by Selena Kitt
Stuart snorted at that but didn’t speak. Kai was frozen in place now, his insides twisted into knots at her words. Not because she’d compared him to Stuart—but because she had seen through him so easily. Was he so transparent? Or was it just Jules who could see those things about him?
“If you’d stop being such a damned junkie.” Jules said this sadly. “Hey, no... where are you going? Give me your keys—I’m calling you a cab.”
“I just need a couple hundred, Jules.” Stuart sounded defeated. “That’s all. It’s not much.”
Silence again. Kai cringed, waiting for Jules to give in. If she did, he’d step in for sure.
“What happened to the thousand I gave you for the... uh, what was it? The deal of a lifetime?”
“I invested it.” The man sounded like a petulant child.
“Right. Invested it up your nose, you mean,” Jules snapped. “I’m not enabling you anymore.”
“What’s wrong with you, Jules? He’s changed you. He’s messed with your head!”
“No!” A stall door slammed. “I’ve had enough. I can’t do it anymore!”
“Jules, come on...” Pleading again. “This is me. Remember? Don’t you remember?”
“Stuart, don’t...”
“You don’t need this guy and his polo team.” Stuart’s voice had changed from pleading to seductive. Kai’s hackles rose again, and he gritted his teeth. “Come on, baby. Let’s go into the house. I’ll make you feel sooo good...”
“Stop it,” Jules pleaded. “Don’t. Stuart! Please...”
“I’ll make you forget all about that pompous asshole and things can be like they were before...”
That was it. Kai’d had enough. He could imagine Stuart in there, pawing at her, trying to seduce her, and it was making him crazy. He was going to have to do everything he could not to kill him—to stop at just punching him in the face.
“Like before?” Jules had that edge back to her voice. “When you used me as your personal ATM machine with some occasional pussy on the side if you were feeling desperate?”
Kai pressed his lips together to keep from chuckling. He felt like cheering. Go Jules! Maybe it was best he stayed out of this and let her finally stand up to this pathetic excuse for a human being for the last time.
“That’s not fair!” Stuart protested.
“Life’s not fair, Stuart,” Jules said quietly. “Life took my parents and left me you.”
Kai blinked, puzzled at this. But then Stuart exploded, and he understood.
“It wasn’t my fault! I wasn’t even driving!”
Kai knew, of course, that her parents had died in a car crash. But the realization Stuart had been in the car—had been somehow miraculously spared—that was new.
“Maybe not, but... you were the one they were taking to rehab,” Jules reminded him. Her voice wasn’t raised, but it dripped bitterness. “You were the one who’d been living on our couch for six months doing nothing but getting drunk and high all the time.”
Jesus. Kai closed his eyes at this revelation, pained. No wonder Jules was so attached to Stuart. And her parents had enabled the poor kid just as much as Jules was doing now. Kai had a flash of sympathy for Stuart. It was brief, but it was there.
“What happened that day?” Jules asked softly. “What happened in the car? You were there, Stuart. Tell me!”
“I don’t remember...” Stuart sounded afraid. Kai was fairly sure he was lying. Had been lying a long time.
“My father was a good driver. He didn’t fall asleep at the wheel—I don’t care what the police said happened.”
“Jules, don’t,” Stuart pleaded. “I told you a million times. I don’t remember. I hit my head. You know that—I’ve had headaches every single day since the accident. I don’t remember.”
“You were drunk,” she said. “Cops said you were thrown clear because you weren’t wearing a seatbelt—they called it drunk’s luck. Because you were so fucking drunk, you didn’t even brace yourself. That’s the only reason you lived, you know.”
“So being a junkie saved me.” Stuart gave a strangled laugh. “Yay.”
“My father didn’t fall asleep at the wheel, did he?”
“Jules...”
“Did he, Stuart?”
“I don’t remember!”
“Yes, you do!” Finally, Jules raised her voice. She screamed at him. “You know what happened! Tell me!”
“I can’t,” Stuart choked. Which wasn’t the same thing as not knowing, Kai thought.
