Blood-Red Tear (10 page)

“Hey, Paul,” I cried out, hiding
my shaking hands in the pocket of my jeans.

H
is eyes narrowed and he looked between us suspiciously. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing,
we were just watching TV,” I told him.

“It’s late
. You should be in bed.” He crossed his arms over his chest and looked at Aidan, as if waiting for him to argue the point.

“I do not need another father
, so stop telling me what to do.” I tapped my fingers on my hip, staring at him with what I hoped was an angry glare, humiliated that he was treating me like a child.

“Maybe if you listened to me more o
ften, you could avoid trouble. After all, I did tell you not to go out with Scott, but you refused to listen and look what happened.”

I gasped
, hurt that he would bring up my nightmare date with Scott to make his point.

“Y
ou go too far,” Aidan snapped, stepping between us and taking my trembling hands in his own. “I had not realized it was so late. You should get rest, you have school tomorrow.”

“Of course
, you are right,” I told him, unable to believe my brother had been so callous. “Thank you for spending time with me.”

I stood on
my toes and kissed his cheek, knowing it would aggravate Paul, and he whispered in my ear, “Goodnight, Amado Uno.”

“What did you say
to her?” Paul asked, his face red as he clenched and unclenched his fists at his sides.

“Katie is taking Spanish
at school, so I am helping her learn a few words,” Aidan told him calmly. He did not seem to notice Paul’s anger, or maybe he just didn’t care, but I truly didn’t want them to fight, so I decided it would be best if I just went to bed.

“Thanks again
, Aidan.” I smiled warmly at him, pinned my brother with an angry gaze, and walked out of the room not bothering to say anything to Paul, who had hurt me badly with his thoughtless remark. I did, though, stop momentarily on the stairs to listen and make sure they did not kill each other.

“Paul, i
f you think by acting like an ass you’re making this easier on anyone, then think again,” Aidan growled.

“She’s my sister, Aidan
. I hadn’t anticipated feeling so strongly about this, but I care greatly for her and I don’t want her to get hurt.”

“Your allegian
ce is to me. Don’t forget that,” Aidan growled, before stalking out into the foyer and slamming the front door behind him.

I sat on the top st
ep, tears filling my eyes.

Paul exited the game room
directly behind him and slammed his fist into the wall, leaving behind a large hole that I knew my mother would be furious about in the morning, before slamming the front door behind him as he left the house, too.

With a loud sigh,
I got up and walked to my room, wondering what I was going to do. The tension between my family and Aidan was unbearable, but there was little I could do about it as long as I was ignorant of what was going on around me.

Chapter Seven

Just as I finished eating the next morning, Aidan came through the door dressed in jeans and black T-shirt, his hair tousled and his blue eyes sparkling as they met mine. “Good morning, Katie, are you ready for school?”

I nodded, unable to look away from the gorgeous male before me
. “Yes, I’m just waiting for Paul.”

“One of us will drive you today,
” my mother told me. “Paul had a late night. He’s going to get some rest before joining you at school this morning.”

I felt bad
, knowing I was to blame, but then I remembered his harsh words the night before and decided he deserved any unrest he might have suffered.

“I’ll take you,” Aid
an said, reaching out and taking my backpack from my hand. 

O
ur hands brushed creating the achingly familiar sparks I had come to expect, and he pulled back so quickly he nearly dropped the bag.

My father
frowned and rose to his feet, looking displeased, but before he could say a word, my mother spoke. “You better get going or you will be late,” she said, her voice cracking slightly as she placed a restraining hand on my father’s shoulder. 

“I’ll see you later,” I said to my parents
, as Aidan escorted me from the room and out of the front door, where his car waited. Obviously, I thought, he had planned to take me to school all along, and that made me smile.

Carefully
, he helped me inside and checked my seatbelt, before closing the door and moving swiftly to the driver’s side. “Ready?” he asked, turning to look at me with a warm gaze after he settled himself inside of the car.

Ready? A
ll I wanted was to stay there in that moment with him, lost in his brilliant blue eyes, but that wasn’t realistic. I was a teenager, a high school student and he was…well, he was just amazing and so not for me. “Yes,” I answered regretfully, sitting back and mentally chastising myself that I was heading for heartache if I kept allowing my feelings for Aidan to grow out of control.

H
e smiled ruefully and put his foot on the gas pedal. We flew down the road, but the speed did not bother me; Paul always drove fast, and I knew it was rare for their kind to lose focus long enough to have an accident. In fact, I was more nervous about what would happen if Scott was at school than I was of dying in a fiery wreck.

