“She did more than good,” Kai supplies, and I detect a hint of pride in his voice. “She could’ve turned us in, turned me in, but she didn’t.” His eyes bore a hole in my skull as he stares at me, and a fissure of electricity crackles in the space between us.
“You have proof you can trust me,” I say, holding his gaze. “The ball’s in your court now.”
Sawyer nods respectfully at me. “Staying here is our best option,” he says, glancing at Rick. “Manning has eyes and ears everywhere, and this is bait. He wants us to run so he can find and kill Kai and take Abby back to Rydeville.”
Pain stabs me in the heart, like a hundred tiny knives pricking me all at once. Kai can’t die. It’s as simple as that. “That is totally his M.O., and we can’t leave. But you guys can’t either, because if he locates you, then he’ll locate us.”
“I have it covered,” Rick says.
“How?” I ask.
“The guy who owns this place has access to a private jet. They can pick us up here and drop us directly home.”
I shake my head. “That won’t work. The pilot has to lodge a flight plan, and they can trace it back here.”
Rick smiles. “The pilot is his dad, and his brother is an FBI agent with mad IT skills that make Sawyer’s skills look like chopped liver.” His phone pings in his pocket. “And, speak of the devil.” He grins, walking backward. “I’ve got to take this. I’ll make arrangements.” He swipes his finger across the screen, turning around and walking toward the door. “Hey, man. I was just talking about you.”
“He sounds like a handy friend to have,” I say.
“Chopped liver, my ass,” Sawyer grumbles, stabbing his keypad as if it’s done him an injury.
Kai and Jackson exchange grins. “Don’t worry, dude,” Jackson says, slapping Sawyer on the back. “You’re still our number one.”
“Fuck off,” Sawyer snaps, and my mouth forms an O. Sawyer is one cool cucumber, and it’s not like him to lose it. I file that little tidbit away for future.
“You’re not speaking to your father?” I ask Kai, kicking off my sneakers and swinging my legs up onto the couch.
He drops on the end of the couch, lifting my legs and placing my feet in his lap. “That asshole is dead to me.” I arch a brow. “Don’t look at me like that!” he snaps.
“Why?”
“Why do you fucking think?” He drags a hand through his hair.
“I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking.” He’s said that to me before, and I’ve always loved throwing his words back at him.
“Because he’s manipulated me for the last time. I’m done with his shit.” His eyes penetrate mine. “Done making excuses for all the crap he’s pulled.” He squeezes his eyes shut for a couple seconds. “What he did to you, what he did to us, is unforgivable. That was it for me.”
Silence engulfs the room, and the weight of what hasn’t been said adds tension to the air.
“Kai.”
His eyes flit to mine.
“Where are your baby brothers?” Jackson hinted at something the other day, and it got me thinking.
I was only seven when I attended Kai’s mom’s funeral, and I remember his baby brothers. They were only one and two, respectively. But I kinda got confused then, because when we were hanging out as kids, it was always the Anderson four. Rick, Kai, Joaquin, and Harley. It got muddled in my head, and I forgot about the other two because the only time I’d ever seen them was at the funeral. Emma had given birth to them after she fell out with my mother, so I never knew the two youngest. All this time, I’ve been thinking Kai had three brothers, but he has five.
Yet no one has mentioned them.
Not even once.
And that’s weird.
Sawyer and Jackson lock eyes on Kai. “Tell her, man,” Jackson says as Sawyer closes his laptop and stands. Together, they walk out of the room, leaving us alone.
Kai’s chest heaves up and down, and the urge to comfort him is riding me hard, but I resist.
“My father gave them up for adoption,” he admits after a few beats.
My jaw slackens. “What?!”
He rubs his hands up and down my legs as he stares off into space, looking deep in thought. “Dad was a mess after your mom died.” He looks over at me. “Rick and I thought it was a delayed reaction to our mom’s death, but as we got older, and we listened to his drunken ramblings, we realized Dad was mourning another woman.” His eyes bore into mine. “Your mother.” He shakes his head, averting his eyes again. “Anyway, Dad checked out, leaving Rick and me to look after our younger brothers, but we didn’t have a fucking clue how to look after babies, and Rogan and Spencer were always crying. Dad would shout at us to shut them up, and we tried, but—”
“But you were only kids yourselves, and it was unfair of him to burden you like that.”
