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My arms shake because of the adrenaline pumping through my system at being here. I haven’t shot a gun since that time at the weird security camp thing my dad sent me to one summer. He tried to tell me it was because he wanted me to be able to protect myself, but why would a twelve-year-old need to learn how to shoot? But then again, I never thought I would have to carry a gun with me.
“You know,” Kylo purrs as he comes over to me, a smirk on his face. “Seeing you handle that has given me a boner.” I quirk a brow and bite the inside of my cheek to stop myself from laughing. The boyish charm he’s been throwing out since we got here has been panty melting, if I’m being honest. Am I going to tell him that? Hell fucking no. Especially since he hasn’t mentioned the fact I called him babe. It seemed like he was going to earlier, then he changed his mind. So, if he wants to play a guessing game, let’s play. I don’t mind.
“I have to admit, I’ve had fun,” I say, throwing him a bone, and the smile that splits his face has me taking a sharp inhale. He’s gorgeous when he’s broody but, damn, seeing this now, I didn’t think it would be possible for me to get turned on any more than he already makes me. “Bo’s not as bad as I thought she was,” I admit.
“What?” he asks in mock surprise, and I burst out laughing, smacking him in the stomach and he laughs at me. “You want her number so you can thank her?”
“Please, it’s the least I can do since she has done what she thought was the best thing to help me,” I mutter with a grumble, because I really hate to admit being wrong. Bo Walker is as perceptive as people say she is, the fact that she picked up something with my dad tells me people seriously underestimate her.
We pack up everything up and I make sure my gun is back in the box she sent it in, I’ll put it in my wardrobe. We head back to the truck, and I wait patiently at the passenger door, chuckling as I watch him fight with the lock on the building. I’m just about to ask if he wants a hand when he saunters over, muttering under his breath.
“You not wanting to drive again?” he asks as I smile at him.
“Nope,” I say, popping the p. I toss him his keys and jump into my side of the truck, laughing as his eyes flick between me and the keys he just caught.
“I sent you Bo’s number,” he says as he sorts the seat out. “Shadow, what the fuck!” He growls as he tries his damndest to get the seat to move. “You seriously can’t be this short to see over the wheel?”
“Hey!” I snap. “I’m not that short,” I rumble, glaring at him and folding my arms.
“Why so serious?” he says laughing. I punch him in the arm, chuckling as his mouth drops. “Damn, Shadow, are you always this violent?”
“Shut up,” I say, laughing as I sit back and get comfortable.
The engine rumbles to life and he pulls out slowly, only just managing to turn the truck around in the makeshift lot that’s here. The ride’s bouncy this time as we make our way down the road; I never noticed it on the way here, I was having too much fun. They have a road laid, but it’s an old dirt track so I’m not surprised it’s like this. We pass the house again and this time I get a better look at it, I’ve heard the stories of the lodge his brother built. I’m in awe at the design of it and the black woodwork finishes it off.
“Damn, that’s stunning,” I say as I turn around in my seat to stare at it out the back window.
“Yeah, he really did do good for her, plus it would have been what Ms. Jeanette would’ve wanted,” he says, his concentration on the road.
“Ms. Jeanette?” I ask, my interest piqued.
“Yeah, she was like family to Bo and then she died,” he says the last bit quietly. I turn round, dropping back into my seat. My eyes are on him, but he doesn’t acknowledge me.
“What happened?” His tone tells me there is something more about the whole thing and the sadness is rolling off him in waves.
“Some shit went down, I’m surprised she tolerates me like she does,” he says, his voice hollow. “She’s the reason why I’m here, honestly I wouldn’t have blamed her if she had sent me to rot.”
“What’s going on?” I ask, and the hurt on his face has my own stomach rolling with unease. “Who’s the reason why you’re here?”
“Bo,” he says, his voice thick with emotion. “She’s the reason why I’m here, she gave me a second chance at my life.”
“I’m confused,” I say with a frown, his words aren’t making any sense.
“You know, my life wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows,” he says, his hand gripping the wheel so tightly, I can see the whites of his knuckles. “I was brought here to get back at Bo, I wanted to because I thought she was the reason why my brother was dead.”
“But he’s not,” I say. My head tilts and lips pursed as I try to work out what he means.
“I know that now, but I didn’t then and I wanted to make her pay,” he says. I watch in shock as his chin starts to quiver. “They asked me to take them to her house, so I did,” he says with a heavy breath. “What I didn’t know was they were going to set fire to it and she was caught inside.”
My whole body freezes, my brows are in my hairline as I just stare at the side of his head. My heart feels like it’s caving in and my brain scrambles for something to say, but I can’t. What the hell do you say to something like that?
“When I saw the house go up, I was scared. But nothing could prepare me for the panic she went through knowing someone was in the house,” his voice is barely a whisper. “For the first time in my life, I was hit with a conscience. The guilt I felt was like someone taking a sledgehammer to my chest.”
“I…” my words break off and I let out a harsh breath, sitting deeper in my seat. We’ve both been so lost in talking neither one of us noticed we’re back at the house. He must’ve driven us here on autopilot, that’s the only way I can explain it. “I’m confused.”
“Bo realized I was nothing more than a pawn in the twisted games people have been playing my whole life, I gave her the chance to kill me and get revenge for what I did.” He sounds almost angry that she didn’t. “She told Frost to bring me here and made me promise to keep my head down and take it as a second chance.”
“Wow!” I mumble. Fuck, I was so wrong about her. I really am going to have to make more of an effort, because fuck! If she could make a decision like that in that situation, she’s a bigger person than I am.
