Chapter Eighteen #2
She gave a slow, stiff nod.
“What makes you so sure that Kingston wants to hurt me?” she managed, after clearing her throat.
I bit my lip, unsure of just how honest I should be with her.
“Roy,” she loudly prodded.
When I glanced back at her, she was staring at me. I’d have given anything for her to look at me the night I came home. Maybe all of this shit would have been different…
“He does. You just have to trust me.”
“How do you know that he wants to hurt me?”
I had to be honest with her if she was going to trust me, even if it killed me to admit, “Because I was supposed to help him.”
Her arm flew toward me, and I brought my shoulder up to guard my face. It wasn’t slapping she had in mind, though. That crazy woman grabbed the wheel of her car and snapped it to the right with all she had.
We flew off the road, skidded down the ditch and did a complete circle before the car came to a rest and I was pointed back toward town.
“Jesus,” I huffed, only for her nails to slice down the side of my face.
Her other hand came up and clipped my jaw, leaving me flailing to grab her arms.
“You think I’m some goddamn toy that you motherfuckers can play with?” she screamed, while the pummeling continued. “Gonna kill me? You think you fucking—”
She’d yelled and unloaded for so long, she was winded. Part of me calmed, thinking it meant things were over.
About the time that reassuring thought washed over me, she shoved the gear shifter into park. The dashboard made a funny sound and pain shot through the top of my leg before I could comprehend what she’d done.
I’d never felt anything like it, a sharp, hot, stabbing sensation that damn near made me double.
Utter disbelief washed through me as I stared down at my key-impaled thigh.
“Did you just stab me with your fucking keys?” I heaved, unable to keep the Karen from my tone.
She reached out and tried to crudely retrieve them, but the muscle on the top of my thigh seemed to latch on. All I could do was grip my leg with one hand and her arm with the other while chanting, “Stop. Stop. Stoooop.”
If she got them out, I had no doubt she’d bury the damn things in my throat if she were able.
“You’re not so big and bad now, are you, Roy?”
I was shaking from the inside out.
Pain and fear collided in me, as I tried to summon the courage to rip the damned thing out myself in one straight haul.
I had to get off this highway before a cop came along.
How the fuck would I explain this? What if she gave her narrative?
Everything flashed white as I jerked with all I had and the bloodied key finally dislodged.
I shakily fumbled to get them in the ignition and start the vehicle, my every thought scattered by the throbbing in my leg.
She turned, threw her door open and made a mad, flailing effort to get away. I wasn’t proud of it, but there was little other option. I snatched her by the hair and jerked her back toward me so roughly the momentum shut the door.
I didn’t lay off the gas until we were a country block from my mother’s tiny farmhouse.
She was balled up against her door sobbing again, and despite saving her life, I still felt like the world’s biggest asshole.
It was like watching someone on a rough acid trip, though. She kept sobering and sobbing at intervals.
“If he asked you to help me, why are you doing this?” her voice shook, as she tried to be brave and face things head on.
“Why would I help him?” I scoffed.
The silence stretched until I slowed and navigated the turn into my mother’s short driveway. I couldn’t blame her for misjudging me. What I’d meant as flirting, she’d interpreted as bullying the night of my arrival. Of course, she thought I was no better than King.
“He’s your brother,” she charged, before furthering, “When he finds out you’ve betrayed him…”
I nodded, knowing it was true.
“He’s my brother. Birdman is my father, and Forty is yours. So, I don’t give a fuck about his feelings, or how quickly he finds out.”
“Why? What could I possibly have done to make him want to kill me– Forty? What does my dad have to do with anything?” The questions spewed, and her face contorted with bewilderment.
“He is their reason. You saw him after your mom died, he almost stepped down then. If they off you and Paxton both, it would cripple Forty. He’d step down and Birdman could finally lead.”
“They want to kill me, and my brother— Over a patch?” she said it back to me all slow like, as if she were hoping I’d hear how crazy it sounded.
I took a deep breath and confirmed with a gentle nod, “Yeah. The patch. The power.”
Laughter trickled from her, and with everything going on, I didn’t think it would stop.
“Power? What fucking power? Are you guys smoking meth or something? Is that what this is? When's the last time you slept?”
“I wish I knew the last time I slept. It was probably the night you busted my balls. The night that I came home. And, no. I don’t do meth.”
“Call my brother.”
“What?”
“Call my brother. If Kingston and Birdman are out to do something to him, then you need to warn him. It’s the only way my dad doesn’t kill you right along with those two clowns when he finds out about this.”
The way she spoke almost made it sound like I was her hostage. Not that she was mine, I wasn’t holding her hostage…
Was I?
I had kind of abducted her.
Shit.
I couldn’t let her go. She’d go to the cops, or worse, her father.
How did I end up the bad guy in this bullshit?
“I just need you to sit still while I figure this shit out, okay? I need you not to react, because if you do, someone is going to get hurt. I can’t handle this many dumpster fires at once.” I pulled my phone out, popped the sticky keys out of the ignition and started toward the house.
“Wait,” she called, hurrying after me.
I ignored her, each unanswered ring made it a little easier to do.
“Come on, Paxton,” I huffed under my breath.
“Give me my keys!” she screeched, before barreling the last few steps toward me and launching herself onto my back.
She caught me with a series of poorly-thrown punches, or maybe she meant to beat me with the side of her hand.
I whirled in a circle trying to shake her off or at least get her to stop drumming my eye socket and nose.
“What in the world is going on? Roy?” my mother screeched, having frantically made her way to the porch.
“Yeah.” Kennedy huffed, catching my upper lip with a knuckle, “Fucking tell her what’s going on, Roy. Tell her how you kidnapped me. How you meant to kill me. Tell her! Fucking tell her.”
She was hysterical, and my throat burned beneath the trail of her fingers. Everything was going on at once, and I just needed it to stop.
“Please,” I warned, but she just kept on fighting.
I slung her off of me, and the ground caught her with a thud. The sick sound of her gasping for air instantly made me regret it.
“Fuck. Kennedy!” I collapsed beside her and hefted her up into a sitting position.
She was pale, her respirations deep and wheezy.
I’d had the wind knocked out of me a few times, so I knew the hell she was in.
“You’re okay. You’re okay, just breathe in through the nose…” I coached.
“What is going on?” my mother roared, finally making it down the stairs.
“It’s fine. We’re fine” I reassured everyone.
Kennedy closed her eyes tight, but the tears still leaked out.
I don’t know what possessed me to do it, but I drew her into the sanctuary of my arms and held her firmly against me.
I shushed and stroked her hair, until she stopped trembling and clung to me as well.
“Say I believe you…” she weakly began, before sniffing and raising her tone, “I can’t let him do it. You know that, right?”
“He won’t do it. I left Rigs with Paxton.
What is he going to do, walk around with a witness?
” I shook my head and twisted my lips into a scowl of disbelief for her benefit.
“He will be thrown off by the wrench I threw in his plans. Kingston is a control freak. He will have called it all off. We just have to make sure he can’t strategize again before… ”
“Before what? How do you come back from this?” Kennedy laughed, the tears flowing freely.
“He can’t,” I conceded.
“Royal,” My mother quietly heaved my name, and I closed my eyes like it might shield me from the confrontation to come.
I didn’t know how to tell her that I’d sat through such plotting, and I doubted that she’d believe that I did it all in order to thwart their ambitions.
Who the hell would?
“Let’s just go inside,” I quietly urged, still unwilling to turn and face her.