Chaos at Westbrook High (The Kingston Brothers #3)

Chapter 13

He doesn’t sayanything at first, and I pause, looking at him from beneath my lashes while my hand hovers over the register. “Kai?”

He blinks, staring at my face like I’ve got something on it. “Yeah, baby?”

“Do you want your usual or not?”

He nods, then adds, “And?—”

“A mocha latte for Callie,” I say. “I know.”

He smiles, pulling out a fifty-dollar bill from his wallet while I put his order through.

“Don’t you have a credit card or something?” I ask.

“Yep.”

“Can you use it?”

“Nope.”

Sighing, I take the money and hand him his change. He refuses to take it, just like every time, so I set it down in front of him before turning around to grab the caramel sauce. Feeling him watching my back, I discreetly check my face and teeth in the long, horizontal mirror between the shelves and counter. There’s nothing there, but I look like shit. I’m exhausted. It’s harder than I thought to balance school, work, bills, and keeping my brother alive without Val by my side.

I miss her.

I haven’t been to the cemetery this week, but I’m going tonight, right after I finish up here and pick some daisies for her from the park. I try not to think about the fact that Kai does the same thing for me every day.

Derek won’t come to see her with me, but it’s whatever. I’m done trying to convince him to visit her because it’s not worth the argument. Everybody handles grief differently, I guess, and it’s not my place to force him to grieve a certain way.

Even if my way is healthy and his way is stupid.

I rub at the tension in the back of my neck and finish making Kai’s iced coffee, side-eyeing him when I still feel his eyes burning two holes into my face.

“What?”

“Tell me who put that look on your face,” he demands, his fists clenching on the counter like he might hit something if I give him an answer he doesn’t like.

“What look?”

“Was—” He curses. “Was it me?”

I pull my head back with a frown. “No.”

“Was it Wyatt? One of the guys he was with just now? Derek?—”

“Kai, stop. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Why do you look like you’ve been crying?”

“I don’t know,” I say defensively.

“Have you been?”

“What?”

“Crying.”

“No.”

He doesn’t look like he believes me, watching me suspiciously while I top his iced latte with whipped cream and grated chocolate. I grab him a straw, place a lid on Callie’s coffee, and pass them both over, all while he continues to stare at me.

“Thank you,” he says.

“You’re welcome. Now get out.”

He laughs lightly at that, taking a sip of his drink while he looks around at the empty shop behind him. “Can I stay?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because we’re closed.”

He nods and looks around again as if he’s checking for something. “Do you have a security guard?”

“Obviously not,” I grit out.

He grins slyly. “You gonna throw me out all by yourself, Hails?”

My heart clenches inside my chest.

Hails.

“Don’t call me that.”

“Why? You don’t like Hails?”

“Not when it comes out of your mouth.”

He laughs again, enjoying the back and forth.

“Out,” I say again.

“Come on. I’ll stay over here,” he promises, backing up toward the corner of the shop. “I won’t touch you. I just wanna watch you for a bit.”

Nervous butterflies flutter in my stomach as I watch him flick his tongue into the cream on his coffee. He always eats the cream first. I almost tell him it’s better if you mix it in, but then I realize I don’t care how he drinks it.

“Callie’s coffee’s gonna get cold.”

“She won’t mind,” he assures me with a grin.

I sigh, folding my arms over my chest. “You won’t touch me?”

He crosses his heart, leaning his ass back against the table in the corner. It’s my turn to be suspicious, warring with myself a moment while I glance between him and the exit. I don’t want him in here with me, alonewith no witnesses around, but I’m tiny and he’s…not, and there’s no way I’m pushing him out of that door without help. Probably not even with help.

“Fine,” I huff, pulling the cloth out of my back pocket.

I’m sure he’s really pleased with himself right now, but I don’t look at him to find out. I ignore him as I walk around the counter to the front door. Kai turned the sign around on his way in here, so I just double check the street and lock the door to ensure no one can walk in.

“Now we’re talkin’,” Kai teases, but he sticks to his word and makes no move to come for me.

I pretend he didn’t speak as I walk back behind the counter and clean up the mess I just made. Wyatt already cleaned the kitchen and locked the back of the store for me, so there’s not much left for me to do. I turn the machines off, clean them, and make sure everything’s put back where it goes. Once that’s done, I go back to cleaning the tables, spraying and wiping them down before I flip the chairs and place them on top.

“Is Derek at your place again tonight?”

Refusing to look up, I consider keeping my mouth shut. I don’t want him knowing where Derek is or what he’s doing, but I know he’ll keep pushing me if I say nothing, so I figure distraction is the best way to go about it.

“How did you even know where I live?”

“I looked at your file at school.”

Pausing, I look up at him this time. “You broke into the principal’s office?”

“Yep.”

“How the hell did you get away with that?”

“I get away with everything.”

I narrow my eyes into thin slits.

Right.

