by Ally Vance
I slide a hand beneath his back, and the motion scrunches up the material of his t-shirt, giving me a peek at a sliver of exposed skin underneath. After taking a moment to regain some semblance of control, I scoop him into my arms. I can't help but notice, once again, that he's lighter than I expected him to be. He stirs, groaning as he finally begins to wake up. Shit.
His eyes open slowly, widening in shock when he sees me illuminated in the faint light coming from the cabin. He mumbles incoherently around the gag in his mouth while he struggles to escape from my hold. He flails his arms and legs around, making it impossible for me to keep carrying him. I set him down, ensuring I keep a firm grip on him in case he gets any funny ideas about running off, and sure enough, it doesn’t stop him from trying. I immediately tighten my hold until he grunts with the pain from my fingers pinching his skin.
"It's for your own good, Kade. Don't fight me, I'll explain once we get inside."
His face twists with a scowl, and he starts swearing at me from behind the gag. All signs of the timid boy I've been watching for the last few weeks seem to vanish in an instant, but he can't hide the fear in his eyes. I'm ashamed to say that his attempt to fight arouses something primal within me. I'm almost tempted to let him run…if only, so I can hunt him down and drag him back to me. Kade’s mine. I know it, his mother knows it, and soon enough he’ll know it.
He attempts to deadweight as I drag him along, but he’s so light at the moment it makes very little difference, and in no time at all, we're inside the small cabin. It’s fully stocked and has a working generator with plenty of fuel to last. It’s also secluded, and no one will find us here. There’s no one alive who knows this place even exists. He slumps to the floor when I release him and then sits there staring up at me.
“Kade, I’m going to remove the gag now, but only if you promise to listen to me. Do you understand?” I ask, earning a glare before he slowly nods, and I tug the material loose from his mouth.
“What the fuck? Why have you taken me? Where the hell are we?” he shouts.
I watch him with my eyebrow raised as he continues to babble, swear, and berate me while struggling to get to his feet. Once he’s finally standing, he glances at the closed door behind him then refocuses on me before making a surprise attack, launching himself across the room at me. I’m unable to react quickly enough, and his body slams into mine, taking us both to the floor. The idiot still has his hands tied, but even if his hands were free, surprise attack or not, there’s no way I could be overpowered by him.
Kade attempts to headbutt me, and I grab him by the throat, halting him before his skull can connect with mine.
“Stop it” I bark, squeezing lightly.
I don’t want to hurt him, but if I have to in order to subdue and prevent him from injuring himself, then I will. Kade looks at me, scanning my features. Recognition flickers in his eyes, and he rears back, landing back on the floor with a thud.
“Y-you? I remember you, from Dad’s funeral. You’re Mom’s friend…” he pauses, and I can see him wracking his brain while he searches his memories.
“Emmett,” we say simultaneously; his voice is almost a shout and mine is low and rough.
Suddenly, the reality of the situation slams into me. I was so consumed with the idea of spending time with Kade and saving him from the steadily deteriorating situation at home, that I really didn’t think through what I would do once I got him out of there. I didn’t expect him to be unaffected, and I knew I’d have to reassure and help him understand that he belongs here…with me, but beyond that I’m now struggling to know what to do or say to connect with him.
Chapter 3
Kade
My parents’ friend Emmett has fucking abducted me. I wrack my brains for a logical reason why someone I’ve met only once would do this, but I come up with nothing. Mom has no money; she spent whatever Dad left to her on drink and drugs, and my grandparents haven’t been a part of our lives since I was a kid. Demanding a ransom for me would be pointless.
This isn’t about money, it can’t be. I narrow my eyes at him, feeling my eyebrows pinch together as I observe him. I managed to wind myself when I attacked him a moment ago, and I’m still light-headed from that. I’ve an incessant pounding in my skull. As I continue to meet his gaze head on, I get the sense he’s waiting for something, and the longer we hold eye contact, I notice how his pupils start to slowly eclipse the brown irises. I avert my eyes when he stands and pulls me to my feet. Letting out a shiver, I’m suddenly painfully aware of how little I’m wearing. My bare feet and skin feel cold from contact with the wooden floor.
