CHAPTER ELEVEN
Kayla
I’m hiding in the kitchen, eating a slice of toast before anyone busts me for ruining my dinner.
It’s normally Brawley since he makes most of the meals.
Vero walks in wearing a full vampire costume and pours himself a glass of juice.
I stare but remain silent, caught between curiosity, as this is not his normal costume, and not wanting to get called out about my snack.
“What?” he asks when he turns around and spots me.
“Nothing,” I say, not wanting to make him feel weird.
He nods and drinks his juice. I decide this is just my life now as I finish my toast and dust off the crumbs in the sink.
Brawley walks in, and while he is wearing his normal clothes, he sports a set of devil horns on his head.
“Nice horns,” I say, trying to contain my laughter because I know he would not be willingly wearing them.
“Don’t start,” he snipes.
Vero points at him from across the kitchen.
“He fought me on those for twenty minutes. But he is a sucker for a pout, just in case you ever need to persuade him of something.” Brawley side-eyes him.
“He wanted to wear nothing today. I told him he had to wear a costume, that it isn’t just a regular night, Kayla gets to experience—”
“Vero,” Brawley’s growl interrupts him, and Vero mimes zipping his lips.
“Experience what?” I ask, because nothing good comes from Vero keeping secrets.
“The jig is up,” Vero sighs out dramatically. “We are taking you around the island tonight. It’s a kids’ event for Halloween.”
I look at Brawley’s devil horns. “Shitty effort, but he is still in the spirit.”
I’m about to ask where Clay and Ares are when the latter walks in and I almost choke. He is wearing a black button-up shirt, open at the neck, dark pants, and a mask pushed up on his head. A phantom half-mask, and he looks stupidly good in it.
“Where’s Clay?”
Right as I ask, he walks through the back door in his security vest.
He stops when he sees us all staring at him and snaps, “I’m not wearing a stupid fucking costume.”
“That is literally what I said,” Brawley replies.
“Clay,” Vero says, batting his lashes, and I hold in my laughter.
“No,” Clay replies, not allowing room for argument. But no isn’t what Vero wants to hear.
“It’s just for one night. For Kayla.”
Clay looks at me. “Still no.”
“Not even some cute cat ears . . . for me?” I pout and mimic Vero’s lash batting.
Clay shakes his head. “You won’t change my mind.”
“Okay,” I say with a shrug. “But just so you know, Brawley is wearing devil horns, and if he can do it . . .”
“I did not agree to be used as a benchmark,” Brawley grumbles with a scowl.
Vero pulls something out from behind the counter and holds out a simple black mask, smiling sweetly at Clay. “That counts,” Vero insists.
Clay takes it but doesn’t put it on.
“I will go get dressed,” I tell them.
I leave them in the kitchen and run upstairs, grabbing the cat ears I got from the gift shop yesterday to wear at the bar for the nights I work, and put on a black pair of jeans and a black sweatshirt. Then I add a black button nose and whiskers using my makeup.
When I’m done, everyone is waiting for me. Vero smiles at me and nods approvingly of my cat outfit. He opens the front door. “After you, my lady.”
I step outside and everyone follows behind me.
The island at dusk is beautiful, and kids’ laughter echoes around us even from this distance. I can’t wait to see it in action.
As we walk toward the chaos, children are dressed up and running around with their parents chasing behind them. When we reach the cornfield, Cave is standing frozen at the outer edge.
Vero stops beside a child staring up at the scarecrow and does the same.
The child looks at Vero.
“Disturbing, right?” Vero says to the child, who looks about ten.
The kid nods, and they stand there together for a few seconds.
Suddenly, Cave moves. Vero jumps back, and the kid runs off screaming.
I see the shadow of a smirk on Cave’s lips before it vanishes. He nods at me, and I nod back before he steps back into the cornstalks and waits for more children to come past.
I really love this place; I have never felt more at home anywhere else.
Vero grabs my hand and pulls me into him, then leaning down, he whispers in my ear, “I still think he is a freaky fucker.”
I catch Brawley watching us, and he shakes his head.
We follow the main path down toward Sideshow Alley, Vero pulling me along, excited by everything he wants to do as if it’s his first time here. I love his enthusiasm; it actually makes me love him more.
The smell of popcorn fills the air once we get closer, and Vero picks up the pace. Sideshow Alley is lit up and loud, with every stall open and people lined up. Vero makes a beeline for the ring toss, letting go of my hand so he can move faster.
Ares falls into step with me. “I should warn you,” he says. “Vero has been banned from two of these stalls before.”
“Banned, but why?” I ask, needing to know the story.
“The way he wins is not in the spirit of the game.”
“It’s not my fault I understand physics,” Vero shouts, obviously having heard us.
He steps up to the ring toss and pays for his rings, then proceeds to get every single one over an object.
It makes everyone around him cheer, which feeds his ego and is amusing to watch.
Vero collects an enormous stuffed animal, turns around, and spots a little girl in a witch hat.
He hands her the teddy, and her toothless smile is contagious.
He turns back to me. “See? Physics,” is all he says before moving on to the next stall.
I drift along beside him, while Clay goes off toward a shooting game two stalls down with water pistols and moving targets.
He puts his money down and picks up the pistol, then hits every target without even trying.
Once he puts the pistol back down and collects his prize, Clay walks over to me and hands me a stuffed black cat, but he says nothing and keeps walking.
I look at Ares. “Did he just win me a prize?”
Ares nods. “He sure did, and in such a Clay way too. I wouldn’t be expecting hearts and roses from him anytime soon.”
