AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I smirked. “Maybe I should stay here with you. I end up getting bruised over in the other apartment.”
“If you want Raven to back off, come talk to me.”
“I can handle him,” I said.
“He’s not from here,” he said. “He hits you back. You know that doesn’t usually fly around here. One day he’ll do it to you in front of someone else and he’s going to get his ass kicked. I may not stop it when it happens.”
I turned my head to look at him. “Isn’t he your friend?”
He nodded slowly. “He is. I don’t always agree with him, but the only reason why I let him touch you is because I know if you really said stop, he’d stop. Or I’d make him stop.”
“We were just having fun. I’ll tell him to stop if I need to.” I paused, gazing at the depth of those blue eyes. “You act like an older brother, you know.”
The depth of Brandon’s blue eyes softened. “Yup. Born a couple minutes before Corey. Maybe it doesn’t really count, but I guess I was always the one looking out for him.”
“I’m the older sister,” I said. “Sucks, doesn’t it?”
He laughed a little. “He used to get on my nerves a lot worse. I think it’s because of the comic books and video games. He was always wanting me to play with him, and I didn’t really like those.”
“What do you like?”
He shrugged. “Normal things, I guess. Movies. Surfing.”
I leaned my head back, looking at the surfboard against the wall. “So you do use that thing?”
“I wouldn’t have it if I didn’t use it.”
“Where do you surf? I didn’t think the waves at the beaches were high enough here.”
“Usually, I’m out at the North Shore. I get a chance every now and again,” he said. “And when we travel, I like to go to the beach when I can.”
“How often do you guys travel?”
“Seems like a lot,” he said. “Along the coast, to Europe, or Africa. Depends on a few things.”
I propped myself up again, looking at him. He was on his back now, looking up at the ceiling. “I’ve never been outside of Charleston,” I said.
He turned his head toward me. “Do you want to leave?”
I bit my lip, not wanting to admit it. “I used to love it here. Now, I don’t know why,” I said. “Ever since... I guess a few years ago when...” It was hard to talk about. It was something I didn’t talk about with Wil as much. Like if I didn’t say it, it was easier to deal with.
He propped himself up again on his hand. “What?”
I swallowed. “I guess after my mom died, I just never felt the same. I wanted to run off a hundred times just to get away and couldn’t.”
His face softened. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly.
I felt the pang in my heart at his words, felt the sympathy he was trying to share. Accepting it, however, hurt. I tried to hide my desire to scoff at it, because I knew he was trying to be nice. Instead, I fell back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.
“Want to watch a movie?” he asked after a few minutes.
“Yes,” I said, eager for a distraction to get me out of this conversation.
He picked a movie he liked, a western. I followed it for a while, sitting on one side of his bed, propped up by pillows. He sat on the other side of his bed. After a while, I was sinking lower on the bed.
Before the movie was over, I was dozing. It wasn’t boring, it was just a really long day.
Brandon leaned over, hovering over me. “Kayli,” he said, touching my arm gently. “Just get under the blanket.”
I did, thinking he was going to continue to watch the movie and let me sleep. Instead he hit the power on the television, casting the room into mostly darkness. He crossed the room, opening the door and checked the rest of the apartment. I saw lights being turned off. It reminded me of my old routine of checking the house and making sure everything was locked up before going to bed.
He returned, closing the door. The room stilled, and the sliver of light from the window gave me something to focus on. There was movement toward the closet. I think he changed from his jeans and T-shirt into pajama pants. Brandon slipped into the bed beside me, rocking it as he flipped over once, and then stilled.
For a while, I couldn’t sleep. I stared at Brandon’s frame, at the way his shoulder sloped and how the blanket draped across his body. The cotton sheets were soft on my skin, a different feel from the crisp starched-to-death hotel sheets. The bed was more comfortable and didn’t smell like bleach. I supposed the night before I’d been too tired to think about things like that.
Now that I was a little more comfortable with the guys, my head was filled with a mix of feelings, and trying to figure out how I ended up here. I wondered where Raven and Axel were. I wondered if Marc was with them. I wondered why they left. I might have even missed them.