“Where are we?” I ask, looking around and hoping to get at least some information from him.
I ignore the way my stomach jolts at the darkness of his eyes and the sudden look of hunger which flitters across his face.
“My cabin, a few hours drive from the nearest town. So don’t get any funny ideas about running. It’s freezing out; you’d get hypothermia and probably die if you attempted it.”
My vision swims and pain begins to register in the back of my head.
“Whoa,” I slur and start swaying on the spot.
The last thing I remember is the sensation of falling and warm arms wrapping around me.
When I open my eyes again, the room is spinning in a blurry haze, and I realize I’m lying on something soft and warm. It must have been a crazy dream. I groan and rub my eyes. The room is dark and the house is silent. Mom and her newest boyfriend must be asleep.
I rub the sore spot on the back of my skull, which is throbbing, and hiss when my fingers brush over the cut. Shane is an ass, the fucker hit me with his whiskey bottle before telling me to get lost while he saw to my mom. The last thing I remember thinking before I passed out in bed was that I really miss my dad. He wouldn’t have let this happen.
I dreamed of Emmett again last night. He’s visited me a few times in my dreams now, and I’ve found myself wishing I still had the slip of paper with his number on it. More than once I’ve wished I could call him when Mom has been on one of her benders and keeps bringing all sorts of strange guys home with her. Unfortunately she saw the paper in my hand right after he left the house, on the day of the funeral, and tore it to shreds in front of me. She then proceeded to tell me he was no good and ordered me to stay well away from him if I ever saw him again. I tried to press her for more information about him, and the reason why I should keep my distance, but she shut me down, telling she had a damn good reason and to stop asking questions. She wouldn’t meet my eyes, though, and I knew instantly there was more to the story than she wanted to admit.
I reach for my phone and when I don’t feel the cabinet next to me where it should be, I jerk into an upright position. Squinting through the darkness, I can just about make out the shape of an unfamiliar room and a jolt of fear shoots through my heart. What if it wasn’t a dream! Did Emmett really abduct me in the middle of the night? Fuck, what do I do if he did? Conflicting emotions surge through my heart, and I don’t know what to feel: panic, fear...relief.
I pull back the covers and slowly get to my feet. I feel my way across the pitch black room, searching for the door. I need to get out of here without Emmett realizing. Regardless of how I feel about being away from my mom and Shane, Emmett abducted me, and I can’t trust him. I finally locate the door and grip the handle, twisting it as quietly as possible, so I don’t draw any attention to myself. Slipping into the darkened hallway, I look along it in both directions, my eyes struggling to see in the dim light.
A noise reaches my ears, and I quickly whip my head around in the direction it came from, causing my head to throb painfully. I’m unable to concentrate. Fucking, Shane. If I ever see him again, I’ll have to return the favor. I wouldn’t waste a full whiskey bottle on a piece of shit like him, though. First things first, I have to figure a way to get out of here.
Staggering slightly, I bump into the wall with a heavy thud, and something made of glass crashes t
o the floor. A door opens next to me and light filters into the hallway, blinding me temporarily, and I fall against a shelf, knocking over another object.
“Kade, where the fuck do you think you’re going?”
Chapter 4
Emmett
I’ve been tossing and turning all night unable to sleep, knowing Kade is here and just one room away from me. He was so exhausted earlier he collapsed, and I figure his lethargy combined with the bitter cold outside should be enough to keep him here…for now at least.
The sound of breaking glass reaches my ears. I frown because no burglar would risk making that much noise, and the only other person here is Kade. I thrust open my bedroom door only to see Kade stumbling away from me. The light coming from my room must startle him, and he crashes into one of the shelves, knocking a vase to the floor where it shatters into fragments. I narrow my eyes at Kade, who looks up suddenly and blinks in the light from my room that illuminates the space.