“I would say I’m sorry but…”

“You’re not,” I finish for him, my pulse throbbing against the side of my neck when I feel his eyes on the flesh there. He’s staring at me again, just like he always does, and I find myself playing with the brim of my hat, just like I always do when I feel uneasy.

“Why do you do that?”

“Do what?” I ask, clearing my throat when my voice comes out all raspy.

“Hide.”

I stop what I’m doing completely, my hand freezing on the table right in front of him. A long, heavy silence stretches between us, and I slowly lift my eyes up to meet his baby blue ones. My brows pull down, and his lips tip up into a small smile.

“You don’t even realize you’re doing it, do you?”

No, I don’t think I do anymore. It’s just a habit, something I couldn’t shake even if I wanted to.

Hide.

Whenever Val and I would go out in public, I was to stay by her side and keep my head down. Never make a scene. Never draw attention to myself. When we were at home, I was taught to never answer the door, not even for the neighbors if they wanted to borrow some sugar. I was taught to hide in the closet just in case he ever came for us. I didn’t know who he was at the time, just that I was to hide.

Kai tilts his head at me, and I shake it off before I continue cleaning the table. He opens his mouth to say something, but I beat him to it, afraid he’s about to ask more questions he has no business asking.

“Don’t you have anything better to do than watch me clean on a Friday night?”

He smirks and runs his eyes over the length of my body, sliding his free hand over his jeans to squeeze his dick through the fabric. “I can’t think of doing anything better than you, baby girl.”

I scoff and put the last couple chairs up on the table. “How many girls have you talked to like that today, fuck boy?” I ask, using the nickname Callie gave him.

“Just today?” He pretends to think about it. “Two.”

“Including me?”

“Mhm.”

“Who’s the other girl?”

“Callie,” he answers, his amusement clear when he catches whatever look is on my face. “Are you jealous again?”

I don’t answer that. “Do you harass her like this at home?”

“I don’t harass you.” He’s trying to look offended, but he’s full of shit and we both know it. “Why do you hate me so much?”

I raise a brow at that, doing my best to act unaffected. “I don’t care enough to hate you, Kai.” I’m lying through my teeth, anything to get him off my back. “You think you’re some big, bad villain to me but you’re not. You’re nothing to me.”

That heavy silence returns, and if I didn’t know better, I’d say he looks…hurt. His eyebrows scrunch together as he does that thing where he tries to look into my skull, as if he wants to force his way into my head and pluck the thoughts right out. I look away from him, my stomach sinking with guilt for reasons I can’t explain. But then he moves, and that raw feeling I had a second ago is quickly forgotten.

“Kai—”

“You little liar,” he taunts, his hands snatching my waist and squeezing.

I hit his chest, but it’s as if he doesn’t even feel it. He just squeezes me harder and walks right into me, moving me back until my shoulders hit the wall between two tables.

“You said?—”

“I know,” he whispers. “You’re makin’ a liar out of me, baby. I don’t lie.” Dipping his head, he lowers his face to mine, breathing me in and crowding me until all I see and feel is him. “Come on, Hails. Tell me the truth for once. Why do you hate me?”

My anger rises, and I hit him again, my fingers clenched around his soft T-shirt, our lips bumping every time I move. “You know what you did.”

“That wasn’t me.”

“Maybe not, but you were there. You helped him cover it up. Your brother’s a psycho, and you’re no better than him. None of you are.”

“Is that right?”

“You should all be in jail right now.”

“If we were in jail, Derek would be right there with us.” He wraps his fingers around my throat, much like he did in the library today, and I pull back as much as I can to sneer up at him.

“What are you talking about?”

“Callie,” he grits out, his eyes darkening with rage. “I’m talking about Callie.”

“What about her?”

His grip on my throat and waist softens a little bit, and he rests his forehead on mine, gently running his thumb back and forth over my chin. “You don’t know, do you?”

“Know what?”

“He drugged her, Hailey. He had his friends kidnap her and take her to a hotel room. Then he set up a camera and tried to rape h?—”

“Stop.” I shove his hand away from my face, and he lets me, my eyes filling with tears while I stare into his. “You’re lying.”

“Ask him,” he says gently, using both hands to lace his fingers through mine, dipping his head to rest it on mine. “Go home to your boy and ask him what he did to her.”

My heart is beating wildly against his chest, and my hat must have fallen off at some point because he’s kissing my forehead. I squeeze my eyes shut, tensing every muscle in my body to stop myself from leaning into him.

“I’m sorry, beautiful.”

“Get out.”

A beat passes, then two. His hands slip out of mine and the heat from his body disappears. I don’t open my eyes until I hear the door closing behind him with a soft click. He’s gone, and I feel cold all of a sudden, an icy shiver running through me as I wrap my arms around myself.

I shouldn’t miss the loss of his body pressed against me, the feel of him holding my hands with his lips on my skin, but I do, and I hate myself for it more than I hate him.

Wiping the tears rolling down my cheeks, I pick up my hat off the floor, pull it down over my eyes, and lock myself inside the shop.