Ruin Me (13 page)

Chapter 14

Kai

I hold the door open and let Piper enter the hotel room first. You know, because I’m such a fucking gentleman and all.

Judging by Mandy’s token giggle echoing through the wall, she and Shawn are right on target for the perfect night. The anger inside of me makes the perfect armor for the stabbing jealousy I’m sure I’d feel otherwise.

I close the door behind me and watch as Piper begins stuffing her clothing back inside her suitcase. Her eyes fall on the itinerary and she shoves that inside with a quick stab of the eyes at me.

“Look, Piper—”

“Shut the fuck up.”

I recoil and sigh against the door. She zips her suitcase closed and pulls her phone from her purse. “Who are you calling?” I ask her as she brings it to her ear.

She doesn’t answer. Instead, she turns around and stares at the opposite wall while the other line rings. Even now, I can’t help but admire the curve of her back. Her tight, black skirt hugs her ass in just the right way. Her toned legs look even more glorious with high heels pushing them up —
fuck me.
How can she drive me
this
wild? I’m pissed off and ready to punch a giant hole in the wall and still, all I can think about is bending her over the bathroom sink.

“Piper…”

“Hey, it’s me,” she says into the phone. “I had a change in plans.”

I step off the door. “Piper…”

“Yeah. Sorry.” She hangs up and tosses the phone onto the bedside table before beelining for the bathroom.

“Piper!”

Her eyes catch mine for a brief second as she returns to the room with her make-up bag. She keeps her lips tightly sealed with cement. Not that she needs words to convey how she feels anyway. I can read it all in her eyes. Those beautiful, expressive blue balls locked inside her fucking skull tell me everything.

She despises me.

More than usual.

I honestly thought that was impossible.

She reaches down and grips the handle of her suitcase. I take a quick step in front of it. “Piper, will you
please
talk to me?” I ask slowly, trying very hard to keep my cool. She lowers her head down, ignoring me. I’m not sure why I expected otherwise. “Pipes, come on…”

Air explodes out of her nose and her boiling blue eyes lock on mine before she twists around me and marches to the door. I stay put and flinch when she slams it closed behind her.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!

I kick the bedside table and wince as pain radiates through my toes. A minute later, Shawn stumbles into the room with his duffel bag hanging off his shoulder and his shirt and pants gripped in his fist. He stares at me with angry eyes, standing in the doorway wearing nothing but his boxer shorts.

“What the hell did you do?” he growls.

I shake my head. “Don’t ask.”

He kicks the door closed behind him. “Are you bleeding?” he asks as he throws his bag to the floor.

I reach up and feel the dry blood on my nose crack beneath my fingers. I grit my teeth in pain. “Yeah…” I say. “I was.” The memory of that brute’s fist knocking me out rings through my head. Pain pierces my nose as I touch it and it travels all the way to my ears and back.

“Did Piper hit you?” he asks.

I walk into the bathroom and hold a washcloth under the tap. “Not exactly,” I answer. I move the wet towel under my nose, being careful not to push it back even an inch or else feel the continued wrath of Piper
fucking
Lynch up through my olfactory nerve. It takes forever, but I manage to clean the blood off my skin and inner nostrils. I throw the towel in the trash can before returning to the room.

Shawn, now fully clothed, lies on Piper’s empty bed with the television remote grasped between his fingers. “You know, I used to think you were
good
at the whole seduction thing,” he says.

I glare at him before falling onto the free bed. I want to argue and defend myself, but there’s no sense in trying at this point. Piper’s out of my league. Always has been — and probably always will be. It’s not like I give a shit anymore anyway. I wasn’t trying to seduce her tonight. I wanted to keep her safe, but I guess that just makes me an asshole. Oh, well.

I stare at the ceiling and close my eyes while I listen to the foreign voices coming from the television in the corner.

***

Buzz buzz.

Buzz buzz.

My head throbs with pain. I feel it long before I open my eyes. Even in my dreams, I could feel it pounding away, that phantom pain my dream-self couldn’t figure out. I glance around the dark room and sit up. Shawn’s lost to the world, trapped beneath a mountain of pillows and blankets. Snores fill the air around him.

I yawn and immediately regret it as I move my nose muscles and flinch with great pain. I slink off the bed and enter the bathroom to search for some kind of painkiller. Thankfully, this dank and cheap Italian hotel has a cabinet partially stocked with sample-sized pills. I’m not sure what it is, honestly, but I don’t give a crap. I just want the pounding in my head to stop.

I fill my mouth with sink water and swallow them down. My face sports a fresh purple bruise along the bridge of my nose. I turn away almost immediately. Fuck this place, man. Piper’s completely right. When we reach Paris, it’s time for a separation of ways.

I step back into the room and plop back onto the bed.

Buzz buzz.

The vibrations pull my attention towards the bedside table between the beds. A phone shines brightly into the dark room, then quickly dims itself. It’s not mine, and I’m pretty sure it’s not Shawn’s either. Which means…

It’s Piper’s. She must have left it behind.

I reach for it without thinking and flick the screen on to find a series of unread text messages on the lock screen, all sent within the last ten minutes. It’s nearly five in the morning — who is sending her messages at five in the morning? I suppose it could be someone in America, different time zones and all that. I search the screen for a name, but the number is labeled only as
M
.