“If the semi-truck driver had lived, what would he have told the cops, Stuart?” Jules asked. “What would he have seen?”
“Nothing!”
“Did the thought of going to rehab scare you that much?” Jules asked. Her voice sounded thick, like she was crying.
Kai wanted to go to her, but he felt stuck, fascinated by this conversation he shouldn’t have been listening to in the first place.
“I’m not going to fucking rehab!” Stuart cried. “Ever!”
“I want my key,” Jules said finally, and Kai let out his breath.
“What?” Stuart sounded bewildered. “No. Jules, listen...”
“This is killing you, Stuart,” she said flatly. “If you want money, the only way I’ll do it is if you go in for treatment. It was the last thing my parents tried to do for you—and it’s the only thing I’ll do for you anymore.”
“Jules, please...” Now Stuart sounded like he was crying. It made Kai cringe, but at least the kid finally sounded like he was being real. Telling the truth. She’d broken him. “Don’t you understand? I want to die!”
No answer. Kai marveled at Jules’s commitment to standing her ground.
“I should’ve died that day!” he sobbed. “I wanted to die when I grabbed the wheel of the car. I... didn’t think. I just wanted it all to end. I saw that semi coming and thought... this is it...”
“Oh my God, Stuart!” Jules have a strangled cry. It broke Kai’s heart and took everything in him to keep his feet planted in the dirt and not go in to her. If he’d been angry with Stuart before, now he was murderous. His hands clenched into fists.
“I’m no good to you. I’m no good to anyone.” Stuart sniffed. “I couldn’t even keep my own mother from overdosing and now I’m doing my best to kill myself the same damned way...”
“You need help, Stuart.” Jules was really crying now. “You need real help.”
“Here’s your key.” The tinkling sound of metal hitting against something came from the barn. “Keep it. I don’t need you. I don’t need anyone.”
“Stuart, wait!” Jules cried, her voice getting closer as she followed him. “Come inside. You can sleep it off—sober up. Then we can talk about getting you some he—”
Even now, she still wanted to help him? Kai wanted to kill him.
“Fuck this!” Stuart shook Jules off. They were in the slant of sun at the edge of the barn door and neither of them had seen Kai. “And fuck you!”
What happened next was so fast, Kai doubted Jules would have been able to stop him. Stuart grabbed the necklace Jules always wore and yanked. The chain snapped easily and then Stuart was running. He would probably have made it to his car if he hadn’t run into Kai like hitting a brick wall. Kai barely felt it.
“And most of all, fuck you!” Stuart screamed, spittle spraying Kai’s cheeks.
Like most junkies, Stuart was fearless. Unmindful of the necklace in his hand, he swung fast, getting in one good left hook—to Kai it felt like a bee sting on his lip—before Kai grabbed him. He quickly twisted Stuart’s arm behind his back—the one that held the stolen property—dropping him to the dirt. Kai pinned him with his own weight—he probably outweighed the junkie by seventy pounds—and made himself clear.
“You ever take anything from her again, I’ll take your head off,” Kai growled, twisting Stuart’s arm up higher, making him howl in pain, just to make sure he got his point across. “I hear you talk to her again like that, you won’t
need to commit suicide, you pathetic little fuck.”
“Okay! Okay!” Stuart sounded like someone’s little brother crying ‘uncle!’
Kai squeezed the bones in Stuart’s wrist, making him yelp and open his hand. Then Kai took the necklace and stood, rolling Stuart over to his back in the dirt with his boot.
“Kai...” Jules was at his side, her hand on his forearm, her voice a warning. She must have seen the dark, murderous look on his face. Kai’s hands twitched, aching to make Stuart a punching bag.
“Yeah, yeah.” Kai took a deep, steadying breath.
“Stuart.” Jules took a step forward, reaching a hand out to help him up, but Stuart rolled away from her, struggling up off the ground.
He glared at them. “You deserve each other.”
“Stop it,” Jules reprimanded, like he was a toddler. “Stuart, you need help. Let’s—”
“I don’t need anything from you!”