He shrugs. “We came home one day from school, and they were gone. Just like that.” He lowers his head, and his chest shakes.
I crawl toward him, wrapping my arms around him in a temporary cease-fire. “I can’t believe he just gave up two of his kids. What kind of asshole does that?”
“The elite kind.” Kai hauls me into his lap, circling his arms around me and resting his chin atop my head. “I know you’ve had a shitty childhood too. Our fathers are made of the same stuff. They’re both narcissistic, arrogant, assholes who use their kids to further their aims.” His breath oozes out in spurts. “But my eyes were closed to it for too long. I allowed him to manipulate me. To buy into the notion you were partly to blame.” He tips my chin up. “It sounds ludicrous now, but years of living with someone spouting the same shit all the time starts to sound sane after a while.”
“And it wasn’t just that,” Rick says, sauntering into the room, and I wonder how long he’s been listening. “He was drunk all the fucking time, and he was obsessed. He talked about your mom incessantly. And he poured all his rage and frustration into hating on a little girl. He blamed you for her death, but we didn’t realize they had made plans to run away together until he admitted that in the ballroom.” His eyes are remorseful as he stares at me. “I hate that we bought into it for so long, but it’s hard to describe what we lived through, to explain how it became something we latched on to, to stay close to our father. A man who didn’t deserve our support or our loyalty.”
“Your father left us penniless,” Kai continues explaining. “We literally had nothing.”
“Uncle Wes gave us his apartment in New York, but that is all the help we got,” Rick says. “Because, until recent years, Wes blamed our father for his sister’s death. He knew about his affair with Olivia, and he always believed our mother was second best. He thought she committed suicide because she knew he was still in love with her best friend and she was unhappy. Dad was adamant that Hearst had murdered her, but Wes refused to believe it.”
“Until your aunt came forward and told them what she knew, and then things changed,” Kai adds.
“Dad got sober, and they patched up their differences and started plotting revenge,” Rick supplies.
“And the rest you know,” Kai murmurs.
I store it all away to process later. “Where are Rogan and Spencer now?”
Rick’s eyes well up. “We don’t know. We didn’t have money to find them, and we were only kids.”
“Uncle Wes was furious with Dad when he discovered he’d given them up. I know if Dad had asked him, he would’ve taken them in, but Dad’s a stubborn, proud old fucker, and once Wes cut him off, he refused to reach out to him,” Kai says.
“Wes is on the case now, and Hunt’s father is helping, but the adoption is sealed, and records aren’t public, and because parental neglect was a factor in the adoption decision, they won’t release any information to Dad,” Rick confirms. “So, we basically have no idea where they are.”
“We don’t even know if they are still going by the same first names,” Kai says, and I hug him closer.
“I didn’t think it
was possible to detest your father anymore, but I do. How could he give up two of his kids?” I cry out.
“Because he’s a heartless bastard,” Kai says through gritted teeth.
“Why didn’t you hate him for this?” I ask, genuinely puzzled how they could support this man with anything.
“Because it felt like our fault,” Kai says, strain evident in his voice. “We’ve always believed we failed, because we didn’t look after them properly and they took them away.”
I cup his beautiful face. “Did you draw that conclusion, or was it put in your head?”
“He’d blame us when he was shitfaced,” Kai admits.
“And yet you both still supported him with his plan to take my father down. To take me down.” I’m trying to understand it, but I genuinely don’t get it.
“Because we’re royally fucked up, Abby,” Kai says, abruptly lifting me off his lap and placing me down on the couch. He looms over me, and the pained look etched upon his face points to years of inner turmoil. “And you’re right to keep your distance from me, because I’m no good for you.”
