Chapter Forty-Four #3
“Barf,” Ryder said. “You two are stupid.”
“Your little brother’s stupid,” Rebel snapped.
“Nuh uh!” Axel yelled. He pointed at her. “I can sue you for cessation of character.”
“It’s defamation , doofus,” Rebel told him. “I’d love for your miserable little character to cease.”
“Dad! The Blonde Viper wants to kill me. Can I throat punch her?”
“No!” Daddy, CJ, and Diesel said.
“The Blonde Viper is bad ass,” Kayce told her.
“Right?” Rebel smiled at him. “They thought they’d insult me.”
“We need to find a more insultable name, men,” Axel said, glancing from Ryder to Ransom.
“You need to shut the fuck up,” Daddy warned.
“New orders, my good fellows!” Axel said, hopping to his feet and saluting Daddy. “The top dude has ordered silence.” He sat back down.
“As I was about to explain,” CJ said, “Nyx will become an official club girl. She’ll get the full protection of the Dwellers as our property.”
“There’s girls that hang around like dudes, but then there are girls like Nyx and they get their Property of the Death Dwellers cut with a ceremony. ”
Grant’s knowledge of the club impressed Rebel. She hadn’t realized he was so invested.
“It’ll be CJ and Ryan’s first official club party.” Diesel raised his drink to CJ and smiled at Kaia. “You should come.”
“Yeah,” Rebel agreed. “You can see if club life suits you.”
The guys shifted and shared an uncomfortable look. What she was missing?
“Maybe next weekend we can go to the flea market?”
Kaia nodded.
“Er, what…what did you do today?” She didn’t want to fall back into uneasy silence so she blurted the first thing that came to her mind. “We had our family over last night, so I helped Momma clean up until it was time to get ready for your visit.”
“What did I do today?” Kaia took her hand in his and kissed the back of it. “Besides count the hours until I could stare into your eyes that glitter like precious sequins.”
Absolute silence dropped around them.
Rebel laughed nervously. “You’re…you’re, uh, you’re funny, Kaia.”
“No, my love.” He kissed the back of her hand again. “I’m thunderstruck. By you, Reb. You scampered down from your palace in the sky’s night light, Moon Goddess. You’ve struck me stupid.”
“How about I fuckin’ strike you fuckin’ dead so you can shut the fuck up?” Daddy barked.
Uncle Val straightened and blinked at Kaia. Everyone else just stared. Even Rule halted, his fingers gripping the edge of a page, to gape at Kaia.
“Your smile is like moonshine on a rainy day, brightening everyone with radiant rays,” he told her, oblivious to her uncles’ guffaws.
Embarrassment heated Rebel. “Moonshine?” she said dubiously, waiting for Kaia to realize the words didn’t come out right.
Ransom frowned at Kaia. “Moonshine is liquor.”
“Moonshine is the brightness of your sister’s smile,” he said. “If moonshine is liquor, then I’m drunk the moment I look at her face. I stagger with the intensity of her radiance.”
Kayce leaned over to look at his brother. “Dude?” He sounded both confused and appalled. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Why don’t you save your beautiful poetry for the times we text or talk on the phone?” Rebel suggested, trying to snatch her hand away, but unable to because he gripped it tighter.
Kaia grinned, revealing his dimples.
“Never, sweet. I’m writing an entire poetry book dedicated to you. You’re my muse. You’re the first person to get me and like my poetic compliments.”
“I like some of your poetry.” She regretted her defensiveness, but the more Kaia spoke, the more he annoyed everyone. She didn’t know how to diplomatically tell him to shut up. “Don’t be nervous. There’s no reason to talk in riddles. I thought we’d chat normally like we do over the telephone.”
“I save my poetry for our face-to-face meetings.”
Lovely. She could mute him on the telephone. In person, with an audience, she had to suffer.
Momma never explained what to do when a dude passed off lame lines as poetry .
“Reb—” Kaia stared into her eyes, his dreamy gaze holding her captive. “Carry a map with you for unsuspecting guys like me. I’m lost in your eyes. I need direction to find my way down from your moon palace.”