“Paul will
be at the school shortly, so there should not be any problems,” he said, as if reading my thoughts.

“As long as no one has been murdered,
I will be fine,” I muttered, still upset he would not tell me exactly how he’d “handled” Scott.

“No one is deceased
,” he said as he pulled into the parking lot. “Regardless, that boy will not be around to bother you again. I made sure of that.”

I pictured Scott
laying unconscious in an ICU somewhere and grimaced. “And that is all you are going to tell me, right?”

He sighed
clearly agitated by my refusal to let it go. “You need to have more faith in me. But until you do, try not to let your imagination get the better of you,”

We arrived
in front of the school just in time for the largest crowd of teenagers to converge while trying to beat the morning bell. Everyone stared in our direction as Aidan pulled up in his expensive car, got out, and opened my door.

I grabbed my backpack from the back seat and turned towards him
, trying to tune out the growing crowd who watched us, ignoring the bell that rang out loudly in warning. “Thanks for the ride.”

“No problem
, have a nice day, I’ll see you later” He leaned towards me and for brief moment I thought he might kiss me, but to my regret, he ran his finger along my bottom lip and pulled away when Jess ran up beside us.

“Hey
, Aidan,” Jess said smiling up at him, completely clueless she had interrupted anything between us.

“
Jessica. How are you?” he asked, his manners flawless as always.

“I’
m fine. That sure is a nice car.” She gave the sleek black car an admiring glance and ran her hand over the hood almost lovingly.

“Thanks
, I like it,” he told her proudly. “Do me a favor; keep close to Katie today, alright?”

“Chris and I
won’t leave her alone,” she answered seriously.

“See you later,” Aidan said.

“Yeah, later,” I said as Jess slid her arm through mine.

We turned to walk away
, and I heard the engine roar to life behind us as he pulled away. I placed my hand to my heart, feeling a sense of loss at his absence that puzzled me.

“He is so gorgeous
,” Jess sighed. “I do not understand why you do not go after him; anyone can see he’s totally into you.”

Was he? I shook my head at the thought.
“Jess, he would not be interested in me. I am too young for him.” I sighed, knowing those words were truer than any I had ever spoken.

“Y
ou really should look in a mirror sometime; you could easily pass for eighteen. That’s not much younger than he is.”

If only she knew how old he really was
, I thought. “Trust me. He wouldn’t be interested.  He’s kind of like royalty where he comes from, and I’m a nobody.” It hurt to say but it was entirely true. Why would someone like Aidan, who could have any female in the world, want someone like me?

Chris was waiting
at our lockers in his usual good humor, which helped take my mind off Aidan and refocus it on his bad jokes as we gathered our books and got ready for our first class. He became serious, though, as he walked us to our first class, making us promise not to leave until he came for us after the bell rang.

Jess and I walked into the room, both of us tensed for a confrontation,
but we did not see Scott. I breathed a sigh of relief, uncertain whether to be glad or worried about his absence, since I was still unsure what Aidan had meant when he said he had “handled” him. I reasoned, though, that surely if anything had happened to him, I would have already heard about it from the gossips at school.

“How are you
, Katie?” a male voice next to me asked as I settled into my seat.

I l
ooked up at Chad Hamilton’s six-foot-four-frame with surprise. We had been going to school together since kindergarten, but he didn’t usually go out of his way to seek me out, so I wondered what was up. “Uh, fine,” I answered uncertainly.

“I heard about Scott moving away
. That’s too bad,” he said, although his warm smile didn’t reflect his words.

Moved away?
Is that how Aidan was covering up whatever he did to Scott? “Uh, yeah.” What could I say? I didn’t know if Scott really moved or not. For all I knew he could be twelve feet under in a hidden spot in the forest that surrounded our town.
No
, I thought. Surely Aidan wouldn’t have killed him. He wasn’t a violent man. But I remembered the rage in his eyes that night, which made it hard to completely discount my fears. 

“
Anyway, since you’re obviously not dating him anymore, I was wondering if maybe you might want to go to a movie or something, with me.”

His
fingers tapped nervously on my desk as he stood beside it, waiting for my answer. I was not sure what to say. I had always like Chad, he was sweet and kind, but I had never really thought about dating him. He just wasn’t my type: but then again dating Scott, who I thought was my type of guy, had been a disaster, so maybe I didn’t really know how to pick the right guy. As I contemplated how best to answer, Jess was already handing him my cell phone number.

