Hush - Fighting Fate #2 (10 page)

His eyes widened a fraction and he turned to squint in the direction Mitch had gone.
“That was one of TJ’s guys?”

I threw him any icy stare. “Yes. They’re quite charming, aren’t they?”

He stared me down for a while, his eyes beginning to narrow more with each passing second. “Are you drunk, Kaeli?”

I thought I’d sobered up
after vomiting, but apparently not enough. I rolled my eyes, really not wanting to have that conversation. Turning the key in the lock again, I pushed the door open and walked inside.

Heading straight for the shower, I stripped and stepped under the hot spray, allowing it to wash everything away. All the horrid feelings. All the confusion. All the fear.

When I was done, I felt exceedingly tired and well and truly ready for bed. Trying not to stumble out the bathroom, I hit the light switch and shuffled towards my room.

Movement in my mom’s room caught my eye, snapping my brain wide awake in a heartbeat
. When I realized it was Aaron, I blanched. What the hell was he doing in our parent’s room?

“What are you doing?”
I demanded, my tone strangely coming out sounding accusatory, but then again, I meant it to.

Aaron spun around so quickly I was surprised he didn’
t get whiplash. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I was looking for Dad’s blue tie. I’ve got an interview tomorrow.”

I cocked my eyebrow. Somehow I found that hard to believe. Aaron didn’t want a job. He was the laziest person I knew.

With my care factor dropping to zero, I rolled my eyes and went to bed, making sure I sent Mia a quick text to tell her I was home safe.

***

My head announced its displeasure the second I woke on Saturday morning – or maybe I should say afternoon, because it was definitely borderline. It took about five seconds for all the memories from the night before to come rushing back to me, and then the heat to fill my cheeks.

I kissed
Corey. I kissed Corey then walked out without saying goodbye. Then what had I done? I’d practically wrapped myself around Mitch! Mitch of all people! Oh my god! What Corey must’ve thought when he came out and saw me like that. I groaned, burying my face in my hands.

I’d be lucky if h
e ever looked at me again.

Rolling over, I grabbed my
cell from the bedside table. Four missed calls from Mia, and six text messages. Shit.

I quickly scrolled through the worried messages. They ranged from,
where are you? Are you ok?
, to,
Corey said you left with some guy with tats?! Pls tell me ur ok.

I sighed.
Good job, Kaeli. Dig yourself out of this one.
Finding Mia’s number, I hit ‘call’.

Mia answered on the second ring. “Kaeli?”

“Hey.”

“Oh my god. Are you okay? I’ve been worried sick,” she rushed. I could hear low voices in the background.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m sorry I baled on you. I did text you though…”

The voices grew louder through the phone. “Hang on,” Mia said, then I heard shuffling sounds, like she was on the move. “That’s better. Why did you leave? I thought you were having fun. I mean, you seemed to be into Corey alright.”

I groaned. I didn’t want her to remind me. “That was such a mistake. I can’t believe I let him kiss me. I’ve got so much going on, my head’s a mess. Shit. Was he upset with me?”

There was a pause for a few seconds before she answered. “I don’t know. I think he was worried more than anything. To be honest, I’m a little angry with him. So’s Jace.”

“What? Why?”

“Kaeli, he saw you with a guy none of us have ever seen before. A guy with tats and piercings.
You were drunk, and he just let you leave with him.”

This was just getting worse! “Don’t blame Corey. He asked if I was okay – if I wanted him to walk me home, but I told him I was fine.”

“Why would you do that? Who was the guy, Kaeli?”

I chose my words carefully. “He’s kind of a business associate of Ken’s. I wouldn’t have left with him if I didn’t think I was safe, Mia. You know that. Yes, I was drunk, but I could still use
my brain.”

My words made me pause. I remembered the conclusion I’d come to the night before. I still wasn’t certain about Mitch’s intentions, but I truly believed he didn’t want to hurt me. Why, I didn’t know. It was just a gut feeling.

“So, he wasn’t some random stranger you just met on the street?”

I laughed then, but immediately regretted it when my head protested. “I should be pissed you could possibly think I would do something like that.”

Mia sighed. “I didn’t. It was the guys. They were all ready to go after you. Lucky you text me when you got home or they probably would’ve.”

Great. Just great. Having any attention on me at the moment was bad. I didn’t need anyone looking closer than they needed to.
“Well, you can tell them he’s a friend of the family’s, so they can all just back off.”

It came out a lot more forceful than I’d intended, but I wasn’t in the mood for niceties right now. My life was screwed, and I was dealing with it the best I could.

“Don’t worry. I’ll sort it out, okay?”

The lump that came to my throat came out of nowhere. What the hell? “Yeah, thanks. I know I’m probably not making any sense right now, but I just need some space to work through it, and having the guys checking on me is only going to make things worse.”

Mia was quiet for a bit, and I could picture her biting her lip with worry. “I understand, but Kaeli? Just remember there are people here who love you and would do anything for you.”

Yeah, I needed to get off the phone. I swallowed. “I know.” Shit
, this was hard. “Listen, I better go…”

“Okay. I’ll ring you tomorrow. Maybe we could try to catch up or something?”

If only I had the luxury of planning anything in my life… “Yeah, sure.”

We said our goodbyes and I threw the
cell down on my bed. I’d never felt like everything was so hopeless in my life.

Chapter 20

Noah

I woke to loud thumping on my door. Stumbling out of bed, I
threw the door open and found Davo standing in the hall with his usual impartial expression on his face.

“Wanna come do some debt collecting?” he asked casually.