With those parting words ringing in my ears, he strides out of the room, looking like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Kai disappears for the rest of the night, and although I want to comfort him, I don’t seek him out. My head and my heart hurt, and for the first time since coming here, I’m second-guessing what I’m doing.
The sound of female laughter tickles my eardrums as I make my way downstairs the following morning. I turn the corner into the beautiful living room and stop dead in my tracks.
Kai is cozied up to a gorgeous brunette on the couch, and she’s laughing at something he’s said. He’s smiling at her, in a way he usually reserves for me, and that raises my hackles. He says something else to her, too quiet for me to hear, and she cracks up laughing, placing her hand on his elbow, and I see red, especially when I notice he’s still wearing the same clothes he had on yesterday.
Did he go out and pick up some floozy for the night? And he has the nerve to bring her back here and flaunt her in front of me?
I charge across the room, my sneakers squelching off the polished hardwood floor as anger races through my limbs. The woman jerks her head in my direction as I round the couch, drawing to a halt in front of them.
I was wrong before.
She’s not just gorgeous.
She’s breathtakingly stunning, and I don’t say that lightly. With her full mouth, big eyes, thick, lustrous hair, and knockout figure, she is “stop the lights” beautiful. She also looks somewhat familiar, but I don’t know why. I’m not into chicks. But I’d consider turning gay or bi for her. The thought lands like sour milk in my stomach as hurt batters me on all sides. Dismissing my errant thoughts, I fixate my gaze on Kai, sending him a poisonous look. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
He leans back, stretching his arm around the back of the couch behind her, and my hands ball up at my side. “Talking. What’s it to you?” He smirks, and I want to ram my fist into his smug face.
“I knew you were full of shit.” I glance at her briefly, and her brows pull together in confusion. “And I’m done playing your games. I’m leaving, and I don’t give a rat’s ass if my father discovers your location. He can nuke your cheating ass for all I care!” I shoot her a venomous look before I stomp off.
I almost make it to the door before I’m scooped up and flung over his shoulder.
“Let me down, you motherfucking good-for-nothing slimeball!” I pound my fists against his back, wriggling and struggling as he walks toward the couch. “Ow!” I cry out as he swats my ass hard.
“Stop fucking wriggling, or I’ll smack you again.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
He swats my ass a second time, and I lose it, kicking and screaming and slapping his back.
“Wow. That’s an interesting dynamic,” a deep voice I don’t recognize says as Kai flops down on the couch, wrangling me onto his lap.
I raise my hands to slap him, but he restrains my wrists, holding them between our bodies as he attempts to calm me down. “Stop fucking fighting!”
“Screw off, jerk face.” I blow strands of messy hair out of my face.
“This is their version of foreplay,” Rick explains, and I lift my head in his direction, my mouth dropping open when I spot the guy standing by his side, looking at me with bemusement on his face.
Holy fucking shit.
I instantly recognize him.
And this dude is seriously hot.
The online pics I’ve seen haven’t done him justice at all. His pale blue eyes twinkle with mirth, and his lush mouth parts slightly, offering a glimpse of perfectly white, perfectly straight teeth. A layer of fine stubble covers his jawline, and his hair is styled similarly to Kai’s. He’s wearing a black blazer over a white shirt with dark jeans and black boots, and he looks good enough to eat.
“Oh my God,” I blurt. “You’re Kyler Kennedy.”
“In the flesh,” he says, grinning.
“I’m a massive fan of your mom,” I say.
Along with you and your brothers.
That is some crazy hot gene pool. I think it, but I don’t say it even though I want to because it would piss Kaiden off. But I’ve just figured out who the brunette is, and I don’t want to disrespect Kyler’s wife.
“She redesigned our pool house last year,” I say, “and I got such a kick out of it. My mom adored Kennedy Apparel, and she hero-worshipped Alex, and I wish she’d still been alive to see the awesome job your mom did with the place,” I gush. “It’s seriously my favorite place to hang out in my house,” I continue, without pausing for a breath, “and you’ve got to tell her I said hi, and—”
Kai covers my mouth with his hand, muffling the rest of my sentence, and I shoot daggers at him. “That was the worst example of word vomit I’ve ever had the misfortune to hear,” he says. “The muzzle hasn’t arrived yet, so someone had to shut you up.”
