CHAPTER SIX
Calista
“Hello, sister of mine. Did you have a good day?”
I rolled my eyes and stuck my arm up in the air, resting my hand on the back of the couch. Instead of putting my spare key into my palm, Kaiden low-fived me and tucked it into his pocket. Good call. I’d probably lose the damn thing again. He went to the kitchen and started opening cabinets.
“Ugh, you have nothing to eat.”
Giving up on any prospects of a nap, I sat up on the couch and tossed the throw blanket to the side. “I’m broke, remember?” A wrapper crinkled. “You better not be eating the last of my chocolate stash!”
The crinkling stopped. I heard, “Of course not,” from around full lips.
I growled. I hoped he choked on it.
Warmth spread over my chest as he began coughing. I looked down, forgetting I had put the pendant on last night. “Shit, shit, shit.”
Tucking it into my shirt, I ran to the kitchen where Kaiden bent over the sink with a red face.
With as much force as I could muster, I whacked him between the shoulder blades. A chunk of mushy chocolate splatted into the basin.
He gasped for air. “That would’ve sucked.”
I feigned a chuckle. “I hope you learned a valuable lesson today.”
“Don’t eat stolen chocolate? It will kill me?”
I cringed. “Maybe chew better?”
He coughed and grabbed a glass from the dish strainer.
“I’ll be right back.” While he poured a glass of water, I went straight to my bedroom. The necklace weighed heavy on my conscious. I needed it off my person, stashed away where no one could find it.
“Where can I hide you?” I mumbled as I surveyed the room. My gaze landed on the air vent. Might as well go with what I knew.
Scrounging through the drawer on my nightstand—aka the junk drawer—I found a purple drawstring pouch for an old sex toy and a pocketknife dad gave me. If someone were to find it, they wouldn’t want to open it. I slipped the necklace into the pouch and tugged the strings tight, then rolled the desk chair over to the wall. It started to swivel as I climbed up. I gripped the back of the chair with one hand and flattened my other on the wall to regain balance. I could still hear Kaiden tinkering in the kitchen. I had maybe another minute or two, tops, before he came looking for me.
The knife was stiff and hard to open. As I tugged on the blade, the chair wobbled beneath me. Finally, it gave and the lock clicked into place as the blade straightened. I slid it around the vent cover until I found a spot I could pry loose. It popped out and fell to the floor before I could catch it.
“Shit.” I shoved the pouch into the vent then squatted on the chair and stretched for the cover, my fingertips pulling it closer.
“What are you doing?”
I screeched and listed to the side, catching myself with my palm against the floor. I tried to push myself upright, but that caused the chair to roll backward.
“Oh my god,” Kaiden gasped and jumped onto my unmade bed. “Is the floor lava?”
I jerked up from the floor and pulled my body tight to the chair.
“Hurry! Give me your hand. I’ll save you!” He stretched out over the gap, wiggling his fingers to come closer.
He knew my weaknesses. The floor is lava was one of them. I met his hand over the chasm, and he pulled me to him with my wrist.
When the chair bumped the bed, he stopped but didn’t let go. “Uh, sis. Why do you have a knife?”
“Huh?” I followed his gaze. The forgotten knife was still wedged tight beneath my hand against the chair—blade out. “Oh, I was fixing the vent.”
“Uh huh,” he breathed, then gently slid it out from under my palm.
