by C. M. Owens
“Kai would probably put Liam’s head through a wall if he saw his girl checking him out like that,” Lenny points out while gnawing on a turkey leg. “He wanted to clobber me just for introducing myself.”
Another knock at the door has people darting to their hiding spots, and Nila once again wrestles Krysta to the ground. I’m relieved for the distraction. Apparently, Krysta wants to ‘cut a bitch’ for bringing ‘her man’ food.
Deacon sighs and swings open the door.
Benson grins as Deacon blankly stares at the newest girl on the porch, but she doesn’t have a dish in her hands. She’s holding a stack of paperwork instead.
“I’m sorry to bother you. I’m here on behalf of the Harper family, who are searching for their missing relative, Liam Harper,” she says, which causes Liam to dive to the floor and quickly crawl out of sight.
I blink a few times as Kylie tosses a blanket over him, even though neither of them can be seen from that angle.
“Liam Harper,” Deacon says, tapping his chin and staring heavenward as though he’s giving the name serious thought. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of him. It’s a small town. You sure he’s here?”
“We believe he’s purchased two homes here, yet we’ve been unable to clarify this. It seems a Kylie Malone’s name is on the most recent one he purchased, yet she also claims to have never heard of him,” the woman states so professionally.
Reese shoots me a curious look, as if I’ll somehow magically know more about this situation than she will.
Deacon moves to the porch, shutting the door behind him, when the woman tries to invite herself in.
“I’m gonna have to cut that bitch for real if she puts any moves on him,” Krysta says as she manages to get her foot up to Nila’s stomach and shove her off.
In the next instant, she’s scrambling by me and peering out the window.
“Stalk much?” Lilah quips.
“If I lick it, then it’s mine,” Krysta states absently.
“You’ve licked him?” Nila, Kylie, and Lilah ask at once.
Where’d Kai go? Isn’t he supposed to be my date?
“Not yet, but it’s inevitable,” Krysta answers with a prim tone, standing a little taller.
For whatever reason, Benson seems to find it amusing that his twin has a very worrisome stalker.
“Why is Liam hiding under a blanket?” I ask quietly to Lilah.
“Because his family is a piece of work. Long story short, he’s loaded and they miss his money and their connection to him more than they actually miss him.”
Reese and I both shoot a sympathetic look to the clumped up blanket.
We know that feeling. Sort of. Our semi-sexist father mostly ignored us until we became social media sensations. Suddenly we were bragging rights to the family, even as women.
It’s not even bragging rights, but because of our twenty million followers, our father uses us like tools for his own campaigns. Business is all we speak about, and we talk about it all the time.
It’s nice to see people talking about anything and everything besides business.
“I’m starting to think this is what it looks like to have real friends,” I tell Reese as Penny and Lilah abandon us to go yell at Hale and Killian for eating all the brownies.
“Yeah. I’m starting to like Hale more and more,” she confesses, her smile doubling as Hale laughs at his sister’s pathetic attempt to take away the salsa.
Brownies and salsa? I don’t understand their stomachs.
“Deacon’s the stud of the town right now as the most eligible bachelor. Someone else will show up with goodies while he’s visiting,” Killian is arguing.
Nila drops beside me, and I gesture at all the dishes that have been stacked up now that they’re empty.
“They’re bringing food because they think Deacon is attractive?” I surmise.
She nods and shakes her head. “Don’t say that so loud, or Krysta will gut you like a fish.”
I swallow any of my next words.
“Why don’t they bring Hale any? He said he never dates, and I haven’t even seen one girl check him out,” Reese points out with genuine curiosity woven into the words.
Nila snorts and then outright laughs.
“Are you kidding? Why would anyone bring the Vincent boys food?” she asks like it’s a laughable notion. “It’d be as absurd as my brothers or any other Wild One getting some.”
Killian shoots her a look and narrows his eyes. Hale thumps his chest and pokes it out, glaring at her as well.
The Wilders seem unperturbed by the dig as one sharpens a knife and another carves his name into the doorframe next to him.
Alrighty then.
Where’s Kai?
“I don’t get it,” Reese says so seriously as a few others laugh at the joke that isn’t all that funny.
Kylie outright doubles over while shaking with laughter, along with Lilah.
“Didn’t see any men chasing the two of you around. Reese was in town one day and had half the men talking about her,” Hale says as he arches an eyebrow at his sister.
I’m apparently chopped liver, it seems.
Her laughter dies and she glares at him.
“Benson, tell him what a catch I am,” Lilah says as she crosses her arms over her chest.
“Best. Wife. Evah,” Benson says without missing a beat, smirking when Hale rolls his eyes.
“You look whipped when you jump at the chance to boost her ego,” Killian tells him.
This goes on for a while, all of them bantering back and forth.
“Stop scaring Reese! She’s going to give me babies! Her hips are just as good as that other one’s,” Penny hisses, waving at all of them to shut up.
“I-uh-I-uh,” is all Reese manages to get out once again.
Seriously, where is Kai?
“Is that bitch flirting now?” Krysta gasps, shoving away from the window as she leaps over the table and darts toward the—
“Control yourself! You’ll just scare him even more than you already have! I’m being a good friend right now by being honest!” Nila is whisper-yelling.
