“We’re from two different worlds, Mom,” Keith said with a sigh. “She’s in college for God’s sake, and she’ll be done with it soon enough and then she’ll be gone. She’ll end up working in some great job in the city, she’ll be successful and happy, then she’ll meet some guy who probably wears suits every day and earns six figures, and then they’ll have perfect children and live their perfect lives.”
“You sound jealous,” Emma observed.
“I’m not,” Keith said sincerely. “That’s not the life I want; it never has been. I don’t fit into that picture, but Kristina does, and it’s no less than what she deserves. I don’t pretend that I don’t care about her. I do. I want her to have a good life, and I want her to be happy. But I don’t want the same things she does, and that means we’re better off apart. We’re better off as friends.”
“What does she want?” Emma asked. “Have you asked her?"
“I… I don’t have to,” Keith said with conviction. “She wouldn’t be in college in the first place if she wasn’t a certain type of person.”
Emma shook her head at him. “For all your big talk Keith… sometimes you can be so narrow minded. So she’s different, so she chose to go to college, that doesn’t mean anything. She might surprise you.”
“Talking to her for a couple of hours doesn’t mean that you know her, Mom,” Keith pointed out.
Emma nodded calmly. “And spending weeks and months with her doesn’t mean you know her either,” she threw back. “You want to know what she wants with her life… how about you ask her?”
Keith fell silent for a moment. He knew this was not an argument they were going to win anytime soon. “I should get going,” he said.
“You can spend the night here, you know,” Emma suggested.
Keith almost considered the offer, but something made him cautious to accept it. He didn’t want to think too much of Kristina sleeping in the room next to him. He didn’t want his mind wandering to places it had no business going. “I think I’ll head home,” he said, as he rose heavily to his feet.
“You’re a stubborn boy, you know,” Emma said as she walked him to the door.
Keith smiled. “I get it from you.”
Emma shrugged. “I suppose you had to get something from me.”
“Goodnight, Mom,” Keith said, as he bent down and placed a kiss on Emma’s cheek.
“Goodnight son,” Emma replied. “Drive safe.”
Keith nodded and walked down the path towards his bike. He had to stay away from Kristina, and he knew it, but the threatening note that had been thrown through Kristina’s window meant that he couldn’t extract himself from her life just yet. He hated Kovic for his lies and his threats and his promise of violence, but there was a tiny little part of him that was secretly glad. He was glad because he had the perfect excuse to continue to be around Kristina. Kovic had provided him with the perfect alibi.
Chapter Nineteen
Kristina
Kristina was hoping to see Keith when she walked into the kitchen the next morning, but it was only Emma who stood there. She was standing by the stove, spooning sausages into one plate and eggs into another. There was already a platter of crispy bacon on the table, next to bagels, butter, and orange juice.
“You shouldn’t have made so much, Emma,” Kristina said as she sat down at the table. “I don’t think I can eat.”
“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” Emma said with finality. “You’ll eat something.”
Kristina smiled. “You sound like my grandmother.”
Emma joined her at the table. “Your mother didn’t say the same thing?”
“Well, not really,” Kristina said, as she accepted the plate that Emma passed to her. “I never really saw my mother much. She was a surgeon, and she worked crazy hours.”
“Who raised you?” Emma asked.
“My grandmother mostly,” Kristina replied. “After she died, I had a string of babysitters.”
“That must have been hard.”
Kristina shrugged. “It was only for a short time,” she said. “Then I was old enough not to need anyone anymore.”
“I found that it doesn’t matter how old we get,” Emma said quietly, “we always need someone.”
Kristina looked down at her plate and bit off a piece of crispy bacon. It tasted so delicious that she savored the taste on her tongue before she spoke. “I can’t remember the time when I last had a home cooked meal.”
“You don’t go home often?” Emma asked.
Kristina smiled, but she didn’t begrudge Emma her curiosity. Everyone was usually curious about other people and their lives. “I haven’t been recently,” she answered. “Like I said, my mom’s a surgeon and my dad’s a lawyer. They both have really busy lives, so even if I were to drop in at home, I wouldn’t see too much of them.”
“Won’t they be coming for your graduation?” Emma asked.
“They will,” Kristina nodded. “It’ll be nice to see them after so long.”
“You haven’t mentioned any siblings?”
“I don’t have any,” Kristina replied. “My parents only ever wanted the one kid.”
Emma smiled. “I always wanted another child,” she said. “But… I just didn’t think it was fair.”
“Fair?”
“Well… Keith’s father… was not the best man, and I didn’t really know that until after I got pregnant with Keith. I just didn’t feel it would be fair to have more children with a man like that.”
Kristina nodded with understanding as her own curiosity rose up to meet Emma’s past. “Can I ask you a personal question?” she asked cautiously.
