AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I was glad of the break; I was losing energy, and it was getting harder to think straight. Despite having slept for hours, I was in need of coffee and real food.
Corey found bottles of water and some packets of candy meant to be sold in rooms.
We split the candy and water; it wasn’t enough, but it was something.
Corey stood by the door with Raven, ready to make excuses if a maid came by, or punch Baldy out if he came on the hunt for us.
I sat with my back against the wall, eyes closed, my brain refusing to stay quiet. I kept going over what to do if we got a name for the investor. It wasn’t like I could just knock him out, drag him to a room and make him confess everything.
Could I?
“So you really weren’t angry about Blake and Axel?” Corey asked, and I could hear the crinkle of the packet as he picked M&M’s out one by one. The crinkling was getting annoying, but I was too tired to say anything.
I heard as Raven unzipped the jumpsuit a little before he said, “I was, but I wasn’t going to tell him that.”
I lifted my head, my eyes opening. “What?”
“Go to sleep,” Raven said.
“No,” I said, leaning forward and putting my elbows on my knees. “What do you mean? You lied to me?”
He grunted and turned toward me. “It was more for Henry. We don’t like Blake.”
Corey lightly backhanded him on his chest. “Don’t tell her that.”
“We don’t like him,” Raven said, frowning. “She knows this.”
Corey sighed and turned to me. “We just need to get out of this mess without Henry talking to the Academy, telling them that our group has problems.”
Huh? “You mean Blake’s a problem?” I asked.
“Blake’s a lot of trouble. Just look at what he did here.”
“Is it his fault for wanting to help?”
“He’s reckless,” Corey said. “He never listens to anyone.”
“Axel hates him,” Raven said. He pointed a thumb at his own chest. “So we hate him.”
I ground my teeth, but the movement hurt my brain. I leaned my head back, anger boiling inside me. “Axel’s not giving him a chance. You all were the ones being nosy in his business from the start. Blake could still be mad at you, but he’s been trying to make friends.”
“We’re better without him.”
“He’s not terrible,” Corey said with a sheepish smile, “but he’s not winning points luring you out here into danger and being so passive-aggressive.”
“Axel’s passive-aggressive with him,” I said, opening my eyes again and glaring at them. “I’ve gotten into more trouble with you all…”
“You were in trouble because of him the first time,” Corey said. “You are the one who wanted to go after him when he was going to dump drugs into a well and make people sick.”
“He was getting drugs out of town,” I said. “He just—”
“Listen to yourself, Kayli,” Corey said, and he left Raven by the door to come to me. He knelt and pressed his palm to his chest. “We would never do that sort of thing. You hated him when you found out what he was up to. Why would you defend something like that?”
“It was a mistake,” I said. “I’m not trying to justify it, but he never completed what he set out to do and he’s trying to make things better, in his own way. Are we not allowed to make a few errors in judgment? I’ve made enough.”
Corey sighed and looked over to Raven for help.
“Don’t need him,” Raven said. “He’s got enough friends. He’s gone this long on his own.”
I grunted. “Hey, how about we ask Kayli how she feels about him? Maybe she can make her own mind up. You all were the ones that looked me in the face and told me maybe he needed some direction, that maybe he wasn’t so bad. Corey, you agreed with me.”
Their eyes darkened, their expressions turning to matching frowns, but neither spoke.
I couldn’t look at them anymore. How could they begin to understand? Blake had done so much for me, for them, despite what he’d done in the past. He’d tried, which was more than they had done.
If they didn’t believe a guy like that could change, how could they possibly believe a girl like me could?
Who was I fooling, though? Did I imagine Blake would just move into the apartments with us and we’d all just…do what? It was a miracle they weren’t all hacking away at each other after what I’d told them.
I was so angry that they’d reject Blake, especially knowing he was important to me. Maybe they didn’t wish him dead and maybe they would help him, but they didn’t want him to stick around.
If I’d had any strength inside of me, I could have thrown things at them. Especially Raven, who had thrown us overboard, risking our lives, even if it was his own way of saving us.
Corey eased closer to me. “Don’t be mad,” he said. “Do you really think he’d get along with us? After everything?”
“He put his neck on the line for you,” I said, my eyes burning as I tried to hold back tears. I wouldn’t dare cry in front of them. “He could have stayed behind after we got back to shore. He could have convinced me to stay with him, too. He could have said it was too dangerous. No. He came back. He was ready to dive in again.”
