Frisco

12. Kali

12

KALI

I was coming out of the room when a hand on my stomach pushed me back inside.

“Wha—” Alarm and fear spiked in my chest, and my blood seemed to freeze, until I looked up and recognized the face staring back down at me. He had a hood pulled up over his head, over his cut, but I could see up close and personal the fury he kept a tight handle on.

Shane King. Though he felt more like Ghost right now.

He shut the door behind him, locked it, and threw the deadbolt—all before I managed to think maybe I shouldn’t be letting this happen.

I made a move to get past him, but he growled, “I think not.” His arm wrapped around me. It was like hitting a cement wall, and he walked me farther into the room. When I felt the bed behind my knees, he shoved me down. My legs folded. I was dumbfounded by how quickly it had happened.

Then he began moving around the room. He checked the window, the patio door, and the door that connected to the adjoining room. He waited, listening, but there were no sounds.

It hit me then. He thought Aly and Harper were in there.

I almost started laughing.

“What?” he asked. His voice was soft, and I couldn't suppress a shiver as I felt it wrap around me in the room.

“This is a motel. A two-star motel. You think I’d bring my friends here?”

“Where are they?”

“At some fancy hotel. New. Built on a golf course.” This motel was the outlier in this town, like how I felt. Fallen Crest was rich. I couldn’t figure how big it was, but when I spotted a Lamborghini and a Ferrari at the same intersection, I knew this town wasn’t anything like Frisco. Millionaires lived here. “This place is nuts.”

“What do you mean?” He went back to the front door, checking the locks before looking in the bathroom. There was no window there. No way out.

He came back, and I shrugged.

“There’s a dying town thirty minutes away from here, and then there’s this one. Doesn’t seem right that they let that town get the way it is. I saw the bones of it. It wasn’t big, I bet, but there was a school. Kids used to be bused there. Where do the kids go now?”

“Here?” He frowned. “Who gives a fuck?”

“I do.”

“We want Frisco the way it is.”

I almost snorted. Figures . Good route for drug transportation. But I didn’t say anything, just nodded. “Why are you here?”

“Why are you here?”

“You know why I’m here.” I paused, and then asked again, because it wasn’t making sense. “Why are you here? I know you. I know my sister. I’d think you’d want me to find her and take her back immediately .”

A hint of a smile showed, but it was gone within a second. “You’re overestimating your ability to talk sense into Claudia. She’s exactly the way I remember her from school.”

Right .

The air in the room chilled. I didn’t like the reasons that came to mind about why he might be in this room with me. My gut clenched. This was about Connor. Had to be.

They’d showed up because of him. Shane was all about him. Any other reason, and he’d handle this differently—whatever this was. He wanted Claudia gone so… Did Claudia know something about why they were involved with Connor in the first place?

“Not like you.”

My mouth went dry. “What do you mean?”

“High school. How you looked out for Connor, endured your sister. How you took care of those friends of yours too. Took one look at you, knew I wanted you.”

“What?”

“Yeah.” He was looking right at me . “Stayed away because of your brother, but gotta admit, you’re the reason I first approached him in class.”

“What?!”

He grinned, it was so faint. “He took one look at me looking at you and told me to keep my pants zipped or he’d take a pencil to my dick.” He snorted. “Gloves has a crazy side. Think that’s why he and I clicked so well, and kept clicking even after he went to prison.”

I drew in a breath. “What are you guys really doing with my brother?” My voice came out as a whisper. I was scared of the answer.

Shane’s eyes stayed steady. “Told you. He helped us out. That’s all.”

“If he helped you out, then why won’t you let me see my sister? I’m assuming that’s why you’re here? You knew I’d be coming back for her.”

He nodded, looking around. “You were going to have your talk here.”

I nodded, but that didn’t really need to be answered. He knew it as he’d said it.

I felt a flutter in my stomach, one I liked but also didn’t like. It was uncomfortable.

If the issue was something in the past, it was a done deal. There’d be no need for any of this unless Claudia had overheard or seen something else? Maybe it was something else? That was the only thing that made sense.

My head was messed up. Too many hours driving. Too much effort waiting, prepared, for when Aly and Harper would start the questioning about Foley.

Now Shane was here, and his presence was overwhelming. All he was telling me. Just standing there, staring at me, I felt him all the way to my toes. My blood was on fire, and it took effort to tamp it all down.

“Look, whatever she saw or overheard, I don’t want to hear it,” I told him. “I don’t want to know it. She won’t say anything. I promise. I won’t let her. My mom won’t let her. We know what you guys can do.”

He tilted his head. “Your sister tends to do her own thing.”

