She pulled her knees up to her chin, wrapping her arms around her legs. “Wow. I didn’t realize pointing out that you’ve got a girlfriend around here somewhere and, instead of being with her, you’re locked in a bedroom kissing another girl—which just so happens to be me and this isn’t the first time—was hiding behind her, but okay. I’m game. I’ll play into your deluded rationalization if it makes you feel better.”
He raised an eyebrow, leaning back against the sill. He crossed his arms over his chest. “So, apparently you agree that there is something to talk about.”
“You were present for that kiss…right?”
“This isn’t the time for smartass remarks.
“Just saying…” She fanned herself, a mocking smile plastered on her face.
He groaned, raking a hand through his hair. She had known him since she was born and could tell he was very tempted to pull a handful of his hair out by the roots. He was that exasperated with her.
She took some comfort in knowing he was just as frustrated, confused, and thrown off balance by all of this as she was. They were on equal footing. That was a good thing.
His eyes met hers, a challenge in them. “Okay, that’s it. I want an honest answer out of you.” He blew out a breath. “A no-holds-barred, no bullshit answer.”
Yeah, see, that was a problem. Being honest with herself wasn’t the same as being honest with him. And she was honestly still working on the whole in complete denial thing. If she was completely honest with him, she would be laying her heart out there, bare and open, with no protection from pain or rejection. She wasn’t quite ready for that much honestly yet.
She knew deep down that he wasn’t either.
And, judging from the way his eyes were turning gray like an oncoming storm as he studied her, she needed to make a choice fast and come up with something to say to him.
She wanted to tell him at least a bit of the truth, but self-preservation kicked in and she went with pissing him off instead.
“This coming from the reigning king of bullshit?” she asked, pulling her hair into a ponytail at the nape of her neck, twisting the white scrunchie she kept on her wrist around it. “D, you’re acting like I jumped you both times. I hate to break it to you, but turning this all around on me really isn’t going to help the guilt slowly eating away at you like a slow burning acid. I’m not the one who needs to be honest here.”
He took a deep breath, attempting to control his mounting frustration. Letting it out slowly, he said, “Fine. You want to play it that way…” He let the sentence trail off as he crossed the room, pulling her to her feet. “I’m down for another round.” He pressed her into the wall again, taking her mouth none to gently this time.
When they finally came up for air, he grinned down at her, a wickedly evil glint in his eyes as he took in her flushed face. “You know what? I think I will take you up on your earlier offer.”
Again, what freaking offer?
He kissed her again and all reason vanished like an extinguished flame.
CHAPTER 11
The smell of weed and alcohol hit Shanna with the force of a freight train as she closed the front door quietly behind her. She pushed down the urge to gag. All she wanted to do was make it up to her room without her older brother knowing she was home. She was exhausted and the only thing she wanted more that avoiding a fight with Kai, was her nice, cool sheets and to be able to sleep until oblivion.
She shrugged off her light blue windbreaker, hanging it on the coat rack beside the door and slipped off her plain white tennis shoes. She snuck towards the winding staircase, hoping and praying Kai was too stoned, drunk, or both to notice she had come home instead of crashing at Del’s like originally planned.
“Nice of you to finally decide to come home.”
She swore under her breath, pausing on the bottom step. She knew she hadn’t done anything that would bring on Kai’s wrath, but that was the sucky thing about him. His hatred for her ran so deep, her simply breathing in his direction was enough to set him off. He was ten years older than her and didn’t even live at the house. He was visiting for the weekend.
Yay family time.
Kai took another puff off the joint in his hand, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
Oh, hell no. She so wasn’t in the mood for this game.
“Good night, Kai. I wasn’t even supposed to be home tonight,” she ground out slowly, starting to climb the stairs again. “You worthless bastard,” she mumbled under her breath.
Apparently, Kai had heard that little addition. He was suddenly behind her, grabbing her hair by the ponytail. He yanked back, forcing her to look up at him. He pushed her violently forward and yelled, “You need to learn some fucking respect!”
Her face hit the oak banister hard, shiny white stars dancing in front of her eyes. She did her best not to pass out from the sudden onslaught of pain and fought the strong wave of nausea building in her stomach.
Damn. That hurt.
As much as she wanted to scream in pain, to give into the desire to collapse into a heap, cry her eyes out, and call uncle, she wasn’t going to give the sadistic son of a bitch the satisfaction. They had been down this road one too many times for her to make this easy for him.
Instead, she nearly bit her tongue in half keeping silent as her eyes—her right one almost swollen shut from its harsh introduction to the banister—met his dark brown ones, dilated almost black with his anger.
It had never been a secret that Kai never wanted a sister. He just didn’t start openly broadcasting his hatred of her until their mother died four years ago. Her father—his step-father—just plain out ignored her existence unless he needed her for something. He had never wanted a daughter, at least until he realized she was more useful and valuable than he ever thought possible.