“You can ask,” Emma nodded, though she seemed a little nervous.
“You don’t have to answer me if you don’t want to… I just wanted to know… if you ever thought of just… leaving him?”
“Ah,” Emma said with a sad smile. “I must have thought of it at least a hundred times a day… I just never had the courage to actually do it. You see, I didn’t have very good parents… I had no college degree and no one to help me. Plus… I was terrified of him. He promised to kill Keith and me if I ever tried to leave him, and I believed that he would. So I stayed.”
“How… how did you get away from… that?” Kristina asked, wondering if she would go too far with her questions.
“It was Keith,” Emma said slowly, as a smile transformed her face. “He was the one who saved me. He saved the both of us.”
“How?”
“He found the Iron Dragons,” Emma explained. “He was about fifteen when he met Ezekiel for the first time.”
“Ezekiel?”
“Ezekiel Seton,” Emma replied. “He was Miles’s father and the founder of the Iron Dragons. He took Keith under his wing, and he became a father figure in Keith’s eyes. When he died, Miles started the auto shop as a front, and he brought Keith in on the business and the gang. Slowly… the boy I knew transformed into a man… a man who wasn’t afraid of anything. He’s always believed that it was the Dragons that gave him the courage to stand up to his father… but he was wrong. He always had it in him… he just lacked the capacity to believe in himself.”
“He came home one day and Arnold beating on me as usual. I saw the look in his eyes as he came forward. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before. He had transformed; I could see it; and I knew immediately that this was it. Either he would end up dead… or my husband would.”
“He didn’t…?” Kristina interrupted.
“No,” Emma shook her head quickly. “He didn’t kill his father… but he came close. I managed to get him to stop in time.”
“And then what happened?”
“He told Arnold to pack up his things and leave,” Emma went on. “Keith told him that if he ever came back… he would finish what he started and kill him.”
“And he left?” Kristina asked in shock. “Just like that?”
“The thing about bullies is they can dish it out
, but they can very rarely take it,” Emma said. “At the end of the day, Arnold was a typical bully, just a coward at heart.”
“Wow,” Kristina breathed. “That must have been hard on both of you.”
“We survived it,” Emma said simply.
Kristina was prevented from asking any more questions by Keith’s arrival. He was wearing dark jeans and the usual sleeveless t-shirt. Kristina could see part of his ‘Natalie’ tattoo peeking out at her from behind one sleeve.
“Morning,” he said gruffly without a smile.
Kristina replied the same way, and both avoided each other’s gaze.
“Breakfast, Keith?” Emma asked, pushing some bacon towards him.
Keith reached out without a word and took some bacon without bothering with a plate. “It’s good,” he said after chewing on it a bit.
Kristina noticed that Emma was glancing between the two of them, seeming to notice the tension that hung in the air. “I’m going to the supermarket,” she said after a moment. “Anything you kids want?”
“Nothing for me,” Kristina said. “Thanks, Emma.”
Keith just shook his head and helped himself to more bacon. “Alright then,” Emma said. “I might be a few hours. I’ll see you both when I get back.”
She waved goodbye to them, and within minutes, she had left the house and it was just Kristina and Keith sitting by the table. The silence was stiff with tension and despite the fact that Kristina wanted desperately to break it; she didn’t want to make the first move.
“I’m sorry about last night,” Keith said unexpectedly.
Kristina looked up, surprised that he had broken the silence. She felt herself soften immediately. “That’s ok,” she said. “I probably overreacted.”
“I just need you to understand how serious this is,” Keith said softly. “That note you got wasn’t just a threat, Kristina… it was a promise. And trust me when I tell you that when it comes to promises like this, men like Kovic keep their word.”
“Ok,” Kristina nodded. “I’m listening… but I don’t want some random guy trailing me through classes.”
“I understand it will be—”
“If someone has to keep an eye on me,” Kristina said, interrupting him, “I’d rather it were you.”
Keith stopped short and looked her in the eye. She saw a spark of something flash through his eyes, but it was too fast for her to try and decipher the meaning. “Ok,” Keith said unexpectedly, without putting up the fight that Kristina had anticipated.
“Ok?” Kristina asked.
“Ok,” Keith nodded.
Kristina smiled slowly. “Well, then that’s settled.”
“I hope this is not a mistake,” Keith said under his breath, but Kristina caught the words. She felt the need to say something, but at the last minute she stopped herself. She could not make any assurances, mainly because she didn’t know how this would all play out.
She stretched out her hand and placed it on Keith’s arm. “Don’t look so defeated,” she said. “This isn’t over yet. I’m going to be fine.”
“You can’t know that,” Keith reminded her. “You’ve never been in the middle of a gang war before.”
Kristina smiled unconsciously, and she saw Keith’s expression grow still with surprise at her reaction. “Is there something I missed?” he asked.