Daddy growled and Grant laughed.
“Fucking emo,” Diesel barked.
CJ sighed.
“Oh, brother,” Axel grumbled.
He stood, but Rebel didn’t pay attention to what he might be doing.
“Do you have a bandage, sweet?”
Rebel feared asking Kaia why. She considered punching the side of his head and knocking him out to spare both of them, but she doubted Momma would appreciate the violence.
Rebel cleared her throat. “Are you injured?”
“I scraped my knees falling for you.”
“Brrrruuuuhhhhhh,” Uncle Digger said, laughing like a hyena. “Who told you that was a good line?”
“Rebel,” Kaia said, not dropping his gaze.
“I didn’t!”
“You said I was deep.”
“She fourteen,” Daddy grumbled. “She’d think a fucking one inch hole’s deep.”
“That isn’t true!” Her father’s opinion insulted her. “And I’m almost fifteen.”
“You told that motherfucker he was deep. A five-year-old would laugh at his motherfuckin’ ass.”
Uncertainty crossed Kaia’s face and Rebel glared at her father. He was making it worse.
“Kaia,” she huffed, “I like when we talk normally. Please stop with the poetry.”
“Poetry?” Axel said. “My dick rode a bike and pedaled all fucking night. He flipped and flopped but never stopped, ‘til he rode right out of sight. That’s poetry.”
At all the laughter, Axel grinned and stuck out his little chest. His slingshot hung halfway out of the front pocket of his jeans.
He roamed to a bowl of Styrofoam balls that Momma bought for him to practice with in the hallways on rainy days.
Enabling his criminality but whatever.
“Do you like my poetry, Rebel?” Kaia demanded, his eyes graver than ever.
“Fuck no!” Daddy blared. “Do you like that bullshit, Kaia? If a bitch told you half the shit you spout to Rebel, you’d run from her and lose her fuckin’ number.”
“I’d be honored,” Kaia insisted.
“We can talk about it later,” Rebel said quickly. “I’d prefer your poems kept between us.”
Kaia kissed Rebel’s cheeks, startling her.
“What are you really thinking, sweetheart?”
She’d just told him what she was thinking. Why wouldn’t he believe her? And where was her sense of self? Why was she allowing Kaia to overrule what she wanted and make a jackass out of himself in the process?
Fear, she realized. She liked his attention. She was worried what would happen if she stopped talking to him. Would another boy show interest in her? Even now, she was kept on a tight leash. She didn’t want to ruin what felt like her only chance to talk to a guy.
“What am I thinking about?” she said. “Er, I’m wondering what Momma and Mattie are doing. I’m a girl. I should be with the girls. Girls belong with girls and guys belong with guys. And—”
“Bro, shut up,” Ryder ordered. “You’re rambling. What’s wrong with you?”
“No, please don’t shut up,” Kaia said. “Let her ramble. Her voice is like the bellow of an alligator during mating season—”
“That’s it!” Axel snatched a ball and loaded his slingshot. “I can’t take this motherfucker no more.” He released the ball and hit Kaia’s cheek.
It all happened so fast, no one had a chance to react, but once the Styrofoam hit Kaia, Rebel threw herself in front of him.
Axel loaded, shot, and reloaded his slingshot two more times, striking her twice.
The balls stung more than hurt. Either he was too small to make an impact or he wasn’t putting full velocity behind the shots.
When he picked up a fourth ball, Rebel sprung toward the little menace.
“STOP, Axel!” Daddy yelled.
Just as Rebel reached him, the brat swiped the bowl of balls off the table, and sent them flying in all directions. Ransom and Ryder grabbed Axel on their way out of the room. Rebel would’ve followed but Diesel snatched her and held her in place, allowing the Triplets to escape.
“I’m surprised little dude lasted that long,” Uncle Digger said, digging into a little bag of chips and stuffing them into his mouth.
Because when didn’t he find something to eat?