“Kade, where the fuck do you think you’re going?” I demand, looking from him to the mess on the floor.
His cheeks redden, and he turns his head away to avoid my eyes. That’s when I see the blood staining his hair at the back of his head. I didn’t notice it before, I was too wrapped up in finally having him to myself.
“What happened to you?” I ask as I maneuver my way to him, minding where I step with my bare feet.
The last thing I need is to have to visit the hospital because I got a stray shard of glass embedded in my foot. Leading him into my room, I sit him down before grabbing the first aid kit from the bathroom and preparing to patch him up.
“Lean forward and lower you head, so I can see what I’m doing. You’re bleeding,” I order him.
Kade obeys without answering, and I grit my teeth because all kinds of scenarios are flying through my mind right now. I grab a few wipes and clean up the blood. It’s only a small cut, thankfully. But the area is red and swollen. He hisses when I touch it but holds still.
I kneel in front of him and lift his head to look at me, but he refuses to meet my gaze.
“Kade, tell me what happened?”
“Mom’s boyfriend Shane hit me…Mom didn’t care, she’s always drunk and high these days, Emmett. I can’t stand being in that house with her when she’s like that. Dad would’ve hated it,” he finishes bitterly.
I’m glad he wasn’t looking at my face when he mentioned Preston, because I know I didn’t manage to fully hide my expression. It pains me to know how much of Kade’s life I’ve missed, and I’m angry that they kept me away from him.
“You don’t have to go back,” I tell him honestly.
He lets out a derisive laugh, “Yeah, right. Like staying with you’d be any better. You fucking abducted me in the middle of the night.”
“I wouldn’t hit you or bring cunts like Shane around. I’d take care of you, and you’d never ever have to be afraid of me,” I bite out.
The truth in my words burns the inside of my throat. I want to take care of him…to love him like he fucking deserves. The only problem is I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to love him in the way I should.
Preston rejected me when he found out that it wasn’t just Ellis I wanted back then. Ellis was mine, and I was hers, but the truth was that I wanted him too. To top it off they threatened to out my secret to the whole goddamned town. I never acted on those cravings, but it didn’t matter to them, the damage was done.
That was bad enough, but the blow which hit the hardest was when he married Ellis and decided to raise my fucking kid as his own. Ellis was pregnant before he ever went near her with his dick, but there was nothing I could do about it. A couple of years after I left, Preston paid me a little call because he’d heard that our parents had asked me to visit them. He promised me that if I ever came home or went near his son, he’d make sure to ruin my whole fucking life.
I let out a sigh. “Look, there’s no going anywhere tonight. The temperature outside has dropped below freezing, and there’s a storm coming in. We’ll be perfectly safe here, but I’m not driving anywhere. It’s far too dangerous now.”
“Fine, I’ll stay,” he says in a solemn, dejected voice. I can tell he’s unhappy with this decision, but at least he’s not trying to run anymore.
“I’m sorry I didn’t come for you sooner. I would never have let anyone hurt you,” I apologize quietly, and he frowns in confusion.
“Look, it’s late and I don’t think either of us are going to be getting any more sleep tonight. Let’s put on a movie or something and we can talk about this properly in the morning,” I say more loudly.
I straighten, and Kade glances up at me, looking vulnerable and unsure. I feel like a bastard for whisking him away from everything he knows even though it’s the best thing I could’ve done for him. I can’t help losing myself in those warm hazel eyes of his, and it tugs at my soul when I realize how much I already care for him. I have no words to explain to him the complicated, fucked up feelings in my messed up head. I ought to tell him the truth about me, but I can’t bring myself to shatter the illusion of who I am in relation to him, his mom, and his dead father. I don’t have it in me to tear down those walls just because I want him. I do want him, though…I want Kade so much it hurts.
Time didn’t change how I felt about my brother. But all of the bottled up desires began to twist into something I couldn’t control, slowly it began to manifest into something wicked and dark with a horrifically painful lust as the fuel. This is my second chance, and I can’t fuck it up. Familial ties matter very little in the grand scheme of things, and truthfully, I don’t give a damn that my blood runs in his veins…except for the fact that it binds him to me. I want Kade, and I’ll do everything in my power to make that happen.