I can’t believe you’re actually here.

Here’s my address in Paris.

See you soon. ;)

I lower the phone, fighting the extreme urge to react to this. Obviously, Piper has arranged to meet up with someone in Paris. I remember that email I found in her itinerary. The one from some fucker named Dante. Is
M
just a French Dante? Some guy she met over the internet? Who else would use a stupid fucking
winky
face in a text message like that? I know what that means. It’s douchebag talk for
“Come here so I can fuck your brains out.”
I wish I had scanned through more of her itinerary before charging out to that fucking club. I could have solved this mystery already.
M.
Who the fuck are you? There’s probably more messages from him, but I can’t open her phone or else she’ll know I saw these.

I take out my own phone and snap a photo of the messages on the lock screen, complete with this bastard’s address.

Sure, Pipes. We can go our separate ways once we get to Paris.

But I won’t be too far behind you.

***

“Well, you’ve certainly dug quite the hole for yourself, Kai.” Mandy slides the compartment door closed behind her and sits down in the empty seat across from me.

I sigh and stare out the window to avoid her judgmental gaze. “Mandy… please. I don’t need this right now.” My face still aches from the night before and talking only makes the pain so much more intense. A French sunset hangs on the horizon in front of me. I stare at it instead.

“A swift kick in the ass is what you
need
,” she says, “but someone already took care of that for me.” She leans forward to get a closer look at my nose. “You should get that checked out.”

“I’m fine,” I mutter. “And what do you care anyway?”

She sits back. “Don’t be a jerk, Kai. I’m waving a white flag here.”

I see the concern on her face. “Sorry,” I tell her. “Where’s Shawn?”

“Diner car.
Again.
” She rolls her eyes. “Apparently, they’ve got some great pastries or whatever.”

I hesitate a moment. “And Pipes?”

She takes a breath. “Piper is Piper.”

Outside of the occasion visit from Shawn, I’ve been locked in this compartment by myself for the last five hours. Or has it been six hours? Seven? It doesn’t matter. I spent the first hour of this final trip trying to get Piper to look at me and talk to me, but she refused every time. I finally said fuck it and retreated into the compartment. If she doesn’t want to talk to me, then fine.

I grip my phone in my jacket pocket.
M.
Whoever the fuck you are. I can’t get the image of Piper pinned against that club wall out of my head. I don’t even want to imagine what she’ll be doing once she gets to this guy’s fucking apartment in Paris. I checked out the address earlier. Of course, it’s in a really shitty neighborhood, from what I could tell by the online map. Trash on the ground. Surrounding buildings in decay. You’ve picked a
real fucking winner
to hook-up with, Piper.

“You really care about her, don’t you?”

I snap out of it and shoot Mandy a short glance. “Yeah, well… it hasn’t done me much good so far.”

“It doesn’t have to be like this between you two, you know,” she says. “You’re both mature, reasonable people —
most
of the time.”

I snort. “Piper obviously has no interest in hearing what I have to say to her.”

“That’s because you’re saying the wrong things,” Mandy offers. “I think you’d be pleasantly surprised if you said what you actually felt.”

“Oh?” I smirk. “Is that what she told you?”

“No. She didn’t have to. Like I said, you’re both mature, reasonable people. You’re telling me you wouldn’t stop and take notice if she confessed her real feelings towards you?”

“Piper’s been plenty honest so far about her real feelings towards me.”

She pauses and her eyes fall on the window. “I wouldn’t say that.”

“Mandy, I’m not sure how else I can interpret the words ‘
Fuck off, Kai.
I never want to see your face ever again
.’”

She shrugs. “Maybe you’re right.” She runs her hands across her thighs before standing up. “But if you want my opinion… I think you’re both wrong.”

I watch her as she slides the compartment door open. “Hey, Mandy—” I say, stopping her. “Thanks.”

She smiles at me but says nothing else before closing the door behind her.

I hope you’re right, Mandy. I’d love to sit here and imagine a life in which Piper Lynch and I could see eye-to-eye on
anything
. I’d love to be able to stare into her deep, blue eyes and see her looking back at me with love and affection instead of the usual hatred and rejection. Hell, twenty-four hours ago, I might have even said it was
a possibility
. I kissed her without a second thought, convinced it was something the both of us wanted. But I was completely wrong. It didn’t stop her from running off into Rome and going to that fucking club. If she really wanted me, she wouldn’t have done that.

I pull my phone out of my pocket and stare at the messages from
M.
It’s our last day in Europe. Our flight back home is tomorrow afternoon. From now until then, it’s my job to get Piper home in one piece. That’s all I want now. She might be hellbent on self-destruction by sending messages to complete strangers and getting violated in shadowy corners with them, but I can’t just sit here and let her do it. I promised her father I’d keep her safe. Sure, it was an empty promise at the time, but I didn’t know then what I know now. Would I have made the same promise if I had known?

Shit, I don’t know. I’d like to think so.

I’m such a fucking gentleman and all.

***

I watch Piper closely as the four of us make our way through the hotel lobby in Paris. She keeps her head down, seemingly disinterested in the admittedly impressive hotel we’ve found ourselves in, with her eyes locked on her phone. Her fingers tap away at the screen, sending out text messages and then immediately replying as they come back to her from
M
, I assume
.
I’ll know your face soon enough, you bastard.