Lenny grabs her at the waist, holding her back almost effortlessly, as she struggles to reach the door.
“Damn it, let me go!”
“No can do, cuz. I’m saving you from yourself.”
“Is it always like this?” I ask Benson, who is calmly drinking his beer, just observing the pandemonium like it’s an everyday sort of thing.
“When they all get together, this is about as normal as it gets. The shock wears off. I was like you not too long ago. I only thought I knew Tomahawk until I started dating Lilah. I’m surprised no one has broken a window yet—”
Something loud crashes that sounds distinctly like glass shattering. Benson’s eyelids flutter shut, and he releases one long exhale.
“Benson, your window got in my way! I was aiming at the dart board!” Kai shouts down from…somewhere.
“I doubt a dart is what broke a window,” Benson calls up, shaking his head, eyes still closed.
“Darts are lame!” another guy shouts. “Especially when you’re betting your ass off and playing against a dart champion!”
Standing, I decide to head up the stairs to find Kai, as Benson shouts back, “It’d better be fixed by the end of the week!”
“I’ll have it fixed within two days,” Kai calls back, giving me a direction to go.
I end up turning into a room that has a sharp chill to it, and spot Kai as he and one of the Nickels work on taping a large piece of cardboard over it.
“Guess it’s good he started saving all his cardboard for things like this,” the guy is saying as Kai starts cutting off some plastic.
His eyes bounce to mine, and he shoots me a lopsided grin that does all sorts of very crazy things to too many parts on my body.
Then…my eyes widen on the very large knives stabbing a mutilated dart board.
“Don’t worry. I’ll buy you a new dart board,�
�� Kai shouts down after Benson apparently says something.
Holy crap, those knives are huge.
And scary.
And did I mention huge?
“Are you always so destructive?” I ask, eyes wide as Kai turns to start taping plastic over the cardboard they’ve already taped on.
“Not intentionally,” Kai says through his distraction.
“So you’re in town for a while?” Tate—I think that’s his name—asks me.
“For at least another month,” I answer.
Reese keeps adding more and more days to our trip. Not that I’ve objected. I don’t want to think about why I’m going along with extending our trip so easily.
He cuts his eyes to Kai, who has turned his head to glance back at me.
“See? All you had to do was ask,” he tells Kai as though he’s won some sort of argument.
“Tell George I won’t be there this trip. I’m gonna stay in town,” Kai tells him instead of commenting on the other.
I smile to myself, idly wondering if Kai’s a little shier than I realized.
“Ha. I’m not telling him shit. I don’t even get invited on the Malone hunting trips anymore.”
“Because you shot George in the ass,” Kai immediately fires back, causing my eyes to bulge.
“One time. And it was birdshot.”
“Twice,” Kai volleys, holding up two fingers and giving him a dubious stare.
Tate starts to argue but stops. “Oh, yeah. I forgot about that second time. Yeah…now I remember.” He grins like the memory is a fond one.
I’m slightly horrified by the careless confession.
“They were both accidents,” Kai says as though that’s going to wash the horror from my face.
“Yeah,” Tate says, chuckling as his eyes remain distant, presumably lost to the nostalgia brought about by the memory. “They were,” he says like he’s agreeing, his smile only growing.
The doorbell rings, and Kai glances out of the window that isn’t broken. He quickly lifts the window and pokes his head out.
“Is that brownies?” he calls down.
There’s a loud squeal, and something clangs somewhere. In the next instant, I hear a car door slam, an engine crank, and tires skidding out.
“Hey! Someone left brownies on the porch and Deacon didn’t even have to shoot them down,” Hale shouts from downstairs.
Cue a lot of crashing, cursing, and death threats for said brownies.
“Wild Ones got a thing for home cooked desserts. We’re an active bunch,” Tate informs me with a firm nod.
Kai shuts the window, and I frown. “Why did she just abandon the brownies like she was scared of you?” I ask him.
He flashes me a dark grin that has my vagina perked up and very interested now.
“Why don’t you bake me some brownies and find out?” he fires back.
I don’t know what to say to that.
Tate snorts.
“That’s not as cool of a thing to say as you think it is. It’s the sort of thing a guy says before he crashes and burns. Give her my number when you fuck it up, would you?”
Kai’s fist abruptly catches the guy in the gut, and as he doubles over to heave out a coughed-up breath, Kai pats him on the back, still grinning at me. I stumble back in surprise. This group is really violent, and they like to laugh at someone getting hurt.
“Ready to bail on this place?” he asks me. “I’ll pick up some brownie mix if you think you’re brave enough to handle the consequences.”
“Don’t do it,” Tate wheezes.
Kai slaps him on the back of the head so hard that Tate crashes to the ground, laughter spilling from his lips the entire time.
“I don’t bake. I can cook, but baking is an entirely different skillset I seem to lack the exactitude for,” I state distractedly, wondering if the guy is going to be okay or not.
Kai comes to grab my hand, and those flutters of excitement crash against the walls of my stomach again. Sheesh.
He guides me down the stairs, effortlessly dodging Nila as she once again tackles Krysta to the ground to keep her from following Deacon around like a lost puppy.