I refrained from groaning. TJ’s style of debt collecting involved threats, physical violence, and broken bones. “Who?” I asked.

He grinned. “Delaney.”

My eyebrow twitched. Delaney I could do. He was a serial loser who picked up homeless girls off the street – no matter how old they were, giving them promises of food and shelter. The only catch was once they agreed, he owned them. He got them addicted to crack and made them earn their keep by prostituting them out. I would actually take great pleasure in smacking him around. “Sure. Just let me get dressed.”

He disappeared down the hall while I quickly threw on a pair of jeans and a shirt.
After slipping on my boots, I grabbed my piece and tucked it into the waist band of my jeans.

The drive over to the
northern district took just over fifteen minutes. Davo was his usual silent self as he drove, content to just tap on the steering wheel as he listened to the radio. Unfortunately it left me with my own thoughts, and they instantly wanted to recap on the events of the night before.

I still had no idea what to do when it came to Kaeli. I’d laid awake for hours thinking about it.
I was such an idiot to think my plan would work. All I’d thought about was how to make it look like I was taking advantage of her to TJ and the other guys. I hadn’t even considered what would happen when
she
realized I wasn’t like the others.

And then there was the way my pulse overreacted to her touch, the thrill I’d felt when she
’d looked up at me with so much trust. I just wasn’t prepared for that. For the past twelve months I’d been focused on doing my job, and up to the point of Kaeli’s arrival, girls had been included in that. Any girl I’d been with was just part of the job, part of the lie to make my life believable. Kaeli had reminded me I was human, that somewhere deep inside me, I was actually a normal teenage boy.

My mind instantly went to the guy from the party
. I didn’t know what he was to Kaeli, but it was obvious they weren’t dating – although the desire was clear in his eyes. When he’d offered to walk her home I wanted to tell him to fuck off – she was mine, but then she’d told him no, and I wanted to beat my chest in victory.

Walking her home, I realized just how stupid I’d been. I should’ve encouraged her to go with the boy. I shouldn’t be trying to keep her for myself. I needed to
just get her out of the shit Ken had put her in, and let her go live a normal teenage life where her only concerns would be good grades and boyfriends.

The thought of the position Ken had put her in made my blood boil. I was going to make sure he was put away for a long time, even if it was the
very last thing I ever did.

I forced myself back to the present as Davo pulled up to the curb.
If I thought about it, Ken was no better than Delaney. Okay, Kaeli hadn’t been forced to take drugs or raped for money, but I was fairly sure when Ken first sent her to TJ’s, he would’ve known that’s what would happen to her. Did it make him any better just because it hadn’t?

I was
seriously starting to get pissed off. These people disgusted me.

Climbing
out of the car, I slammed the door hard, sending the frame rocking, then with purposeful strides, I stormed up to Delaney’s door and thumped as hard as I could.

I could feel Davo watching me as we waited. I knew he’d be curious as to why I was so fucking mad, but I wasn’t in the mood to worry about it now.

Muffled noises came from the other side of the door, just before I heard the sound of a latch being released and the knob being turned. I didn’t wait for whoever it was to open it. I crashed against it with my shoulder, sending the person stumbling backward.

I
t took me two seconds to identify the person as Delaney as he righted his footfalls, and one more to land a right handed jab at his nose.

Delaney swore, crashing back against the wall, holding his now bloody nose. I heard screams and gasps coming from some of the girls as they ran to hide.
Grabbing Delaney by his shirt, I shoved him harder against the wall, hitting him with another jab to the nose.

“Where’s our money
, maggot?”

Delaney squealed.
“Fuck man! I got it! It’s in the other room. I was going to call TJ today to tell him!”

I pulled out my gun
. “Get it.”

Delaney stumbled away from the wall, using his shirt to try to catch the blood that was still flowing freely. “You broke my fucking nose!”

We followed him through to the other room and watched him open a package. I moved closer, my gun never leaving his head. I would never trust losers like him. The fucker could be getting his own gun for all I knew. But after a few fumbling moments, he held up a few wads of bills before thrusting them into a plastic bag and tossing it to me.

I passed the bag to Davo without taking my eyes off Delaney. “Is it all there?”

Davo grunted and I heard the bag rustle. “Yep.”

I glared at Delaney. “Don’t ever make
us wait for payment again. Got it?”

Delaney glared back. “Yeah, I got it.”

Following Davo out the door, I tucked the gun back into the waist band of my jeans and climbed in the car. Davo laughed out loud as he started the engine, making me raise an eyebrow at him.

“Not a morning person?” he asked sarcastically.

I grunted. “Something like that.”

**
*

Later that day I drove into town
after telling the guys I was in need of some munchies. After checking my mirror for the tenth time, I sent a quick text to Kate then immediate hit the delete button.

Ten minutes later I pulled up in front of a run down low set house with a half collapsed wire fence out the front. Climbing from the car, I did a quick check to make sure I wasn’t being watched, then walked up the path and knocked on the door.

Kate opened the door wearing a skimpy silk night dress with her hair messed up like she’d just gotten out of bed.

I smiled. “Hi.”

Her lips curved up in response, her gaze turning sexually devious as she took me in. “Well, hello,” she said.

I didn’t hesitate to grab her by the waist and pull her into me, pressing my mouth onto hers as I pushed her backwards into the house and shut the door with my foot.

The second the door was closed, she pushed me away, laughing. “You horn dog.”

I reached for her again with a sly grin. “I know you want me.”

“In your dreams, baby.” Her stance was defiant, but her eyes sparkled with something else. Turning away from me, she slumped onto the couch and ran her fingers through her short blonde hair. “What’s new?”