Rocking Kin (The Lucy & Harris Novella Series Book 3) (19 page)

Lucy’s face showed her surprise. “Don’t thank me,” she told Angie. “Kin’s been my life saver.”

I frowned, missing the rest of their exchange as I looked at Lucy closer. I’d saved her? What did that mean? I tried to think back to the first time I’d met Lucy, tried to compare how she was then to how she was now, but she seemed the same happy chick who had helped me through such an insane time in my life. Sure, she was in love now, but that was the only difference I really saw.

What had I missed?

It niggled at me, making me want to pause to go back over all the months we had been best friends. As I looked at Lucy, watched how she interacted with Angie and Caleb, I realized that maybe there was a difference. I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

Caleb turned from hugging Lucy, forcing me back to the moment as he thrust his hands into his pockets. “Are you really grounded? Your email to Angie said you were, but you didn’t know for how long. What the hell did you do, Kin?”

I knew he was teasing me, but remembering that I was grounded burst my happy bubble. “Nothing,” I grumbled. “For once, I didn’t do a damn thing. Georgia rushed the stage, kissed the guy performing, and got escorted out of the club with her hands cuffed with zip ties.” I didn’t mention it had been Jace she had kissed. I wasn’t ready to dive into that conversation with the twins yet. “Lucy gave us a ride home and Marcus here walked us to the door to explain to my father and Jillian what happened. Georgia got a pat on the head by mommy dearest and I got grounded indefinitely for not using my ‘influence’ to get her out of trouble.”

It still stung that Scott had been so worried about Georgia, but hadn’t spared me more than a glance the night before. Asshat.

A honk echoed off the school walls behind us and I clenched my hands into fists as I told myself I needed to keep my nose clean. That meant not punching my step-bitches in the face. Although I was pretty sure that Jillian would use it as a good reason to enhance her daughters’ features.

“We’ll see how long you stay grounded once Daddy gets here,” Angie muttered more to herself than to anyone else as she flipped the step-bitches the bird.

Ah, I loved Angie so damn much. She was a little goddess. The sister of my heart looked like what most would call an angel with her long blond hair and those brilliant blue eyes. She had a sweet voice that she used to her advantage often and had gotten us out of trouble more than a few times with it. The thing about Angie, though, was that appearances had never been more deceiving. She was anything but an angel.

She was pure hell on high heels when she needed to be—or more like when she wanted to be. And when she was with me and her twin, she wanted to be. Often.

Caleb, on the other hand, looked like a gorgeous beast from hell. He was scary with his hulk-like body and sometimes menacing scowl. Like his twin, appearances were deceptive. The brother of my heart was more angel than his sister could ever hope to be.

“But we aren’t going to get to hang out tonight, are we?” Caleb said with a cute little pout, bringing me back to the situation at hand.

“No,” I muttered as fresh tears stung my eyes. Damn it. I had cried more in the last ten minutes than I had in six months.

Lucy was quick to step in, though. “How about I take you two out on the town tonight? Marcus and I will pick you up at your hotel and take you to dinner and then to First Bass. I’ll give you the full VIP experience.”

I forced a smile for her. “Yeah, you two.” I knew that Lucy would take care of the two people who meant so much to me. “Go out with Lucy and have a good time. When Carter gets here we can have our time.” Georgia hit the horn again and I was ten seconds from punching her in the face, so I hugged the twins again. “I’m so happy you two are here. I love you both so much.”

Angie opened her mouth, but Carolina chose that moment to yell at me. “Kin. Let’s go. Mother is expecting us.”

At least it was Carolina. If it had been Georgia, I might have gone all Tasmanian devil on her ass.

Keep your nose clean, Kin.

I gritted my teeth as I reminded myself. Just a few more months until I was eighteen.

Still, I gave the twins a teasing grin. “Did you guys bring cash with you? You might have to bail me out of jail later after I beat the shit out of those two.”

Angie’s brows lifted, her blue eyes full of interest. “You scared to get into more trouble?”

“Ang,” I covered my heart with my hand. “really? Have you forgotten me so easily?”

Nose. Clean.

Fuck that shit. Angie was there. I was going to have some fun, damn it.

Angie grinned. “I’ll call you later, sugar bug.”

Seeing that evil-ass grin on her beautiful face filled me with so much love it almost hurt. “Did I mention I missed you? Because I have. So. Bad.” I blew her a kiss and then turned to hurry to the car where Georgia was laying down on the horn and not letting go. Fucking cunt.

While Georgia drove us back to their house, I pulled out my cellphone and pulled up Jace’s name. I needed to at least warn him that the twins were in town.

Seeing that I already had one unread message from him, I opened it.

Will you come to First Bass tonight?

My teeth sank into my bottom lip.

I’m grounded. Lucy will be there though… With Caleb and Angie.

As soon as I hit send I saw that he’d gotten the message and was already reading it, like he’d been waiting on me to message him back. Did he do that often, I wondered? Had he been waiting after every text he had sent me over the past months? There had been a lot of them, and if he had been waiting for a reply to each one, that had to mean something.

Right?

Fuck, I didn’t know, but my heart ached to believe that it did.

YOU ANSWERED!!!

I rolled my eyes at the shouting, excited text.

Thought I should warn you that Caleb was in town with Angie.

I tried to emphasize that to him, but he didn’t seem to care that I was trying to help him. He was still too excited that I’d replied to his message.

When is the grounding over? Can I see you soon? Can you CALL me?

