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“He’s going to be here in twenty minutes, and I want this room packed up!” she snapped when I didn’t say anything in response.
“Do we have to leave our house?” I asked, trying to keep the tears out of my voice, because I knew that would just make her mad. But Daddy had only been gone for a few months.
I couldn’t imagine leaving this house. Leaving his stuff.
The cemetery was right around the corner. I’d been sneaking over there after school even though Shelby Ray had told me at school that it was haunted.
I just wanted to be near him.
Mom sniffed, her pink lips pursed disapprovingly. “We’re leaving this place and I don't want to hear any complaining! You’ll see. Everything is going to be better now.” With that she turned and left the room, not caring that she’d left her little girl falling apart.
Twenty minutes later, I heard the murmur of voices and the front door opening and then closing.
“Kennedy,” Mom called, and I hurriedly wiped at my face as I put my doll in the box.
“Coming,” I called as I headed out of the room and down the stairs. My steps faltered when Mom appeared from the hallway, a man next to her that was holding her around the waist. He was tall and imposing, with a thick beard that hid his mouth. His eyes were dark and scary, like bottomless pits—nothing like the warm gaze that Daddy had. I watched him as he talked to my mom, his words dripping with honeyed sweetness that made me feel nervous.
And then he turned to look at me...and he looked...hungry. Like he wanted to eat me for dinner. I’d never seen a man look like that, and a knot of fear tightened in my chest.
“Well, come on down here,” Mom said in a nice voice I normally didn’t hear from her.
I hesitantly walked down the stairs towards them while they watched me.
“This is Kennedy,” Mom announced to the man, and he smiled at me with yellow looking teeth, his hand reaching out to ruffle my hair. I tried my best to smile, knowing that’s what Mom would want me to do.
“I’m Frank, Kennedy. And I have a feeling that you and I are going to be the best of friends.”
I came back to the room, hunched over as I tried not to throw up. It was time to get out of here. I’d seen enough.
“Let's go,” I told the guys weakly. They were all gathered around me with various expressions of concern.
They nodded, and Carter grabbed my hand as I headed out of the room. No one said anything until we were out of the house.
We gathered on the lawn, and I stared at the house, wondering how it could look so ominous now, like a dark cloud had settled over it while we’d been inside.
“You know, Sebastian,” Greyson mused from my other side. “Now might be a good time to let that nasty little pyro habit of yours out.” I glanced at him and snorted, because obviously he was kidding.
Except his face was completely serious.
Night had fallen, and the street was quiet. But I still stared around, sure that someone was nearby listening to every word we were saying.
Although, Greyson was a mafia boss. So, I bet burning down an old house in the middle of the suburbs wasn’t really a big deal to him.
“Do you want me to?” Sebastian’s voice cut through the tense silence, his words hanging in the air like a dare waiting to be accepted.
I hesitated for a moment, the gravity of his question sinking in. But then, fueled by a mixture of anger—that this was my past—and desperation for the reminder of it all to be gone, I nodded, my voice barely above a whisper. “Burn it. Burn it to the ground.”
Sebastian wasted no time, walking back inside the house, his movements swift and purposeful as he set about preparing thefire, looking so at ease with everything, I was questioning just how much time he spent doing this sort of thing.
He broke off some cabinets and began to arrange them in a makeshift pyre, his hands steady like he couldn’t feel any of the anticipation that was clearly coursing through every one else’s veins. My hands were literally trembling. Carter was pacing around the room. Jack was staring between me and the pile of wood like he wanted to drag me out of here before it was lit. And Greyson was on the phone with the real estate agent from earlier—warning her that her listing was about to disappear. But she would be compensated.
Like I’d said before…this was a weird life.
Sebastian’s eyes held a fierce determination, and I couldn’t tear my gaze away from him. It felt like he was really ridding me of the demons that haunted this place.
“Grab some of that newspaper,” he ordered Jack and Carter, and they got to work, gathering the random old newspaper that we’d seen stuffed in cabinets and scattered in some of the closet shelves.
Sebastian arranged the newspaper around the cabinets.