“You’re a romantic rival! You’re just trying to stop me from getting him before you figure out how to talk to guys you find attractive!” Krysta shouts at Nila as they wrestle around on the ground.
“I’m not your rival, damn it. I’m your friend who can’t watch you make a fool of yourself anymore. I’m embarrassed for you!” Nila snaps.
“Then speak to him and prove it to me,” Krysta says, as though that’s supposed to make any sense at all.
Nila glares. “Just because I find a man attractive, it doesn’t mean I’m going after him. It’ll fade. I’ll be able to talk to him when he’s just one more member of the group. Just wait and see.”
“What does that mean?” I ask Kai.
“Nothing important,” he assures me.
“Romantic rival!”
“Best. Friend,” Nila argues.
Deacon shakes his head on his way by us, fighting his own smile as he goes.
I may not understand it, but I sort of envy the way they all are with each other. The comfort level is just so…amazingly obvious and genuine.
We pass by Liam as he corners Kylie in a private room, essentially devouring her. I quickly cut my gaze away, envious of that as well. And not because I have a thing for Liam. He’s too pretty. It’s sort of intimidating to see a guy who is that pretty.
I find it odd that Deacon, who is attractive but not Liam pretty, is the one getting the baked goods. To be honest, Kai is probably the sexiest, even if he isn’t unnaturally good looking.
He’s rough around the edges and rugged in a way that is really—
My inner ramble comes to a screeching halt when I spot my sister in a Jeep, her tongue down Hale Vincent’s throat, as she straddles him and makes out like she’s a teenager. Are you serious?
Kai stares for a second, mutters something under his breath, and starts dragging me toward his Jeep as I gawk at my sister shamelessly grinding on Hale.
Just as I get in on the passenger side of Kai’s Jeep, Deacon comes rushing by us with Krysta trailing him, heading toward an SUV that’s abandoned on the side of the road.
“Did you park all the way out here to hide from me?” Krysta asks very loudly.
“Stop following me,” he says over his shoulder, picking up his pace.
“Please! Just one picture! I want to show our kids how much their father loved their momma before he really knew it! It’ll be—”
Lenny’s hand abruptly closes over her mouth as he holds her back once again, cutting off the embarrassing scene, while Deacon hops into a truck and peels out while he can.
I glance down at the water bottle in my purse. Even the spring water here is from Tomahawk’s springs. I may already be doomed.
Kai wastes no time getting us on the road, and I lean back, smiling as I take in the events of the evening. Even though it was a lot to take in, it was also a lot of fun.
As Benson said, it’s a completely different way of life out here. And I really like the fact Kai doesn’t seem to draw women in like flies, even though he looks like he does. It’s like a hidden gem no one else seems to appreciate, even though he’s a hero, has patience for days, and never seems to get mad about much of anything.
“Do you want to come back to my place? Looks like my sister has other plans and won’t be home for a while,” I say while deliberately avoiding eye contact.
“Sure. I can cook up some deer and we can smoke while playing some video games,” he suggests. “I think Hale said he left one of his old systems there.”
I forget what a hardcore bachelor he is until he says things like that.
“Sounds great,” I tell him, trying not to smile. “Afterwards, maybe we can…see my bedroom.”
The second the words leave my mouth, I realize just how cringe-worthy they sound. Too forward. Way too forward.
What am I doing?
“I’ve seen it before. The door was open,” he states…so…obliviously.
I cut my eyes toward him as he drives, facial expression stoic.
“But I can look at it again if you want to show it to me yourself or something,” he adds like he’s being courteous.
I blink at him several times, wondering if he’s serious right now. I very clearly made a lewd pass that I already regret blurting out, and…that’s all he says?
“Um…no. Nothing special,” I state unsurely, studying his profile.
He nods like that suits him just fine.
I stare, waiting expectantly on him to crack a grin, but he keeps on driving without any follow-up…
“We’ll probably have the place to ourselves all night. Reese looked serious back there,” I add. “As in no one will be interrupting us.”
“Good. I’m sick of being around Hale when he’s getting cocky,” he says, again acting as though he can’t read between the very clear lines. “Not to mention, he talks so much shit whenever we play. You play much?”
“Video games?” I ask, really damn confused about what conversation we’re having right now.
It’s certainly not the same conversation.
“Yeah,” he answers, seeming to expect an answer to that.
“Uh…no. Not really. I guess you’ll have to show me,” I tell him, wondering if there’s a sexy way to learn how to play video games.
I can’t picture it being sexy.
I thought he was just waiting on the signal. In my head, I made a sexy remark that let him know the door was open for some physical contact, and…now we’re planning to play video games.
I’m starting to think I may have accidentally friend-zoned myself.
Or…Kai Wilder is all flirt with zero follow-through.
Wild Ones Tip #993
Use your words. We’re not good at reading minds.
Chapter 10
PIPER
*******
I don’t think I’m friend-zoned, because he likes staring at my lips. However, whenever I look at his lips to give him the silent go-ahead…
“Something in my beard?” he asks, wiping his beard before I can answer.
I refrain from huffing, puffing, and stomping my foot.