Chapter 23 #3
Kai nods once, as if considering the question seriously. He reaches for one of his creations that looks a bit like a spider and turns it over in his hands. His fingers move over it absentmindedly, but comfortably. “I’m not sure,” he says finally.
I frown at that. “How about when you were little? Before all the fame.”
He pauses for a few moments, and I notice his posture changes slightly, and he looks almost uneasy.
“I suppose,” he says slowly, “I’d have liked to have been an inventor.” His thumb brushes over the curved edge of the spider. “Somewhere far away from here.”
He says it in such a detached way. Like it belongs to someone he used to be. Someone he doesn’t quite have access to anymore.
And that makes me a little sad. Because for all his brilliance, for all the noise that must follow him everywhere he goes, he looks like someone who’s never really had peace.
“Where?” I ask, gently.
But he doesn’t answer that. Doesn’t even look at me.
Instead, he sets the spider down and says, “What about you? Any lifelong dreams?”
I smile, though it feels a little silly now. “I think… I wanted to be a painter. An artist.”
He cringes at that. It’s subtle, and I would have missed it if only I wasn’t staring at him so intently.
“Sounds… idyllic,” he says at last, tone neutral but clipped. “Rare these days. Rarer still when it survives.”
“That sounds like it comes from experience,” I say quietly.
“All the best warnings do.”
Heat rises to my cheeks and to avoid any further awkwardness, I speed-walk to a nearby bean bag chair. It’s oversized and impossibly comfortable. I flop down, letting out a contented sigh. But just as I start to relax, something darts past me.
I scream. “What… was that?”
Kai strides across the room, then crouches and in one smooth motion, he scoops up the blur of movement. When he stands, he’s holding a… creature. A long, furry, squirmy creature.
“It’s a ferret,” he says, holding it out slightly so I can get a better look. “His name is Percy.”
I blink at the wriggling animal; its beady eyes and twitching nose make it look simultaneously adorable and slightly terrifying. “You have a ferret?” I cough awkwardly. “Named Percy?”
Kai raises an eyebrow. “Why? Is that surprising?”
“I don’t know,” I say, still staring at the creature. “It just… feels a bit off-brand for you.”
He doesn’t laugh, but the corner of his mouth twitches. “Percy was a birthday present. From Liam.”
“Ah. Makes sense,” I say, nodding. “Only Liam would think to give someone like you a ferret. I’m guessing he named it too.”
Kai shrugs, adjusting Percy in his hands. “Better than Noodle Butt.”
I burst out laughing, doubling over in the beanbag chair. “Noodle Butt? You have to be joking.”
Kai just shakes his head, muttering something under his breath as Percy climbs onto his shoulder.
There’s something about seeing Kai Steele with a ferret perched on his shoulder that doesn’t quite sit right.
It’s not bad, exactly. Just… odd.
Yet here he is, looking entirely unbothered as Percy nuzzles into his neck. The image doesn’t fit, and it throws me off so much that I can’t help but stare.
Kai eventually puts Percy down, the ferret scurrying off toward… somewhere. Kai straightens, leaning casually against the side of the pool table, his arms crossed.
“So, the project,” I start, testing the waters. “I had some ideas—”
“Adeline,” he interrupts, “you’re not here for the project.” His voice is low and steady, and if it weren’t for the words themselves, it would even seem charming.
“So… why did you bring me here?” I ask, trying not to sound as freaked out as I feel.
He doesn’t say anything at first, just tilts his head slightly, as if studying me. “Are you being threatened?” he asks finally.
I freeze. How does he know? My brain scrambles for an answer, my heart pounding against my ribs.
“Um. No?” I try, but it comes out more like a question than a denial.
Kai starts toward me.
“Okay, okay, fine!” I blurt out before he can get any closer. “It’s true. I’ve been threatened for a while now.” The realization forces words out of me before I can stop them. “But how do you know?”
Kai stops a few feet away, relaxing me a little.
He doesn’t even pause as he shrugs. “You’re not exactly discreet.”
I blink. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You check over your shoulder too much. You tense up every time you get sent a message, and when you open your locker.” His gaze flickers down, then back up. “You’re not subtle.”
I scowl. “Doesn’t necessarily mean I’m being threatened.”
Kai doesn’t even acknowledge that with a response. Instead, he shifts his weight, watching me with a kind of intense, calculating gaze.
Then, so casually it makes my head spin, he says, “I got a friend of mine to hack into your phone.”
My heart stops.
“You what?” The words snap out of me before I can even process them.