That was an understatement. “Let me talk to her. I can reason with her.”

“Can you? Actually?”

I winced, because he was right.

Then, as if he’d decided to take control of the conversation, he started for me. “I know you.”

Fuck .

“I know her.”

Jesus .

My throat tightened with each statement, each step he took.

He was dangerous. I’d always felt that from him, even back in high school. But it had been honed to perfection in the years since. I’d known that immediately when I saw him in the grocery store. My feelings were muddled up a bit at my mom’s bar, from that kiss. But this tiny room seemed to get smaller the longer we stayed in here. It was once again front and center in my mind that he was a killer.

Knew it in my gut.

No one could’ve told me differently.

Yet I still didn’t quite know why I was scared of him, except the obvious. He was a Red Demon.

Oh, right. My brother.

I took a breath, closed my eyes, and let it out. “Why do I feel like I’m going to lose someone I love because of you?”

He made no sound.

I waited, tensing for his response, but after ten seconds, nothing had come out.

I opened my eyes and half expected him to be gone.

He stared at me.

He looked haunted before he caught himself. Then he growled and lunged for me.

Maybe lunge was an exaggeration.

He stepped toward me, but I was so attuned to his movements that I jumped up.

He kept coming, and his hand went to my stomach. He walked me to a wall.

I couldn’t breathe.

My whole body heated. The hold wasn’t painful. It was possessive. When I hit the wall, he stepped close to me, his chest brushing against my breasts, and he stared.

I stared back.

My whole body was an inferno. “What are you doing?” I asked hoarsely.

His fingers flexed before he let out a hiss and removed his hand. His eyes darkened, falling to my mouth, lingering there. Then slowly he leaned even closer. His hand moved to rest against the wall by my head.

“You are a problem.”

A problem?

He was the problem.

His club was the problem.

The problem wasn’t me, and fuck him .

Anger flashed through me, and I jerked forward, but there was no place to go. I hit his chest. He didn’t move. It was that cement wall again, except his hand moved from the wall and went to my back. I tried to step back, but he caught me. His hand slid down my back, molding me to him, and my head tipped back.

I felt every inch of him.

His chest.

His heart.

His stomach.

My legs shifted. One of his moved between mine, and he pushed me back against the wall. His body moved against mine. He grinded against me, and goddammit, I wanted him.

I wanted more of that.

Lust surged inside of me.

The feel of him moving against me was so good, soo good.

I gasped, and his hand went to my throat. It was a gentle hold, cupping the side of my head and his thumb grazing my jaw. His fingers moved over my cheek.

He slowly dipped, his whole body moving against mine, and his other leg moved between mine. He lifted me with him as he straightened, leaving me pinned in place.

I was at his mercy.

“Do you want this?” he rasped.

This?

Already pleasure coated my insides. Everything was hazy, except for the feeling of him.

My mouth opened to answer, and he began grinding against me, slow and purposeful. Fuuuck . Pleasure ripped through me.

I couldn’t answer. I just held on.

“Kali.” He murmured my name against my throat. His breath misted my skin.

I didn’t want him to stop. The throbbing grew.

“I need to know. Do you want this?”

I didn’t know what he meant, and I couldn’t answer him. I couldn’t speak, but I moved with him. My hips pushed against his, and I wrapped a hand around his back and neck. I began to ride him, and that was enough.

Another growl ripped from him, and he took over.

There was no other way to describe it.

His mouth found my throat, and he tasted. He pushed up and into me so hard that I could almost feel him inside of me.

My God.

I wanted that.

My hand moved between us, catching his jeans and finding the top button.

But something held me back. I had mostly ceased thinking by now, but somewhere in the back of my head, I knew. I just knew. If I undid this button, it was over. We’d go all the way. So I held off, but as he continued grinding up and into me, I was fast losing interest in that instinct telling me to wait.

His mouth moved up my throat, and he pulled us away from the wall.

One hand held my leg and the other was around my back. He turned and took two steps. His hand slid down my spine into the back of my pants. He palmed my ass before laying me on the bed. Then he rose above me, watching.

The separation felt like a bucket of cold water.

I protested against it, wanting him back. My chest rose and fell, and I couldn’t catch enough air.

Then I heard what had stopped him.

A phone was ringing.

I looked, still in a daze, my body aching from wanting him, but it was my phone.

He knelt, putting his hands back on me. He searched, and his hand went to one of my pockets. He pulled out the phone, and his whole face went hard. He showed me the screen before hitting accept.

I gasped, jerking upright. It said Foley was calling.

“Why the fuck are you calling her?” he growled into the phone.