And worse, Kai was challenging me, too. Their games had changed, and I was thinking faster, but not fast enough.
I brushed past Kai, and he turned his head over his shoulder, following me with his eyes.
“Run all you want, Little Monster,” he said, sounding like a threat. “We’re faster.”
Present
I DRAGGED MY BOTTOM LIP between my teeth, every nerve in my mouth craving more of her. Fuck, she tasted good.
I stood up, seeing her disappear on the other side of the waterfall, and Kai turned his head back to me.
“You’re eating off the community plate, brother,” he charged, “and you’re taking more than your fair share.”
The corner of my mouth lifted, and I walked up to him. “You know,” I said, hardening my tone, “this leash you keep trying to put on me is getting tighter. The day I start feeling the need to explain myself to you, I’ll be dead. You got that?”
“I’ll remember you said that.” He pushed off the wall but kept his arms locked across his chest. “The same goes for Will, Damon, and me.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
But he only looked at me, a sinister smile in his eyes.
And for the first time, I didn’t trust Kai. Yeah, I’d touched her when I’d told them all to leave her alone. I knew he was pissed, and he had a right to be.
But she’d surprised me. I came in to get Damon off her and found myself losing control as soon she opened that mouth. She got smart, and she didn’t back down.
I saw the Little Monster again. The one who breathed fire and made people see her. I’d needed to touch her. I couldn’t think past that.
But as much as Kai deserved revenge, there was no way in hell I was apologizing to him. I was, however, starting to fear him. Not for my sake, but for Rika’s. I couldn’t help the feeling that his premonition from Rika’s first night in Meridian City was true, not only for Will and Damon but for Kai as well.
Things never go according to plan.
Did they each have agendas I didn’t know about?
“What about her house?” Kai spoke up. “Where do we stand on it?”
“I’m taking care of it.”
“Where do we stand on it?” he demanded again.
But I got in his face, challenging him. “She’s in Meridian City because of me,” I gritted out. “She’s at Delcour because of me, and she’s isolated because of me. We’re on the home stretch.”
And then I walked out, proving one thing. He, Damon, and Will may have changed, but I hadn’t.
I didn’t explain myself.
BY THE TIME I’D MADE IT OUT OF THE CAVE, Rika’s clothes by the pool were gone. After a search of the party, and also noticing Alex’s absence, I’d finally figured out she’d asked her for a ride and left without us.
Will and Damon had stayed at the party, and after the confrontation in the cave, I couldn’t find Kai.
We needed to get this shit done so we could all get on with our lives.
I was constantly distracted from basketball, Kai was turning more and more inward, Damon was a ticking bomb, and I was pretty sure Will couldn’t get through the day without a drink anymore.
I thought they’d slowly start re-acclimating to life and the possibilities of what their futures held, but it was getting worse, not better. This bullshit needed to end, and I needed them back on track. Pretty soon, those three years away would just seem like a bad memory.
They’d been offered jobs, places within their family’s circles to get their lives going again, but none of them wanted to even talk about it. Nothing existed beyond Rika and today. They didn’t even want to see any family or spend time in Thunder Bay.
My friends—my brothers—were dead on the inside, and the more I thought about what she’d done to them—to us—I wanted to rip her apart. I only hoped what we were about to do would bring them back, though.
“Mr. Crist,” Stella greeted as I strolled into my father’s office on the top floor of his building.
I nodded, offering her a half-smile as I walked past. She never tried to stop me, no matter if he was in a meeting or on a call. My brother and I rarely came down here, but the truth was, I think she was just as afraid of us as she was of my father. She didn’t interfere with family.
Even if my father didn’t like us here.
My mother, Trevor, and I learned early on that his life in the city, with us tucked away in Thunder Bay, was just how he wanted things. Family hanging around his work was a nuisance. He kept the two lives separate and didn’t involve us.
And as much as I fucking adored my mother, I respected her less and less for staying married to such a prick.
To them, though, they had a good arrangement, I guess. He gave her the money to buy anything, have the home she wanted, and secure the place in society she enjoyed. In return, she stayed respectable and gave him two sons.