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Randall smirks and laughs again. He sounds unhinged. “You’re both coming with me.”
“You’re an idiot, Randall. Showing yourself like this. If you really wanted to get us…”
Kai trails off. Randal’s laugh becomes even more crazed.
“What is it?” I whisper.
“There’s someone else.”
Suddenly, somebody sprints at me from behind the counter. They must’ve been crouched there ever since Randall walked in. Maybe they came through the back. They shove the old lady out of the way and then leap at me. I see a flash of denim.A denim shirt, nearly blood-stained, the world ending, my poetic, pointless mind pulses. Then, a solid arm coils around my middle, crushing across my chest. I shift against the person, registering the situation way too slowly.
Randall takes a few steps forward. The man with his arm around me is panting, his breath hot against my ear, but nothing like Kai’s whenhebreathes over my skin.
Kai walks off to the side, keeping his gun trained on Randall but looking at me. Pain streaks through him. His green eyes are grim and focused, his chest rising and falling calmly.
I can’t see the man holding me, but I can feel the sharp object pointed against my back. It’s a cold, hard edge jabbing me and making me feel useless. The door whines open and closed as the elderly lady pushes into the night.
“She’s going to call the cops,” I say, struggling to keep my voice steady.
“Maybe,” Randall says, “but we’ll be long gone by then. Get the bitch in the car.”
“Nobody has to die here,” Kai says, keeping his gun firmly trained on Randall’s head even when the man paces back and forth. There’s something like desperation in Kai’s voice. “I don’t think either of you are good men. You wouldn’t be doing this if you were, but I don’t want to kill you. I’ve killed men before, but I’ve never wanted to do it, never enjoyed it. Don’t make me do it again.”
Kai’s voice cracks, and I think about the kid in the forest, the feral kid they forced to fight, and all the hell he had to endure.
“Don’t be stupid,” Randall says. “We’ve got you beat.”
“You’ve insulted my woman. I was going to beat you badly for that. I wasn’t going to kill you, but now this—putting her life in danger. I can’t let that stand. Last chance.”
“Yourwoman?” Randall says, sneering. “You know this is Ryan’s little sister, right? I’m just checking. A second ago, you said you were his brother.”
Kai stares bleakly.
“Enough games,” Randall goes on. “The cops might be here soon. If you don’t move, I’ll have to ask my friend here to motivate you. That motivation might involve certain things being done to a certain fatty you might not like.”
I ignore his words, telling myself they don’t matter. I’ve rarely been bullied for my size. Being Ryan’s sister has that advantage. Over the years, people have thrown those comments my way, and I’ve always just shrugged them off and told myself they don’t matter. With Kai, I don’t have to dismiss them. I can silently laugh at them. I know how much he wants me, how obsessed he gets. I know there’s a connection between us that nobody else can understand.
“Last chance,” Kai says.
Randall smirks. “You already said that.”
Kai looks at the man holding me. “Let her go.”
“No way. Not letting a prized piggy like this go. We’ve got a delivery to make. The best part is, we can have some fun with her first.”
“Do you think youcould?” Randall says, laughing darkly.
More hurtful words, and I push them all down, trying to think how we will get out of this. I know Kai is threatening them, but surely that’s bluffing. There’s nothing he can do, not when the man is holding me so close and hinting at all the bad things he will do, the knife pressing suggestively against me.
“Don’t judge me. It’s been a while. Anyway, that’s what pills are for.”
“Have you assaulted women before?” Kai says, his voice taking on an eerie calm tone, almost like he’s mentally detaching from whatever’s about to happen.
My frantic mind leaps around composing. It’s how it’s worked since I was a kid, ever since I first fell in love with words from the stories Kai would read me. He was a giant back then and somehow even more of a giant now.
Blood is in the air,
Taunting, trying to