Stuart took off running.
“Kai, don’t let him—” Jules started, but Kai was already after him.
Damned little junkie was fast, though. That was one thing about being a big guy—you weren’t quite as fast or maneuverable as the little guys. Stuart was in his car and peeling off before Kai could catch him. He banged on the Firebird’s hood as Stuart passed, but even Kai couldn’t stop a moving vehicle—at least, not unless he could shift again.
“Who are you calling?” Jules panted as she caught up to him, watching the cloud of dust following the red car down the driveway.
“Sheriff,” Kai said, listening to the call connect. “They can pick him up before he does something even more stupid.”
“Thank you.” She leaned her head against his arm as he relayed the information about Stuart—including the make, model, and license plate number of the Firebird—to the Wolfhaven sheriff’s office.
When he got off the phone, Kai put his arm around her shoulder and kissed the top of her head.
“I’m proud of you,” he murmured into her hair, feeling her arms go around his waist, her body impossibly soft against his. “And I’m sorry, Jules. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she whispered, her cheek resting against his chest, head tucked under his chin. “I think I always knew. I just... didn’t want to know. If that makes sense.”
“It does.” His arms tightened and then he remembered the necklace in his hand. He slipped it into his jeans pocket—he’d get her a new chain for it, something sturdier—as Jules looked up and exclaimed over his split lip. He could taste his blood, coppery and bitter.
“Let’s get this cleaned up.” She rubbed his swollen lip with her thumb, frowning, then met his eyes. Her touch made him hungry for her and the heat in her gaze made his mouth go dry. “Can I still kiss it?”
He nodded slowly, and she went up on tiptoe to ghost her lips against his, a sensation that made his body light up, instantly on fire.
Her fingers twined behind his neck, and she breathed, “Come inside, Kai.”
God, he wanted to. He wanted to be inside her more than he’d ever wanted anything in a thousand years.
She took his hand and led him into the house.
CHAPTER FIVE—Jules
“It doesn’t hurt?” Jules checked the cut on Kai’s lip, lifting the ice she’d wrapped with a damp washcloth. It had taken the swelling down quite a bit.
“It’s fine,” he assured her. “I’ve had a lot worse, trust me.”
“I’m sorry,” she said again, for the millionth time.
“Stop.” Kai took her hand, the one holding the washcloth. He put the ice on the kitchen table and then took her other hand. “You did the right thing. Finally. And good for you.”
“I feel awful.” She swallowed hard, not meeting his eyes.
She knew she’d hurt Stuart—it had hurt her to say those things to him. They’d been friends since fifth grade and had been through a lot together, including but not limited to junior and senior prom and the inevitable loss of her virginity in that Firebird. The back seat had been far too small—but the seats had gone all the way back.
Her parents had done everything they could to make Stuart into the man Jules knew he could be—if he could just kick his addiction. Addictions—plural. It had been the death of her parents that had finally pushed the couple apart. Not that she’d given up on him entirely—but she couldn’t date him anymore. She’d drawn a line in the sand then—until he got his act together, they couldn’t be together.
But it hadn’t been enough.
She hadn’t been enough.
The junk was more important to him, always.
He refused rehab. He refused to quit. But he never stopped coming back, turning to her when he needed something, someone. And she had let him. Until now.
Until Kai.
“None of this is your fault.” Kai’s hands swallowed hers, squeezing gently.
How did he always know? Sometimes it felt like he was reading her mind—or, more accurately, feeling her heart. She’d never met a man who could see through her, into her, the way he could. It was unnerving—and made her feel both vulnerable and safe at the same time. It was as if he held her heart cradled in his hands, and it beat only because of him, because of his steady, careful attention.
“I just wanted to help him.” She gave Kai a little smile, meeting his eyes. His gaze was steady, but his eyes searched hers.
“We will,” he told her. She loved the way he did that—the world simply did what Kai wanted, when he wanted it. “I know a good place. We’ll have an intervention. We’ll get him to go into treatment. I promise you.”