“This was his thing,” Corey said. “Of course he was ready—”
“No,” I said. “That’s not why he came back. Instead of judging him and assuming, why don’t you ask him? He’s trying. No one wants to give him a chance, which means this will never work, and not because of him. It’s because you won’t try.”
Corey’s mouth twitched and he lowered his head, shaking it. “I want to believe it. I don’t know. He’s never really talked with me directly, except…in the car in Florida. And he was basically yelling at me the whole time.”
I remembered that moment. It had been very tense, and it was Corey battling with Blake, each of them trying to prove which one cared about me more.
“When Brandon was kidnapped, Blake didn’t have to get involved, but he did,” I said.
“Because of you,” Corey said.
“Isn’t that enough to show he can do the right thing, though? And he’s not like you think, abandoning a cause just because it’s the easy thing to do. Do you really think he’d walk away from helping you?” I swallowed thickly. “You’d help him if he were in danger.”
He frowned. “Aren’t we doing that now?”
“Just like he’d do for you. You’re all too stubborn to just look at each other and realize how totally the same you are.”
“I’m not like him,” Raven said, grunting.
I shook my head and looked away. I hadn’t even realized it until now, but Blake was so much like them. He was smart. He cared about helping others, even at the risk of his own fortune and reputation. Except that he didn’t have a league of people behind him. For a while, it had just been him and Doyle, as far as I knew.
Corey sighed. “Maybe she’s right, Raven.”
My heart lifted a little. Yes. I was.
If anyone could convince the others, Corey could. He had the biggest, most open heart of them all.
“You don’t like Blake,” Raven said.
“But she does.” Corey stood, and I opened my eyes as he went back to Raven by the door. “Maybe we’ve been seeing him all wrong.”
“He’s a criminal,” Raven said. “He was helping criminals.”
“So were we,” Corey said. “Only we got involved in the Academy and changed how we operated. He was doing his own thing, trying to be good in his own way, right? He’s just a little…off the mark.”
“He’s not Marc,” Raven said.
Corey chuckled and put a hand on Raven’s shoulder. “No, he’s not Marc. But Kayli sees something in him, something good. Maybe she’s right. Maybe we’re not giving him a chance. Who are we to turn away from someone who’s trying to fit in with us? Maybe he just needs some direction.”
/> He paused and looked at Raven very seriously. “You’d go running in with guns and bombs if it wasn’t for me.”
“There’s a lot I’d be doing if it wasn’t for you,” Raven said quietly. “Bad things.”
My heart raced for Corey just hearing the words. My face flushed. His tone felt like it was full of something more romantic for Corey, and I delighted in hearing it.
Corey parted his lips, his blue eyes wide. “But…now we do good things.”
“I do it for you,” Raven said. He nodded to me. “And her. I do good things for us.”
“You should do it because you want to do good things,” Corey said.
Raven knocked Corey’s hand off of his shoulder, approaching him. He looked at me as he did, a question in his eyes.
I smiled, stupidly excited to be seeing this. “Tell him,” I said.
He nodded once, turned to Corey and then reached for him, cupping his cheeks in his big hands.
Corey’s face turned red and he tried to take a step back, but there was nowhere to go. “Raven…what…?”
Raven leaned in with eyes closed and kissed Corey on the lips.
Corey stood still, arms going limp but otherwise frozen in place. His eyes widened.
I brought my knees up, pressing a cheek to them. I hated to stare, but I couldn’t help it. Or the stupid smile on my face.
Raven continued, lips pressed to him, holding on.
Corey slowly closed his eyes, and his lips opened, accepting the kiss. Once he surrendered, Raven slid his hands to his neck and deepened his kiss.
I couldn’t stop grinning. They were both hot in such different ways, and just seeing them together heated things up inside of me. I hated to admit it, but I was oddly turned on by this. I cared about them both. I was mad at them about Blake, but I realized it was too soon to expect everyone to just be so accepting of him.
Corey tried to take a step back, but Raven continued his advance, pressing Corey against the wall. He started to use tongue, making Corey give in again with a sigh.
As Raven devoured him, his hand slid down Corey’s chest, down his stomach, and in a flash, he had his pants unbuttoned and had a hand shoved down the front.