“I’ll call you an
d we can work it out,” he said with a shy smile before rushing to his seat, as the teacher cleared her throat to gain our attention.

Jess chattered almost constan
tly about Chad’s date request throughout class, and by the time the bell rang, she had convinced me that I should seriously consider Chad’s offer. I wasn’t all too keen on dating after my incident with Scott, but I also didn’t want to let fear keep me from living my life, so it wasn’t completely out of the question.

To my surprise,
Paul and Chris were waiting for us as we exited the room, and by silent agreement, neither Jess nor I said anything about Chad asking me out. I breathed a sigh of relief that Jess was so in tune with me, because the last thing I needed was a fight with my brother about dating! I would save that argument for when I would have to face my parents if I indeed decided to go out with Chad. Which I still had not decided.

“Hey
, sis,” Paul said, placing his arm around my shoulders and pulling me against him. “Sorry about last night. My mouth overloaded itself and I kind of lost my temper.”

I wanted to be angry
, but he grinned at me and I was unable to remain mad. “Don’t let it happen again,” I said simply.

“I won’t,” he told me
, looking chagrinned. “Did Mom bring you in this morning?”

“Uh,
Aidan drove me in.” He frowned and his hand tightened into a fist, but I ignored it, unwilling to start an argument with him in the middle of the hallway about his sudden dislike for Aidan. The only thing I could figure was that Paul, who had always been close to me, picked up on my feelings for his prince and was worried I would get my heart broken.

“Let’s get going
, or we are going to be late for class,” Jess said. breaking into our conversation.

I shoved away all of my worries and allowed Paul to lead me to my next class
, but I knew I was going to have to confront my brother at some point about what was happening between me and Aidan. I mean, did he seriously believe someone who was as handsome, smart, and powerful as Aidan would want anything to do with me? Then again, I reminded myself, he did kiss me, and when he was with me he seemed happy and content, and what about those weird sparks that flew between us when we touched? Was it all just my imagination, or was there something between us?

“Katie,” Paul said at the door of my next class
, pulling me from my thoughts. I smiled and said goodbye, then walked into class, but I still couldn’t shake the idea that there was something going on that I needed to know.

*****

   I was reminded once more of Chad’s interest in dating me at lunch as he flagged me down wanting me to sit with his friends and him at their table. I wanted to say no since he was sitting with all the football players, but he looked so hopeful that I just couldn’t hurt his feelings. Besides, it was not that I did not like Chad. In fact, he was really quite good looking: Blond, well muscled, with large chocolate-brown eyes that made you feel warm and comforted. He was everything a girl my age should want in a boyfriend, but he did not make my heart flutter or my palms sweat like what happened when I was around Aidan.  I sighed, quickly chastising myself for the direction my thoughts had taken.

I sat at the table and opened the lunch that my mother had packed for me
, listening as everyone around me speculated about Scott’s very sudden move, dreading the moment one of them would ask me what I knew about it.

“I heard his dad got a
promotion and they had to go immediately,” one of the football players said.

“Yeah,
that’s what I heard too, but it really sucks. This was going to be our year to dominate on the field,” another player said disgustedly.

I listened
and wondered how Aidan managed to get that rumor spread so quickly. I mean, our date was on Saturday so barely any time had passed, but it seemed everyone knew about Scott’s sudden departure from our town.

“Katie
, you saw him last. Did he say anything to you?” Jackson Riley, our team’s secondary quarterback, asked.

Every
one stopped talking at once and looked my way, waiting for my answer. I wished in that moment that the floor would open up and swallow me whole. “To be honest, he didn’t really tell me anything. I wasn’t feeling good so I left the party early, and the music was so loud that we did not really have time to talk much before that.”  It was not quite a lie, but not the truth either. Whatever happened to Scott, only Aidan knew, and he was not telling. 

With
the subject of Scott’s disappearance satisfied, talk shifted to my upcoming sweet- sixteen party. Since we lived in such a small town, where everyone knew everyone, that meant most of the school was attending. My mother was famous for the parties she threw, which were usually the talk of the town for weeks afterward, so everyone was looking forward to the party. I nodded and answered all of their questions vaguely until the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Ready to escape, I rose from my seat, but one of the other guys who had been at the table stopped me before I left the cafeteria and asked me if I wanted to go out sometime with him. Jess and Chris appeared, flanking my side, and Paul joined us, glaring at the male, who mumbled something about getting to class before taking off without an answer. I never thought I would be glad to have my brother scare a guy away from me, but in that moment I was grateful for his overprotective nature.