No one had ever been successful in getting Stuart into rehab—he was so vehemently against it, he’d do anything to stay away.
Even...
Jules shivered. Thinking of what had happened the day her parents had died felt like a dream, even though she now finally knew the truth. Maybe she was numb to it still and it would sink in eventually.
But Stuart had been willing to go to any lengths—to die, to even sacrifice the lives of others, to keep from going to rehab. He’d even been willing to steal her necklace! Her throat felt naked without it and she reminded herself to ask Kai for it later. Even if it hadn’t turned out to be worth anything, according to the jeweler Cass had do the appraisal. It wasn’t a ruby after all—it was a stone the man hadn’t even recognized.
Jules had been disappointed, but in a way, she was relieved, because she hadn’t really wanted to sell it. Jules had always believed, the way her mother talked about it, that it was an invaluable stone, and that’s what she’d told Stuart. He didn’t know she’d recently had it appraised and found it worth nothing.
Still! He knew how much it meant to her! How could he do something like that?
Because he wanted a fix, that’s why. Stuart would do anything for a fix—and anything to stay out of rehab.
But when Kai said he’d get Stuart to go—somehow, she believed him.
“Hey, I’m good at getting people to accept help, remember?” He cocked his head and smirked. He smiled so much more easily around her now. “I got you, didn’t I?”
“Yes.” She slid her hands up his tanned, heavily tattooed arms—she still didn’t know what was hidden underneath that t-shirt—putting her hands on his shoulders. His muscles were tight, and her fingers massaged the knots there. “You got me, Kai. Now what are you going to do with me?”
His look went from cool gaze to pure heat in an instant. Her body flushed in response.
“Don’t ask that unless you really want to know.” His voice was full of gravel as Jules traced the lines of a tattoo that appeared above the v-neckline.
“I think I want to see what’s under this shirt.”
Kai grabbed the hem of his t-shirt and peeled it off, standing as he did so. Jules took a step back, breath caught in her throat, taking in the sight of him. How could one piece of fabric have contained that much man? She wondered but didn’t have time to think any more about it, because K
ai had enveloped her, his mouth slanting across hers.
She gave a little cry when he grabbed her around the waist, lifting her off the floor, crushing her body to his. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she returned his kiss, stroking the soft recesses of his mouth with her tongue as he moved her toward the bedroom. Jules lifted her legs, wrapping them around his waist, feeling the closed door at her back. He pressed her hard against it, his hands at her hips, shifting her weight so she could feel him, thick and hard as newly forged steel against the seam of her jeans.
Jules fumbled with the doorknob, twisting until it unlatched, and they tumbled into the room. The bed was close, and he kissed her down onto it, pinning her under his weight. Her hands roamed his skin, warm and smooth under her palms, her fingertips ghosting over his shoulders and biceps. She explored the swell of his pecs and the delicious ridges of his abdomen, moaning softly when he fisted her hair, so he could rake his teeth gently down her throat. He eased that sting with the hot circles of his tongue. Her thighs flexed, clutching him in response, and she thought they both had way too many clothes on.
As if he’d read her mind, Kai pulled back, undoing his belt as he looked down at her. Jules started unbuttoning her shirt—a soft blue plaid. She hadn’t worn anything special that day, hadn’t anticipated this. She didn’t even have any sexy underwear on—but Kai didn’t seem to care. His eyes lit up as she peeled her shirt off. Her bra was plain white cotton, just something comfortable, and she undid that quickly, tossing it aside. She heard Kai give a low groan, looking at her hungrily as he pulled his belt through the loops of his jeans.
“Let me.” She slid off the bed to the floor, kneeling as she unzipped him.
Kai watched as she slipped his pants and boxers down to his boots. His cock sprang free and it was her turn to groan. If she’d thought his shirt wasn’t enough to contain him, his pants were also failing in a big way. A very big way. She wrapped her hand around him, taking time to rub him against her cheek, to breathe in his pure masculine scent. He gasped when she put him in her mouth, just the tip, swirling her tongue around, her eyes never leaving his.