“Sorry,” Kristina said quickly. “I just… I was thinking of the irony of life.”
“I did miss something.”
“Before we met… I was floundering a little you could say,” Kristina tried to explain. “I felt as though I hadn’t really lived… I felt as though I had wasted the last few years of life. I wanted… adventure, I suppose. It might seem cliché, but that was what I craved. And now…”
“You got more adventure than you bargained for?” Keith finished for her.
Kristina shrugged. “Nothing ever turns out the way you imagined it in your head. Adventure… is a very complicated word.”
Keith nodded. “I never should have gotten you into this.”
“You didn’t,” Kristina said adamantly. “This was my decision.”
“You didn’t know better,” Keith said. “I did.”
Kristina felt her defensiveness rise. She got up from the table and looked Keith directly in the eye. “I hate when people think that I was never in control of my own choices. I’m here because I choose to be… not because you led me here.”
Keith smiled. “You go right ahead and believe that.”
Kristina turned from him in a huff and left the kitchen for her room. She heard Keith get up and follow her. “Hey,” he called. “Come back here, I was only joking.”
“I’ve known you awhile now, Keith,” Kristina snapped. “And you decide this is the moment to make your first joke?”
She tried to close the door on him, but he managed to block the attempt and enter the room anyway. Knowing she would never be able to win that battle, she released her hold on the door and backed off.
“Sorry,” Keith said with a sheepish smile. “I just…”
“That wasn’t a joke,” Kristina said heatedly, feeling her passions rise with her frustration. “You meant it.”
Keith sighed. “This is my baggage, Kristina… and it’s difficult to explain.”
“Fine,” Kristina said, annoyed by how amazing Keith looked in his sleeveless t-shirt, and by how—despite her annoyance—that didn’t escape her notice. “Then don’t explain it to me. Don’t explain anything to me. In fact, let’s not talk at all.”
In a sudden fit of reckless passion, Kristina all but jumped on Keith and kissed him hard on the lips. She could tell he was surprised because he stumbled back and it took a moment before he responded to her kiss. She sensed hesitation on his tongue, but for once, she didn’t care. She wanted him, and she—for one moment in her life—wanted to be the kind of girl who took what she wanted when she wanted it.
Slowly, almost nervously, she felt his hands encircle her until he was crushing her against his body. His breathing was coming slowly, but Kristina could hear the beat of his heart under her own. She realized after a moment that her feet weren’t even touching the ground. Keith had her locked in an airborne embrace.
“We shouldn’t be doing this,” Keith said, breaking apart for a moment.
“What the fuck does it matter what we should be doing?” Kristina demanded. “What do you want to be doing?”
She saw the same spark blaze in his eyes for a moment, and then he pushed her down on the bed and removed his shirt to reveal rock hard abs that had Kristina taking another calming breath. He bent down over her and started kissing her neck while his hands starting teasing up her blouse.
“This doesn’t have a happy ending,” he said, as he continued kissing her.
“I know that,” Kristina told him with her eyes closed and her senses heightened. “But let’s enjoy it while it lasts.”
Keith’s response to that was to pull down her jeans with her panties so that she was naked and pliant from the waist down. He grabbed her by the hips and pulled her down so that he was kneeling between her legs. Then he pulled off her shirt and bra and came down over her gently. Kristina could feel his penis against her thigh, and she felt her body shiver in anticipation. Keith didn’t seem to be in a hurry however. He kept kissing her breasts before he took her nipple into his mouth and started sucking on her with abandon.
Kristina was starting to feel the heat rise on her body when suddenly Keith jerked her upright and pushed her around so that her back was to him. It was sudden, but Kristina felt a whirl of excitement hit her as she was reminded that this was not the type of man she was used to. This man was different… he was used to having things his way, at least in the bedroom. She bent over and let him take the lead. She could feel his hands on her back and in her hair, and she reveled in his touch. She wanted him to treat her roughly; she wanted him to dominate her. For once, she didn’t want to have things planned out in one straight and sensible lin
e. She wanted reckless danger, and nothing smelled of danger so much as sex with Keith.
She was so wet that on any other day it might have embarrassed her, but at that moment, Kristina didn’t care one iota. She was thrilled to be so willing, so ready, and the feel of him slipping inside her roughly made her cry out in pleasure. He had been inside her twice before, but she still felt the excitement of a first encounter. It felt so completely different that she was taken aback by how quickly her body was responding to him.
He didn’t start slow; there was nothing slow about the way he fucked her. He pummeled into her as though he had nothing to lose. Kristina could hear the pounding of flesh on flesh, and the sound turned her on even further. When she thought she was going to lose control, Keith collected her hair into a tight ponytail and used it to distract her from the building wave that was about to crash inside her.
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