Chapter 56 #2
“Hmm.” He pushes off the frame and ambles toward me. “Excited about your presents, sweet girl?”
My cheeks heat. “A little.”
I take the hand he holds out for me, squealing when he scoops me up, and again when he drops me on the worn-in leather couch facing the fireplace. He leaves me there, ducking down to rekindle the fire he left banked overnight.
The ease with which he does everything around this place makes me think he spent a lot of time on his own.
Some would say he liked to vacation.
We know now he was hiding out. Letting the heat die down before he moved to a new town and new…toys.
We’ve teased some of Bastian’s dark past out of him, but honestly, it didn’t feel all that cathartic for any of us, so we’ve left it alone for now. This thing between the three of us is so new, I don’t think we know what to make of it yet.
New, but so fucking amazing.
“Only good dreams last night, I hope.” Done with the fire, he comes back and sinks onto the couch beside me, pulling my legs across his lap. His palm is warm on my bare thigh, his thumb tracing idle patterns that make it hard to think.
“So far, so good.” I watch his hand move, avoiding his eyes.
“I know I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again, sweet girl.” His voice is gentle in a way it rarely is. “This is a safe space. I will never judge. I will never criticize. But the more you let me in—”
“The more you can help. I know.” I huff out a breath, leaning my head against the couch so I can stare across at him. “Seriously, I slept well. If I did dream, I didn’t remember anything.”
“No sleep paralysis?”
I suppress a shudder. I’ve had vivid nightmares my entire life—big fucking surprise—but the sleep paralysis only started when I came back to Agony Hollow. Bastian thinks it’s the trauma from killing Uncle Lenny.
I secretly think Uncle Lenny still haunts me to this day. But we ran so far, and so fast, when we left Agony Hollow, that I’m hoping he lost my trail.
“And you? How’s the insomnia?” I rake my toe over his bare chest, giggling when he grabs my ankle and pretends to take a bite out of my foot.
“Nice segue, Miss H,” Kai says as he comes into the living room with three mismatched coffee mugs. “You know he won’t fall for it though, right?”
“I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt this morning, my good boy,” Bastian says, giving Kai a salacious smile as he takes one of the mugs.
Kai nearly fumbles the other two, then scowls at Bastian. “Stop calling me that,” he mutters.
“But you love it when he calls you a good boy,” I say, tapping Kai with my foot as he comes to sit beside Bastian.
Kai’s only reply is a loud slurp of his coffee.
He grimaces. “Fair warning, I kinda fucked up the coffee. It might be a tad on the strong side.”
It is strong. Aggressively too strong. We drink it anyway, watching the sun rise over the Montana wilderness. Bastian gets two notifications on his phone, types a reply to the second one, and then sets it back on the table behind the sofa.
I wait for him to explain what the messages were about, but he just gives me a faint smile when I look at him.
Screw this.
“So,” I say, setting my half-empty mug on the coffee table. “Are we doing this, or what?”
“Doing what?” Kai asks innocently. He’s busy scrolling on his phone, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
Are they sexting each other while I’m right here in the fucking room with them?
I throw a pillow at Kai.
Bastian growls when I leap off the couch and nearly slosh his coffee onto his lap as the cushion bounces back.
“Which one’s mine?” I crow with delight as I skid up to the tree on my knees. I start hauling presents out, muttering, “Ow, ow, ow,” every time a branch scrapes me.
“They have labels, you little heathen,” Bastian says.
I glance up at him towering over me, a present in my hand, and shake it. Hard.
Whatever’s inside rattles merrily.
He squeezes his eyes shut with his fingers, groaning. “Thank God I didn’t opt for the snow globe,” he mutters.
Kai plops down beside me, reaching under the tree to drag out two presents I’d missed.
I suppress a squeal of excitement, flipping over the present I just shook. My excitement instantly fades when I see Kai’s name on the tag.
“You know how to do calligraphy?” I say, turning to stare at Bastian.
He comes to sit cross legged behind us, giving me a mysterious smile. “I know how to do a lot of things.”
“Calligraphy,” Kai scoffs, snatching his present out of my hands. “Gift wrapping. You’re so fucking gay.”
“Is that supposed to be an insult? Because—”
Bastian cuts off when Kai leans back and plants a kiss on his mouth. “Shut up, Bash.”
Bastian’s eyes shutter, the mirth disappearing from his face.
Fuck, not again.
Every single time Kai calls him Bash, he flinches. Kai never seems to notice—he’s already turning back to his drone box, tearing at the tape with his teeth—but I’ve seen it plenty…and I’m done pretending I haven’t.
“Hey.” I put my hand on Bastian’s knee. “What’s going on?”
Bastian’s gaze drops to my hand. I’m expecting one of his non-answers, or a smirk, or for him to distract me with a sexual innuendo.
