude's mouth when I smacked him across the face with my purse a few months ago after he’d snuck up on me and Chelsea in the dim hallway of our apartments late at night.
“Jude!?” I exclaimed. I was going to kill him.
Heat was just riding up my throat when another voice sounded.
“Back up, give us eight feet.”
“Who the hell is that?” Blake was still tense, his face awash with confusion.
I had no trouble recognizing Griff’s low grumble. “Griffin, and when he says watch out, watch out!”
I pulled Blake’s hand, and we jumped back in just enough time for a sledgehammer to go through the wall. I clung onto Blake’s arm for no reason other than because the sound of the hammer made me jump each time it landed.
After a few hits, there was a big enough hole that Griff popped his torso out. Dust plumed around him; his dark auburn hair was gray with it.
“Hey there,” he said, “Only a few more hits and I’ll have a door for you.”
Then Griffin froze. He was wearing goggles, which made it difficult to see his eyes, but it only took me a minute to realize what he was looking at.
I had wrapped myself around Blake Harrington’s arm so tightly, his bicep was nestled between my breasts. I swallowed, pulling myself away.
Blake had seen too; I could tell because his neck went a shade of pink.
But Griffin said nothing, just pulled himself back inside and hit the wall down low again, and again and again.
The hits may have been harder that time.
A few minutes later, after allowing time for the dust to settle at least a little, Blake and I were standing in an empty room alongside my brothers.
After I inspected Jude’s forearm, which was bright red but didn’t look like it was permanently damaged, I gave him a shove. “I can’t believe you pulled that!”
I shoved him once more for good measure.
“Ow,” Jude laughed, though my pushing didn’t do much.
“And you!” I said to Griff. I tried to shove him, but of course it was like pushing on a tree trunk.
“He made me do it,” Griff grunted.
But Griff’s voice was even rougher than usual, and he gave me a look that said he wanted to talk to me, pronto.
“Hey, I’m sorry about grabbing you, man,” Jude said to Blake. “It was just too perfect—you were walking by…”
While Jude and Blake talked, I met Griff’s eyes and pointed my chin toward the hallway. I had to deal with this before I could even think about what was in here.
Griffin was good with secrets. Secrets were his MO. But he was also deeply, almost religiously loyal. He would not abide by anything like his sister getting close to a married man.
