Chapter 11 Kaylor #2
My head lifted slightly, and his eyes were on me with an intensity that made my breath catch.
The relief in his gaze was so profound it was almost painful to witness.
My eyes ate him up, his full lips, pierced nose, chiseled cheeks, the two tiny scars just under his eye, and his expressive brows.
He looked better than any memory I conjured.
God, I missed him, and as if he knew how much I needed to see his lips form into that perfect frown, they turned down at the corners.
My heart fluttered. “You came,” I whispered, my fingers lifting to his cheek to touch him and make sure he was indeed real.
His skin was warm as I brushed over his scar.
His mouth curved into something that wasn’t quite a smile but was infinitely precious, soft around the edges in a way that transformed his entire face. “I had a promise to keep. I told you I’d always find you, little raven.”
The nickname warmed places inside me that had gone cold with fear.
My lips trembled as I tried to form a response, tried to find words for the overwhelming flood of emotion threatening to drown me.
I wanted him to say it a dozen more times.
“Took you long enough,” I managed, attempting levity but hearing the way my voice cracked.
The tears came then, hot and unstoppable, blurring his face.
He caught the fallen tears with his thumb. “Don’t ever fucking do that to me again.”
A watery laugh bubbled out of me. It was a sound I’d wondered if I’d ever hear again. “Now that I’ve crossed kidnapping off my bucket list, I have no inclination to repeat the experience ever again.”
Those gray eyes formed a speck of seriousness. “We’re going to talk about what you did, but not until I can let go of you, which might be a few days.”
Ah, yes, me sneaking off after drugging him and his brothers. Slowly, the initial rush of relief began to ebb as everything else came crashing back. The burning house. The stage lights. The auction. My stomach hollowed out, becoming a pit of acid and guilt.
“The other girls,” I blurted, pushing away from his chest to look at him directly as I thought of Crystal. “I can’t leave without them. We have to go back. They’re still—”
Kreed’s expression fell. “I’m sorry, little raven. It’s too late. We’re already miles away, and the house is probably nothing but ashes and rubble by now. If any of them made it out, hopefully they ran.”
My chest burned with anger and sorrow. I couldn’t help but think of Crystal and the other girls who weren’t as lucky as me.
They didn’t have what I had. They didn’t have Kreed.
I might be safe, but they might not be, and despite the terror still holding its claws in me, I knew I must find a way to help them. Maybe not tonight, but soon.
I glanced around the car, noticing the absence of some important players. “Where are Brock, Raine, and Fynn? Are they—”
“Raine and Fynn are safe,” Brock quickly assured, but I caught the pause that followed.
There was something else, and I realized he had left out a name. He’d only said Raine and Fynn were safe. “And Brock?”
Grayson’s fingers wrung on the steering wheel. “No one’s heard from him yet.”
I pushed farther away from Kreed, suddenly not so relieved. “We have to go back. We have to find him. We can’t leave him behind. He’s my cousin, I can’t—”
“Chill, menace,” Maddox said from the front seat, twisting to glance at me. “We won’t leave anyone behind. Fynn and Raine are already working on it. They’ll find him. You know they will.”
I sagged into Kreed’s arms, my brief burst of energy spent, but my mind wouldn’t stop racing down dark corridors of possibility.
If anything happened to my cousin… God, how many more people would get hurt or worse because of Rusty’s greed, his lust for power, or whatever the fuck it was he was trying to achieve?
I didn’t know anymore what that was, but I had few family members left. I couldn’t lose him.
The SUV began to slow, and my heart gave a little lurch when I saw Brock’s house.
Holy shit. We’d made it. Against all odds, despite every obstacle Rusty had thrown in our path, we’d actually made it out alive, but the threat still existed.
Rusty wasn’t dead, and until he was, I couldn’t let my guard down. Not for a second.
Grayson killed the engine, and before Kreed reached for the handle, the door swung open, a gust of fresh air breezing through the car.
I hadn’t seen Mason move, but suddenly he was in front of me, pulling me out of the car and lifting me clear off the ground.
His arms squeezed tight as he spun me in a wild circle, making my wobbly head hurt.
“Mason,” I gasped, clutching his broad shoulders as the world spun around me in nauseating circles. “Put me down before I throw up on you.”
“I swear, if you make her pass out again…” Kreed growled, hovering close behind us.
Mason’s grin only widened, but he obliged, setting me gently on my feet with exaggerated care, but he didn’t let me go. “Missed you, my little kitten, but the next time you offer me a drink, I’m politely declining.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m still trying to figure out why I missed you, but I did.”
“Fuck ya, you did. It wasn’t the same without you. Whether you like it or not, you’re a Raven now.”
I wasn’t sure I liked it at all, and from the frown carved on Kreed’s lips, he also wasn’t sure how he felt about me being part of his crew.
Mason’s eyes twinkled. “We’ve never had a girl as part of our crew.”
“For good reason,” Maddox mumbled, coming to stand in front of me. “They cause drama.” He swept me into a hug that felt like being embraced by a mountain. He held me against his chest with crushing intensity.
My arms barely fit around him. “You just insulted me, and now you want to hug me?”
“You sure live up to your name, menace,” he murmured against the top of my head, his voice thick with an emotion I hadn’t heard from Maddox before.
I swallowed, my throat tight with the effort of holding back tears, happy ones this time, the kind that came from being surrounded by people who cared enough to risk everything for you. I held on. “You’re never letting me live that down, are you?”
“Not a chance.” He set me on my feet but kept his hands on my waist, studying my face. “Besides, someone’s got to keep you out of trouble.”
The normalcy of it, the teasing, the familiar dynamics, the way they were all pretending this was just another day, felt like a gift more precious than anything money could buy.
It was their way of telling me that nothing had changed, that I was still the same person despite everything that had happened, and fuck, if I didn’t need that assurance, because I didn’t feel like me at all.
I wasn’t lost anymore. I was found. I was home. This was where I was meant to be—with them.
The truth hit me with enough force to make my knees wobble, and Kreed was there immediately, his arm sliding around my waist to steady me, pulling me out of his brother’s embrace. “Enough manhandling. It’s my turn.”
“Are you shitting me?” Maddox argued, his brows drawing together. “She sat in your lap the whole way back. It’s not like we got turns.”
Kreed scowled. “Fuck, no. If I ever catch her in either of your laps…”
And so the familiar threats over me began. A smile tugged at my lips.