I’d flip him the bird if I had use of my hands, but he’s still securing them with his other hand. I bite down hard on the palm covering my mouth, and he wrenches his hand back, narrowing his eyes at me.
“You dare to bite me?” His tone is deathly quiet, but it promises a world of pain.
“I couldn’t fucking breathe, asshole.” I wriggle on his lap again, attempting to get free.
“Keep doing that if you want to get fucked six ways from Sunday.” He smirks, while I wish the ground would swallow me whole.
“And you have the nerve to call me embarrassing!”
Kyler coughs to disguise his snort of laughter, and, of their own volition, my lips turn up at the corners. I glance at him, and he waggles his brows, grinning mischievously, and my heart is in a puddle somewhere on the floor.
“This is rich,” Kai growls. “You throw shade at me for talking with Faye, and now you’re mooning over Kyler like a prepubescent girl on her period.”
“I am not.” I smile apologetically at Faye, feeling like an ass for jumping to the wrong conclusion about her and hoping she’s not pissed I have a crush on her man.
“Don’t lie, babe.” He tweaks my nose. “Because I always know.”
“You’re insufferable.”
“And you’re hot when you’re angry.”
“Okay. Enough.” Rick rolls his eyes. “It’s like herding kittens.”
“You’re hurting my wrists. Let me go.”
“Ask me nicely.”
“Screw off, Kaiden.”
“Remind you of anyone?” Faye says, grinning up at her husband.
“Wow. You have the most gorgeous accent,” I blurt, because it seems I can’t control my fangirl gushing.
“Thank you, Abigail, but I still don’t get how every American I meet is fascinated with Irish accents.”
Kai releases my wrists, repositioning me on his lap so it’s more socially acceptable. I attempt to maneuver onto the co
uch, but his arms wrap around me, caging me in, and I give up fighting. “It’s Abby,” I say. “And I apologize if I was rude earlier.”
“There’s no if about it,” Kai drawls.
“No one asked you, asshat.” I huff. “And you wrote the manual on bad manners.”
Kyler chuckles. “I don’t think we were that bad,” he says, pinning his wife with a sultry look.
She folds her arms and narrows her eyes. “Remember the night I injured my foot and you crept up on me in the kitchen?”
“There was no creeping involved. You were as loud as a herd of elephants,” he replies.
She sighs, rolling her eyes and winking conspiratorially at me. “I rest my case.”
“Men.” I shake my head, and she smiles.
A dashing older man enters the room, blowing on his hands. “Christ, it’s cold out there. How are we fixed, folks?”
“I’ll grab my brothers, and we’re good to go then,” Rick says, shaking hands with the man. “Thanks for doing this, James. We appreciate it.”
I squeal as his name clicks with me. “Oh, my—”
Kai’s hand is over my mouth again. “Excuse my girlfriend. She has a bad case of foot-in-mouth disease.” Rick is smirking as he exits the room, heading to find Harley and Joaquin, no doubt.
I’m momentarily blindsided as Kai’s words reverberate inside my brain. His use of the word girlfriend has me all hot and bothered, and I hate that I like how it sounded rolling off his tongue.
Time to regain some control.
I ram my elbow into Kai’s rib cage, and he winces, his hands instinctively dropping away. I jump up, straightening the front of my dress as I walk toward Kyler’s father. I thrust my hand out. “I’m Abigail Manning. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Kennedy.” He shakes my hand, smiling warmly at me. “I apologize for the caveman over there.” I cast a sharp glance over my shoulder at Kai. “I just wanted to say that Alex designed our pool house and she did an amazing job. I’m a big fan of her work.”
“I’ll pass on your compliments, Abigail. She’ll be thrilled to hear that.” I’m not sure of the current status of their marriage, but Alex and James Kennedy are still close despite being separated for years. Having met them both, I can see where their sons get their good looks and charisma from.
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