I muttered a curse under my breath. If Jace had been sitting beside me right then, I would have shaken his shoulders. Or beaten some sense into his hard head.

ANGIE IS IN TOWN, JACE. ANGIE. SHE WILL BE AT FIRST BASS TONIGHT WITH LUCY AND CALEB. ANGIE. ANGIE. A. N. G. I. E.

I hit send and hoped that he finally got what I was attempting to make him realize. Caleb was in town with Angie. Angie who would kick him in the balls if she saw him without warning. Angie who would do so much more damage with just the smallest provoking. He didn’t have to worry about Caleb who was so much harder to piss off and wouldn’t dare hurt anyone unless either Angie or I asked him to kick their ass.

Angie would tear Jace St. Charles apart and smile like an angel when she was done.

Yeah. Got that, babe. Don’t care. Want to see YOU. Want to hear your voice. Call me.

Before I could make up my mind to call him or not, the car came to a jerking stop. If I hadn’t been wearing my seatbelt I would have gotten whiplash for sure. Fighting back the kind of nausea that came with the kind of rollercoaster ride Georgia took me on every time she was behind the wheel, I quickly typed out one last text before reluctantly getting out of the car.

I’ll call you later.

Chapter 15

Jace

She was going to call.

Fuck yeah.

Finally.

That Kin had actually texted me back had put a stupid grin on my face. With her promise to call me, I was actually walking around the apartment singing along to one of my favorite songs on my playlist as I fixed myself a late lunch.

Mostly all we had in the fridge was milk, eggs, a hell of a bunch of condiments and a shitload of beer. The pantry was just as bare with only a few half-empty boxes of cereal, some canned soup and an assortment of flavors of protein powder that Gray kept stocked up. He was a total freak about his protein powders.

I scrambled some eggs, added a few slices of toast smothered in grape jelly and headed into the living room to watch some TV while I waited on Kin to call. I had no idea when—or even if she actually would—call, but I wasn’t going anywhere until she did.

As I was stuffing the last of the toast in my mouth, Gray walked into the living room in nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist and his phone to his ear. “Yeah, he’s here,” I heard him say to whoever he was on the phone with. “Looks fine to me, Kas.”

I shot him a look as he fell onto the couch, stretching out before crossing his legs. “No. You don’t need to talk to him. I just told you he was fine…Because I want to talk to you, that’s why. He can suck it.”

I rolled my eyes and washed down the toast with a big swallow of coffee. Knowing Gray wouldn’t hand over his phone to me or anyone else when it was Kassa on the other end, I cleared my throat. “I’m good, Kas. Love you,” I called out so she could hear me.

“See? He’s fine, just as I told you.” He listened for a second before grunting. “Fine. Kas says she loves you too, dickhead.”

Gray stayed on the couch, talking to Kassa about anything and everything that seemed to come to Kassa’s mind. I knew my sister loved me and confided in me, but not the way she did Gray. I was glad that they had that kind of relationship. I was thankful that Gray cared about her just as much as I did and would listen to her complain for two hours straight about her day without grumbling about her taking up his time.

They were still on the phone when my own cell buzzed with an incoming text. I picked it up, saw it was from Kin and pulled up the message.

Will be at First Bass in an hour. You coming?

My brows lifted at that.
Thought you were grounded.

ANGIE IS HERE.

Of course. That answered that particular question perfectly. Smirking at the screen, I quickly sent her a text back, letting her know I’d see her at the club, before getting to my feet. Gray didn’t even spare me a second glance as I took my dirty dishes into the kitchen to put them in the sink before heading into my bedroom to change.

Pulling a clean shirt over my head, I picked my phone up again.

You gonna need bail money and a lawyer?

There was a long pause but I soon saw that she had read my message.

Funny.

I grinned at the text and then at the next one that followed.

Maybe…

Laughing, I grabbed my keys and headed out.

Kin

Angie had called and told me to be waiting on the curb. I hadn’t questioned her, just gotten dressed for a night out in my favorite jeans, a tank top and my coat. I’d tiptoed downstairs in my sock feet and silently closed the front door behind me as I’d carried my boots with me.

She was already waiting on me when I got to the curb and I jumped in without giving my father’s house a second glance. Angie gunned the engine of the powerful car Caleb must have rented, burning rubber for a moment before she was pulling out into traffic.

I started slipping my feet into my boots, already laughing at the fierce look on my stepsister’s face. I’d just snuck out, but there hadn’t been any problems with getting caught. Jillian and her daughters were out, but Scott was somewhere in the house. But the look on Angie’s face and the smirk on her lips made it seem like she had just helped me escape Folsom or some shit. From the way she was driving, I was pretty sure she thought the cops were going to appear at any moment and try to take me away from her.

“You okay?” Angie asked five minutes into the drive.

“With you and Caleb here, I’m more than okay.” It was the truth. I had never been more okay than I was right in that moment.

“Good.” She nodded, her blond hair falling into her face. With a sigh she pushed the thick locks back. “Where ya wanna go, little sis?”

“First Bass,” I didn’t hesitate to tell her. “It’s where Lucy will have taken Caleb.”

“The rocker boy’s club, right?” She nodded to herself. “Cash and the guys play there, right?”

I shrugged. “Yeah. Every Thursday night. Cash won’t be there tonight, though. Not unless Caleb called him.”

“He couldn’t get hold of Cash, so it’s just us.”

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and glanced at the texts Jace and I had been sending back and forth before turning my gaze back to Angie. “Jace will be there.”

She didn’t even blink. “Will he? Good.”