That still didn’t make him Father of the Year material and the fact that he let Kai get away with these fits of rage said it all. He chose his step-son over his own daughter. The short time he was home in between business trips, he spent with Kai, Danick, and Rhyder, and the three sons he had from a woman he had never married.
The little time he did spend with her, she really rather he didn’t.
Kai wrenched her head back again, this time slapping her across the face.
Bright white stars exploded, dancing an interesting mamba as her right cheek throbbed. She almost choked on the coppery taste of blood in her mouth. He had managed to land the blow directly on top of her cheekbone, a smile as wide and dry as Texas on his face.
All right, that was it. Enough was enough. She usually allowed him to dominate her to keep Cristian—her so called father—from retaliating and doing more physical damage to her, but she’d been emotionally drained at best before he’d attacked her. She had been blissfully lost in her own problems before walking into his perpetual bad mood towards her.
She really wasn’t in the mood for a knock-down-drag-out, let-me-beat-you-until-I-feel-better-about-myself fight.
She’d deal with the fallout from Cristian later.
She lifted a foot and stomped down as hard as she could on Kai’s instep. He swore and loosened his grip on her hair. She pulled free, elbowing him in the midsection. She blocked his incoming punch with her forearm, promptly bringing her knee up and jamming it into his groin.
He, ironically, fell to his knees in front of her with a howl of pain. She caught his wrist as he brought it around, twisting it so he was forced to drop the switchblade in his hand. As soon as the blade hit the tile floor, she decked him and watched as he fell back, out cold.
She staggered into the kitchen. Grabbing an unopened bag of frozen vegetables from the freezer, she slipped on the pair of leather sandals she kept by the back door, and opened the back door. Determined not to pass out before she was out of harm’s way completely, she placed the makeshift icepack on her eye and cheek.
That was when she realized blood was running down the side of her face.
She swo
re and grabbed a dishtowel off the stove. Hurrying out the back door, she walked as fast as her adrenaline would allow her to, wrapping the dishtowel around the bag of corn. She didn’t even try to mess with the cut above her temple. Honestly, it didn’t even surprise her that it was there. She had hit the banister pretty hard. It had to be deep.
She laughed through the haze of pain as she realized that she had to be a sight staggering down the quiet, shadowed street at one in the morning.
“What the hell happened to you?” a voice suddenly demanded.
She froze, sure she was imagining the voice. She swayed slightly, and decided it would be best if she held up the trunk of the tree behind her. Someone grabbed her around the waist, effectively pulling her away from the tree and then proceeded to pick her up, carrying her down the street.
Too tired to fight, she leaned her head against the person’s shoulder as another massive wave of pain racked her body. Through the mist swirling around in her brain, she felt a twinge of recognition. It was validated when he spoke again.
“If Kai did this, I swear to—”
Her knight in shining armor cut himself off as they rounded the corner, crossed the street, and made a beeline for the white ranch style house on the opposite corner.
“I fell into the ban—” she stared weakly, the stars in front of her eyes slowly solidifying into a solid mass of brightness.
“Fell, hell, Shanna!” D exclaimed. “You’ve been stabbed and I’ll bet my inheritance Kai threw you head first into that banister. Don’t even bother trying to deny it. You’ve lied to me enough for one night and he was the only one home.”
She lifted her head—that took effort of monumental proportions—in confusion, ready to protest that couldn’t be, that Kai hadn’t had a knife…
But he had.
She had knocked it out of his hand before laying him out.
The sentence died on her lips as white-hot pain seared through her side, right under her ribcage.
“D, I—”
And then the world went black.
D pushed open his front door, panic causing his rapidly beating heart to lodge itself in his already constricted throat. He gently laid an unconscious Shanna on the couch. As soon as he was free of her weight, he ran full speed down the small hallway towards the kitchen.
He found his father sitting at the kitchen table drinking a soda.
Seeing the dark circles under his eyes, D briefly realized that his father had just come off shift—he was a homicide detective—even though he’d left for work at seven the morning before.
D watched as his father took in the rumpled, bloody state of his clothes.
Finley Tiern’s eyes narrowed as he took in his son’s panicked state.
D disappeared into the laundry room off the back porch without a word and came right back out with a handful of old towels.
“Dad, can you call nine-one-one for me?” he asked over his shoulder as he started back towards the living room.
Finley set his can of soda down with a loud thud, pushing back from the table, knocking over his chair. “Are you hurt?” he demanded.
D stopped in the entryway to the living room and shook his head, tears running freely down his cheeks. He couldn’t tell if they were from fear or anger. “No,” he assured his father. “I found Shanna wondering down her street on my way home from the party.”
He started, remembering that Shanna was unconscious and possibly bleeding to death on their couch.
Without further explanation, he turned and headed back to the couch. He knelt down next her, placing a wadded up bath towel against the wound in her side. He pressed it hard against the wound, praying he could stop the bleeding. She already looked way too pale underneath the bruising on her beautiful face and her heart beat was slowing down.
He heard his father’s sharp intake of breath behind him, but didn’t take his attention off of Shanna.