I didn’t want to admit it, but they were growing on me. I had friends in high school, but when I’d had to leave abruptly after my mother died, I lost contact with a lot of them. Not to say that I was that close with a lot of people. Even when I was younger, I wasn’t shy, but found it hard to trust. Too many early days with bullies and jerks. Too many friends who betrayed me. Even when I was friendly with people, they never really knew me.
These guys were different. I felt it. I was in a bed next to one of them now, and I wasn’t weirded out. It had only been a couple of days, and I was trying to figure out my life by including them in it, no matter what happened with Mr. Coaltar, one way or another. I kept thinking about introducing Wil to the guys. It was hard not to dream about getting an apartment inside the Sergeant Jasper. Corey had brought up the idea. Brandon hadn’t argued with him on it. It was like they wanted me to.
I thought about what Axel told me earlier, about being recruited to the Academy. Did I want that? I didn’t know what it was, some sort of private surveillance group. Something more than that, maybe. It was a tempting offer.
But who was I now? Two days ago, I was the girl who hid in the shadows, trying to go unnoticed and survive until Wil could have a better life. I was still doing that, but who was I going to be when this was over, and Wil was in college? Maybe Axel was right about me not being a regular job girl or college girl, but did that mean I had to join the Academy? I didn’t even know anything about it. Where does a thief belong? What about when she makes a promise not to do steal anymore?
What good was I to anyone?
I tried to brush the thoughts away because I didn’t have the answers and I wasn’t sure I’d ever find them. Eventually, the thoughts mingled into dreams.
?????
Sometime in the night, sirens screamed, cutting through the silence and drawing me out of a dark dream. My heart thundered and I sat up quickly, trembling.
I was sure those sirens were for me.
“Kayli?” Brandon’s voice drifted to me, soft and deep.
I wanted to answer him, but images flashed through my mind of the dream I’d been ripped from, of being chased by a blackness that knew my faults and wanted to keep me forever. I tried to swallow back the emotion, telling myself that those sirens were going away.
But my heart refused to believe it. In my panic, I choked instead of telling him I was fine.
Brandon stirred and sat up. My heart leapt into my throat, and I started to fling off the covers to jump from the bed. I needed to run from the room, run from him. I needed to be alone. I’d run to the bathroom and cry to get some relief and feel better. I was weak and disoriented after being in such a deep sleep. Kayli doesn’t cry. I’m not that type of girl. I couldn’t let him see me like this.
Before I could put my feet down on the carpet, an arm encircled my waist. I clutched at it, my mouth opened to tell him to let go.
He turned me toward him. Brandon’s bare, strong chest met mine, and my head instinctively found the crook of his neck. I gripped at his shoulders, because I had nothing else to hold on to.
His palm met
with the small of my back and he drew me into him. His other hand dove into my hair, his fingers twining into the strands as he pressed me against his chest. “Kayli,” he soothed. “They aren’t coming for you, sweetie.”
It was the thing I needed to hear and the relief was too overwhelming to bear. It was admitting at how much wrong I’d done. I was scared. No matter what I did, no matter how much I wanted to make up for what I’d done, there was nothing I could do to get away from the nightmare that one day, policemen would find me and I’d be in jail forever.
Because I deserved it.
I swallowed back sobs, but it didn’t stop my tears from reaching his skin. His sympathy broke me. The tears were the ones I’d always hidden from Wil, usually running to the bathroom to wipe away in private. Doing this in front of Brandon was worse, but now that I’d started, I couldn’t stop.
Brandon shifted, not letting go, but moving until he was sitting cross-legged on the bed with me in his lap. The hand in my hair drifted until his palm was on my cheek, wiping away the wetness. “You’re fine,” he whispered. “You’re safe. Kayli; they’re not coming for you. I promise. If you stay here ... if you stay with me, I swear.” He dipped his head, and his lips met my skin. He kissed a spot near the corner of my eye. “I swear, you’ll never have to do it again.”
I sniffed heavily, my fingers gripping and regripping at his chest. I realized I was probably digging into his skin, so I slid my hands around his neck, hanging on to him. “I’m so stupid,” I mumbled, surprised to be talking about it, but I couldn’t stop. “I could have done something else. I tried.”
His arm tightened around my body, pressing me to him until my breasts were squished against his chest. “You did what you had to,” he said. “You did what any older sibling does.”
“I messed up.”