Further down the alley, Brawley is at the strength tester, where a small crowd has gathered around him.
He lifts the mallet and swings it. The puck goes up, and of course, he hits the top.
The children go crazy. Brawley crouches down to the boy next to him and says something, and the boy points to a prize.
The guy manning the stall hands it to the child, and Brawley just stands up and walks toward us like nothing happened.
I lick my lips and my heart swells in my chest.
That’s my man—or mine and Vero’s, but still.
“You’re staring,” Ares says with a chuckle.
“Just appreciating the view,” I reply, to which Ares shakes his head.
I wander over to the basketball stall, sit my cat down, and pay.
Bouncing the ball first to get a feel for it, I line up my shot.
The first goes in, and then the second. I start to think maybe these games are not as hard as regular sideshow games when the third shot goes in too.
Once I collect my prize and my stuffed cat, I turn around to find all four of my men watching me in stunned silence.
I hold up my prize, a small foam crown, and put it on my head.
Vero bounces over to me and links his arm with mine as we continue down the alley, steering us through the rest of the stalls with the energy of a crazy man with a plan.
We spend another twenty minutes working our way through the chaos.
Vero gets banned from a stall, which he gracefully accepts and moves on.
Ares loses at the duck pond game. I never knew someone could lose at that one, but there is a first for everything.
Clay wins second prize and slips it into his pocket, but says nothing.
By the time we reach the end of Sideshow Alley, my stomach rumbles, so Vero steers us left to where I can see food carts are set up.
Ares leans in and whispers in my ear. “It’s way too busy for the bar to feed everyone, so we get in vendors for the week.”
Vero orders potatoes on a stick that are massive and hands one to me, and we follow the string lights as we eat, slowly heading toward the carnival area.
The Ferris wheel is at the far end of the carnival space, and Vero says he is going on by himself to collect his thoughts. No one argues with him, and Clay and Brawley get onto the next one, leaving Ares and me to get into the last carriage.
As we near the top, I gaze down at the island, noting how beautiful it looks. All the lights can be seen from up here. I can also see Vero swinging his gondola and waving at everyone below.
“You look happy,” Ares says.
“I am happy.”
“It looks good on you.”
Turning to face him, I see him looking at me in a way I haven’t before. “I didn’t think I was allowed to be happy like this. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
“You’re allowed to feel however you want here.”
I smile at him. “I know that now.”
He reaches over and straightens my crown. “Good.”
He looks back over the water, and I stare at the side of his face. I think about how much this man has come to mean to me as the gondola slowly starts to move again.
Vero is already pacing when we reach the ground, and as soon as I step out, he grabs my hand. He announces the mazes are next, and I let him pull me along because his excitement is contagious.
We reach the scare maze, and red smoke pours out. Vero points to the sign marking the entrance, which reads: Abandoned Hope. “I helped design that,” he says proudly.
“The sign or the maze?” I ask.
“Both,” he says, bouncing on his feet.
I know going in I am at a disadvantage, as Vero knows what to expect. “You’ll be fine,” Vero tells me, picking up on my energy.
“I’m not scared,” I reply.
Which I’m not. After everything I have been through, this is a piece of cake.
We go inside, and the first section is a long corridor. I pace myself, waiting for the jump scare. Something drops from the ceiling, and I lurch back, making Vero cackle. Thankfully, it’s just a fake spider that got my punch in the face, and not a real person.
We round the corner, and a figure steps out of a doorway. I walk around him without pausing, and hear Vero tell him he did a good job.
I’m feeling good about myself as we move on to the next part. It’s a wider room that appears to be completely empty and is lit up more than the other two. I’m halfway across when the floor drops a few inches with no warning and every light cuts out.
Something cold touches the back of my neck, and I scream as I frantically grab onto someone’s arm.
The lights come back on, and I stare up into Ares’s grinning face as I’m clutching his side.
“I wasn’t scared,” I say to no one in particular.
“The indentations on my arm suggest otherwise,” Ares replies.
“I was startled when the freaking floor moved. I could have died.” Then I realize what I said, and silence surrounds us. “But I didn’t.” I point at an actor now standing in the room with us, clearly the one who put ice on the back of my neck. “You are fired.”
“He doesn’t work for you,” Clay adds with a smirk.
“I will take it up with the hirer and firer on the island.”
“I’m sure Nix will appreciate that, so good luck.”
I flip Clay off.
“That’s my girlfriend, isn’t she beautiful?” Vero says, leaning closer to the actor. So I flip him off as well.
“See? Stunning.”
The actor just nods as Vero laughs.
I straighten my crown and walk forward, ignoring them all as I storm through the rest of the maze and push out the final doors. Everyone is right behind me and no one comments on me leaving so fast.
Vero catches up to me and slips his hand into mine. He drags me again, and we follow a path I have never taken before that leads to the beach. It’s a fair walk down a hill to somewhere that is really not a large beach—more the bottom of a cliff and some sand at low tide.
The guys pile some wood that they must have brought down here earlier into a pit they dug and light a fire. I raise my brow at Ares, and he nods to confirm he set this up earlier.
Vero sits cross-legged close to the fire, too close for comfort, and I watch his cape in case it goes up in flames.
Brawley sits on a log, and I perch beside him. Clay finds a spot on my other side, while Ares sits beside Vero. He pulls a flask out of his jacket pocket and passes it over to me.
“Did you have a good time?” Brawley asks me, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and pulling me closer.
I rest my head on his side. “I did, it was perfect,” I say, staring at the fire and wondering what I did to deserve this kind of peace.