Kai doesn’t blink. “Hacked your phone.” His voice is so flat, so casual, that I wonder if I misheard him.
“You hacked my phone?” My voice is rising now, pure disbelief coating every syllable.
Kai doesn’t even blink. “Well, technically, I didn’t do it.”
Oh. Well. That changes everything.
“What—how—why?” My voice hitches slightly, my thoughts still trying to catch up with the absolute audacity of this guy. “How did you even know I was being threatened?”
Kai looks at me for a long moment, unreadable as ever, then finally says, “I wasn’t sure at first.”
There’s something almost lazy about the way he says it, like it wasn’t my life he was poking around in.
“Then I saw someone put something in your locker.”
“You saw someone?” My voice barely comes out, just a breath of disbelief and something cold creeping up my spine.
He nods once. “That’s what I said, yes.”
I swallow, my throat suddenly dry because what the hell? He saw someone? He saw someone and he didn’t tell me?
For the first time, something like irritation flickers in his expression, and he sighs. “And no.”
I suck in a breath. “No?”
“Their face was covered.”
Well, that’s just perfect, isn’t it?
I stare at him, my stomach twisting into knots I don’t have the patience to untangle. I let out a shaky breath, my arms crossing tightly over my chest. “I’ve been getting messages from a blocked number for a few weeks now, but I was followed even before that,” I add since he already knows.
“You were followed?” Kai asks, a little sceptically. “How long?”
I hesitate. My gaze drops to the floor, and my fingers twist together. “Around a month after my brother…” I pause, swallowing hard. “After my brother died.”
The mention of my brother shifts something in Kai. His posture tenses, his eyes narrowing slightly as if something inside him has snapped into focus. He’s suddenly more invested, and I don’t know why.
“Did you know him?” I ask, my voice quieter now. “His name was Mason Ross.”
For a moment, Kai just looks at me. His face is blank, his eyes giving away nothing. Then, finally, he speaks. “Everyone knew
him.”
Right. Of course. I almost forgot how much of a prodigy Mason was. My talented, popular older brother, the one everyone adored and admired.
He’s similar to Kai in that way.
For a split second, the memory of him stings, but I shove it down.
“What did the texts say?” Kai asks.
I glance up at him, my throat tightening. The room feels colder now, heavier. My fingers twist harder, and I force myself to meet his gaze. “There was a lot about the crash. And my father. And they knew things… things they shouldn’t.”
“Things only your father would know,” he says. It’s not a question. It’s a fact. One he’s already pieced together.
I nod. “Only my father, my sisters, and me.”
For a second, there’s nothing but silence between us.
But it’s not empty. He’s thinking, I can tell.
I can almost see the pieces falling into place behind those sharp, too-intense eyes.
He leans back against the edge of the pool table, but the tension in his shoulders gives him away.
He’s interested now. He cares—or at least, he cares about whatever puzzle I just handed him.
“But why do you want to know?” I blurt out while I still have the nerve. “You don’t even know me.”
Kai’s eyes meet mine. “My sister,” he says.
Two words. That’s all it takes to knock the air out of me.
I blink at him, my heart skipping a beat. “What about your sister?” I ask, though I’m not sure I want the answer.
Because I’m ninety-nine per cent sure I already know.
I’ve been told by Unknown that my father was the reason she died.
That night, it wasn’t just an accident. It wasn’t suicide.
He was driving so fast, so recklessly, that he killed her.
That it was his fault. And, in many ways, mine.
I was the reason he was even driving that fast in the first place after all.
I swallow hard and look at Kai. His expression hasn’t changed, but the look in his eyes says enough.
He knows.
“What about your sister?” I ask again, my voice barely more than a whisper.
Kai’s jaw tightens. “I want to know why she was there when she shouldn’t have been,” he says, his words clipped. “This person appears to know a lot, and I want to know everything they know.”
Of course. Of course it’s not about me. It never was. He’s not worried about me—he’s worried about his sister. He wants answers, and I’m just the unlucky thread he has to pull to get them. I force myself to breathe, to keep my thoughts from spiralling.
Of course. It was always about her.
I should’ve known. I did know. But still, an ache lodges in my chest anyway—a feeling I don’t dare name.
What right do I even have to feel this way?
We’re not close. I barely know him. He doesn’t know me. I’m not entitled to anything.
Especially not him.
I push the thought down—tuck it somewhere deep—then glance at him again as he leans against the pool table, watching me.
“I’m not saying I know everything,” he says finally, voice light. “But I know how to find things out. It’s what I’m good at.”