Somewhere in the background, he heard his father call for an ambulance and a squad car to head over to the Corelsand house.
Finley placed a hand on his shoulder. “I got this. Why don’t you go wake your mom up?”
D nodded numbly, leaning back on his heels. He angrily swiped at the tears wetting his cheeks and pushed himself up when his dad had a firm grip on the towel against her side.
He made his way down the hallway, stopping in front of his parents’ bedroom door. He took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and walked right in without knocking. He dropped down into the chair beside their bed, gently shaking his mother awake.
Melina Tiern was instantly awake. She looked at her son’s tear stained face and propped herself up against the headboard. “What is it honey?” she asked quietly.
“Dad wanted me to wake you.” He was surprised his voice sounded so calm, so steady. He had to be in shock. He could hear the sirens in the distance, and apparently his mother could, too, because her eyes widened.
“Kai went after Shanna. She’s out on the couch.” His voice cracked slightly. “He bashed her face against the banister. He also stabbed her. Mom, she’s unconscious and bleeding to death on the couch.”
Melina was up and out the door before D could draw his next labored breath. He had to run to keep up with her. They reached the living room just as Carter was opening the front door for the paramedics.
Apparently, the racket had awakened his older brother, who was home on leave from the army and had been crashing in the basement.
As the paramedics pushed his father aside and started working on Shanna, Andre and Brennan, Carter’s twin brothers, stumbled sleepily into the room.
They were instantly awake when they noticed the paramedics.
The triplets took D by the shoulders and steered him towards the kitchen. He didn’t fight them. He was too drained to. All he wanted to do was shower, change out his bloody clothes, and forget this whole night happened.
He was willing to chalk it up to a horrible dream.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the reality of things.
It wasn’t a dream.
It was a living nightmare.
Shanna opened her eyes, blinked a few times, and then quickly shut them again to block out the obscenely bright lights. Her head felt like someone had invited a Static X concert to come play, and then conveniently left the mosh pit in her skull. Her mouth was dry as the desert and her side was stiff and felt like it was on fire.
She heard the steady beeping of machines, felt cool liquid as it dripped slowly into her veins, making its way into her bloodstream. She was in the hospital, she could tell that much, but what had Kai done this time to land her here?
Wait.
She was in the hospital.
This didn’t bode well for her. Hospitals were evil. She and hospitals really didn’t mix.
Anyway, now that the melodramatics were over, the last thing she remembered clearly was being at the party and being locked in a room with D. She knew she had gone home after leaving the party instead of going to Del’s like originally planned. She remembered running into Kai…
And then nothing.
Her memory Etch A Sketch was blank.
The pain in her side slowly resided, the medication in the IV doing its job.
Unfortunately, the medication also made her mind hazy.
She squeezed her eyes closed tighter, willing the heavy metal band gearing up for round two in her skull to quiet down so she could put a coherent thought together.
She wanted a few clear thoughts before she gave in completely to the pain medication. She really wanted to know how she had ended up in the hospital.
As she fought the black abyss of sleep and concentrated harder, bits and pieces slowly came back to her. Leaving the party—actually it was more like sneaking out like a thief in the night—and walking into the house unsuspecting that Kai was blitzed out of his mind. Saying good night as she headed up to bed and him throwing her head first into the railing, his ever present switchblade in his hand.
; Kai pushing the knife deeper into her side as her head met the wood.
Fighting him off. Escaping out the back door. D finding her.
She groaned, opening her eyes slowly this time. She blinked against the lights as a face appeared over her, a tense and worried smile on their face.
She attempted a smile. “May I have a drink?” Her voice came out low and harsh, cracking with the effort of forcing the words through cracked, dry lips.
Finley Tiern laughed.
Melina Tiern poured some water from the pitcher beside the bed into a paper cup, stuck a straw into it, and brought it to her lips. Shanna slowly sipped the blessedly cool liquid, almost jumping for joy when it slid effortlessly down her throat, massaging the dryness.
“Shanna, we have something to tell you,” Finley started, grabbing her hand and sitting on the edge of the hospital bed. “Kai split before the cops got there, emptying out every safe in the house before he took off. The only thing found was a signed document on the coffee table.” He paused, allowing this to sink into her already crowded and confused brain.
“I don’t know whether you’ll consider this good or bad news, but Lisa Galvin, Melina and I are to share guardianship duties of you and the boys according to the document. It’s up to us to decide the schedules and circumstances.” He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “It looks like Cristian fell off the face of the planet. So, when you are released from here, you’re going to live with us until Lisa comes back from her trip to Arizona, where she is visiting her sick sister.”
Shanna pushed the straw out of her mouth, squeezing his hand. “That’s the best news I’ve heard in a while,” she replied. She loved her second mother to death. While Lisa never got to marry Cristian, and was basically his mistress for the majority of their relationship, and her mother did, no one ever held it against her. Jarrett, Nile, and Zeke were an accepted extension of their family. She was as close to her half-brothers as she was Danick and Rhyder.
She could survive a month or two under the Tiern roof.
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