64. Kai
Chapter 64
Kai
This shit is messing with my head, big time. Seconds ago, I was in iPhone’s Escalade, telling them to follow Rooke’s car.
I made them drop me off, because I had no fucking idea what I was going to do, and I didn’t want them involved either way. Took some convincing, but they wanted to get back to the party, so they eventually caved.
Then Rooke was low-key accusing me of something, but I know Ezra’s okay, because I tried to strangle that fucker once and he just walked it off.
So why’d Rooke let me in? Why’s he letting me shower, instead of calling the cops?
Never mind any of that shit, why is Haven here? If she needed a safe space, he could have taken her back to GAZ.
What the fuck is this guy’s agenda?
Now he’s got me dressed in his—super freaking soft and fluffily delicious—clothes, and I don’t know what the fuck I’m even doing with my life right now.
“Come here, Kai.”
He’s not wearing a shirt. Doesn’t seem like he’s in a rush to put one on, either. Dude’s not buff, but he doesn’t have to be. He’s got that type of build that looks good with or without muscle. Lean, strong. But he seriously needs some sun on him, because he’s way too pale.
Maybe chicks dig that these days. Who the fuck knows?
Not me.
I walk over to him, because it’s easier than coming up with an excuse not to. If he wanted to hurt me, all he had to do was raise that gun and pull the fucking trigger.
He moves fast once I’m in arm’s reach. Too fucking fast, like he’s expecting a fight. Guy doesn’t seem to realize how hard I’m rolling right now. How incapable of resisting I am.
Rooke grabs the back of my neck, his muscles cording as he holds tight.
Fuck. I can see his veins. Blue-green slashes running up his arm that pulse with power.
Then his finger is in my mouth, and it’s bitter as fuck, but he’s rubbing it over my gums, and I cup my hands to catch my teeth because sure as shit, they’re gonna fall out now that it’s all dead inside.
He releases me, gives me a little push on my chest. Tilts his head to the side. “That feel good?”
“The fuck, dude?” I run my tongue over my gums to check all my teeth are still there.
He smiles in a fucked up way, like he’s waiting to tell the punch line of a joke, and it’s gonna be a killer.
“Do you love her?” he murmurs.
I huff out a laugh. “What?”
“The girl out there that you came to rescue.” He points to the living room. “The one who bit you so hard it bled. The one you strangled until it left marks on her skin.”
Rooke grasps the back of my neck again and drags me close.
“Do. You. Love. Her?”
Jesus, is he going to kiss me?
My body stiffens, my heart thundering inside my chest.
Why the fuck am I not stopping him?
With our faces an inch apart, I’m treated to a sliver of something insane, something psychotic, something dark and depraved, flickering in his eyes.
Cruelty.
A cruelty that survives, that thrives, on crushing anything beautiful in the world.
But it can’t crush what it doesn’t know exists.
And I refuse to let it crush us.
“No.” The word puffs out of me past trembling lips.
“Good,” he murmurs, his lips barely moving but still drawing my eyes. There’s alcohol on his breath, and my eyes dart to the bottle of bourbon beside his bed.
Coke. Booze.
I should be pushing him away and getting the fuck out of this head trip of a house before shit goes down…because it’s going down.
I can feel it prickling in the air like static.
See it in his eyes, how hooded they are.
But I’m locked in place by my own treacherous muscles. My mind begging me to quench its curiosity.
It’s why I approached Haven that first day I saw her in the woods. She’d been alone, dancing and skipping through a small patch of wildflowers in what soon became our favorite clearing.
I’d never seen someone so happy.
So carefree.
It made me angry, how easy it was for her.
Until I knew her better. Until I knew that the rest of her day was a miserable suck-fest, and this was a version of herself she climbed into to escape reality.
Bastian slides a hand onto my shoulder and pushes me down on the edge of the bed.
Again, I don’t resist.
Again, curiosity wraps around me, binding me to him.
“Stay here. I’m going to fetch Haven.”
My heart gives one hard thump in my chest. “You won’t hurt her, will you?”
He studies my face, spending so much time on my mouth that my lips start to tingle. I flinch when he drags a knuckle over my jawline.
“No,” he drawls. Such a stark contrast to my pathetic little lie.
Creases appear at the corner of Rooke’s eyes. “You will.”