“Come on,” I coax, holding out my hand to him. He reluctantly takes it and allows me to lead him toward the living room.
The walls of this cabin are thick and well insulated to keep the cold out, but it doesn’t stop the temperature of the room from dropping overnight. Kade shivers, and I quickly throw some logs into the fireplace and set them alight. Soon enough the crackling and popping of the wood replaces the silence, and the fire throws warm flickers of light around the room.
Kade settles on the couch, his back ramrod straight as he gazes unseeingly out of the window. I can tell he’s frightened. He’s unsure of me and of this situation; it’s all new to him, but I’ll show him he doesn’t need to feel like that.
“What do you want to watch?” I ask him, nodding at the shelves of DVDs sitting next to the TV.
“I don’t care,” he says tonelessly, and I have to fight down the panic, threatening to overwhelm me, that he’ll never warm up to me.
"Fine, I'll choose then,” I respond, making sure to keep my voice light as I move over to the shelves.
I select a random comedy that I insert into the player and switch it on before taking a seat at the opposite end of the three-seater to where he’s sitting. I’ll give him space. I just hope it’ll be enough. Eventually he’ll recognize I’m not the bad guy here, and that I only want what’s best for him.
Chapter 5
Kade
The storm has continued to rage outside: buffeting the cabin, pelting it with hail and rain, and rattling some of the loose tiles on the roof. Overnight the high winds have died down somewhat, but the skies are still heavy with thick gray clouds that continue to race by, and the rain hasn’t eased off.
It’s been four days since I woke up in the middle of nowhere, having been snatched from my bed by Emmett; a guy I’ve previously only met once and was warned to stay clear of by my mom. I’ve yet to ask him about that, but I don’t know how to broach the subject. I’m ashamed to admit I enjoy spending time with him, and we’ve already fallen into a routine of sorts. At first I would hide out in my room and read in an attempt to avoid him as much as possible. But he’s so likable it didn’t take long before I was lingering in the living room to spend time with him while he wa
tched movies or reruns on TV. Gradually we’ve started interacting more and more and watching DVDs together.
I’ve caught Emmett watching me a few times, and even though I've tried to ignore it, I often feel his eyes on my back. I can tell there’s something playing on his mind…hidden thoughts lurk behind his brown eyes, and a small part of me wants to unbury them. I don’t know what I’d uncover, but I think I want to find out. I haven’t missed home as much as I expected, and despite my misgivings and distrust, I like Emmett...I like him a lot.
I wake up on the couch, and looking through the window, I can see it’s early morning and still dark out. I must've fallen asleep last night while watching a DVD with Emmett. The TV is on, and the same movie is playing in the background; it appears to have cycled around and started again because I remember seeing this part already. There’s a blanket covering me, and I smile, realizing Emmett must've thrown it over me to stop me getting cold. The fire has died down to glowing embers, but the room hasn’t lost any of its warmth.
As I start to sit up, I become aware of the heavy weight of an arm draped over me. How I didn’t immediately notice Emmett lying behind me, I've no idea. Although a tiny voice inside my head tells me that maybe I was trying to avoid acknowledging our closeness. I slowly roll over to face him being careful not to disturb his sleep.
Emmett’s deep, even breaths blow warmly on my face, and I take the opportunity to look at him more intently without risking the embarrassment of being caught staring. His dark blond hair teases the edges of his face in sleep-mussed disarray, his hard jaw is flecked with stubble, and up close I can see there are reddish-golden hairs lurking amongst the darker blond ones. His eyes are closed, hiding the brown irises that always seem to darken whenever they meet mine. Emmett is only a fraction taller than my 5’10, but he’s more muscular than me. I’ve always been on the slimmer side, even more so lately, although I have been eating better the past few days. I let out a heavy sigh and roll back over to slide out from his hold. I should go to bed. He can have the couch.