Kai looks up at me with a frown, then over to Bastian.
“It’s nothing.” But Bastian’s voice is too even. Too controlled.
“It’s clearly not,” I say.
Bastian’s jaw works. He’s staring out the window, but I don’t think he’s here right now.
“Billy used to call me that,” he says quietly.
Kai goes still beside me. “Shit.”
“The last time she called me that—” Bastian pauses, and the silence is so heavy I can feel it pressing against my eardrums. “She thanked me for killing her.”
Shock turns my body cold.
Bastian told us all about his first kill—how he helped his sister Billy take her own life so she wouldn’t burn in Catholic hell.
But he never told us…that.
Kai’s throat bobs. “Fuck,” he whispers. “I didn’t—I had no idea, man. I’ll stop.”
“No.” Bastian’s voice is rough, but firm. He reaches back without looking and grips the back of Kai’s neck. “Don’t stop.”
“But—”
“She told me…” His voice fades, and he clears his throat before speaking again. “She told me to find love and joy. I never knew it was possible before I met you two. So…no…don’t stop. Ever.”
Nobody speaks for what feels like a full minute.
Then Kai leans into Bastian’s hand, pressing his forehead against our professor’s shoulder. “Bash,” he breathes. Testing it. Reclaiming it.
Bastian’s eyes close. His jaw tightens. But he doesn’t flinch.
I watch them for a moment, and a sharp, deep ache hits me so hard it takes my breath away.
I think it’s love. Like actual real love.
We’ve all been broken so thoroughly, it’s a miracle our jagged edges line up at all.
I blink back a sudden rush of tears and start hunting through the presents until I find one with my name on it.
I’m still busy tearing it open when Kai lets out a gravelly, “Nooo…”
I pause mid-rip. “What? What did you get?”
When Kai just keeps staring down at the box in his hands, I lean over, demanding, “What’s in the box!” in a shrill voice.
Kai laughs, elbowing me, and even Bastian chuckles behind us.
When Kai holds up his gift, I groan.
It’s a drone.
Kai’s been going on about how useful one would be to monitor the property, take wildlife shots…and a ton of other tech stuff I blocked out.
The two of them immediately get into a discussion about what a good make the drone is, how superior its camera, flight distance—
Screw this.
I carry on opening my gift. It’s a small box compared to Kai’s, and barely weighs anything.
But inside…
My hand darts up, wrapping around the butterfly pendant Kai gave me.
“Fuck,” I murmur, blinking rapidly to clear a sudden press of tears.
My men go silent. Bastian slides a hand over my shoulder, his lips brushing my ear when he says, “Merry Christmas, sweet girl.”
Kai cranes to get a better look, the drone forgotten. “That’s…Jesus, they’re beautiful, Bash…but…”
He trails off, and we share a glance that Bastian doesn’t notice as he reaches over to take the box out of my hands. “May I?”
I grab his wrist, stopping him. “I…This was so nice of you, but…” Heat rises in my cheeks.
Bastian frowns at me, then at Kai, then back at me. Then his eyes dart to my ears.
“Christ, I didn’t even—“ He cuts off, drawing in a deep breath.
“It’s okay! Maybe—maybe we can find a way to add them to my necklace or something.”
I stare down at the delicate butterfly earrings nestled inside the jewelry box. They’re nearly identical replicas of Kai’s pendant, with glittering sapphires set inside each wing.
But I never got my ears pierced.
The look I see on Bastian’s face before he schools it into something more neutral is nearly the same one Melissa gave me when she casually handed me a pair of earrings to wear out one night.
Sympathy, bordering on pity.
I don’t have time to be offended.
Bastian snaps his fingers, getting to his feet and holding out a hand to help me up. I stare up at him warily as I slowly take his hand and let him pull me up.
“Kai, go fetch the first aid kit,” he says, a smug smile gracing his lips as he leads me to the dining room table.
I tug back on his hand. “You’re not serious,” I say through an uneasy laugh.
“Do you trust me, sweet girl?”
I don’t know why I sit when he ushers me to the nearest chair. Or why I’m still sitting there when Kai comes back with the med kit.
Bastian uses his knuckle to tip my chin back. “I asked you a question.”
I stare up at Bastian, the man who used to be my professor, my stalker, and now…
“I trust you.”
Bastian peers down at me for a beat. Whatever he sees in my eyes satisfies him, because he nods and then looks over at Kai. “And you?”
Kai stares back at him, tilting his chin up a fraction. “I wouldn’t let you touch her if I didn’t.”
Bastian smiles, trailing the knuckles of his other hand down Kai’s jaw.
“Nor should you,” he says.
Then he cocks his head toward the kitchen. “Fetch me some ice, boy.”