7. Lyrius #2
I glanced at him. He wasn’t looking at me, but he hadn’t gotten up and walked away yet, so I kept talking.
“They were gonna send me to a group home,” I said.
“I was fifteen.” My fingers tightened around the plate.
“I remember thinking they were gonna come get me . . . put me somewhere far, somewhere I ain’t know nobody.
” I shook my head. “I was scared.” Looking back, it probably would’ve been better if I let them take me.
A group home couldn’t have been worse than what we walked into, but I was fifteen and scared.
“I told Chass, and we came up with a plan to run away.” A small, humorless laugh slipped out.
“Running away felt better than staying and being taken away from the only life I knew.” I swallowed.
“We went to Victoria’s. She was Chass’s cousin.
She was older. Had her own place, money .
. . everything we didn’t, and she would hide two runaways.
” I paused, glancing at him again. I’d never told anyone this before.
Never had someone I trusted with my truth. “She let us stay, but it wasn’t free.”
“I know how that go,” he muttered. His jaw tightened slightly. I looked at him, really looked at him. I knew he could relate. He’d been a product of the system himself.
“Yeah . . .” I exhaled slowly and kept going.
“She was a stripper. And she set men up. Robbed them.” My stomach twisted.
“At first, we just helped. Distractions. Lookouts.” I rubbed my thumb along the edge of the plate.
“But the older we got . . . the more we had to do.” I swallowed, bracing myself for my truth.
“It started with talking to them, getting close, making them comfortable.
“I knew it was wrong, but I didn’t have nowhere else to go.
No family. By then, I hadn’t heard from my mama in so long .
. . I didn’t even know if she was alive.
We became good at it . . . Carried our little scheme from state to state.
Started working with Victoria’s boyfriend.
” My eyes lifted back to him. “And that’s how we came across you. ”
His gaze finally met mine. “And me?”
“You weren’t supposed to be different.” My chest tightened.
“I was supposed to get in, get information, and get out, but you saw me,” I said softly.
My eyes burned from all the emotions threatening to pour out of me.
“And I couldn’t turn that off.” I shook my head slowly.
“I tried. Told myself you were just another one.” My voice cracked.
“But you wasn’t.” I swallowed. “I fell for you.”
The words landed between us, and I hoped like hell he felt them.
I wasn’t trying to make excuses. I wasn’t trying to get pity.
I just wanted him to know my truth. All of it, no matter how ugly.
A tear slipped from my eye before I could stop it, and KO moved fast. His thumb brushed under my eye, catching it, and we both froze.
His hand didn’t move, though. It stayed there pressed against my cheek.
My breath caught, and I leaned in before I could stop myself.
I expected KO to pull away, but he didn’t.
Instead, his lips brushed mine, and then his tongue entered my mouth.
My fingers curled into his shirt, and his hand tightened against my face, pulling me in closer, and for a second .
. . everything else disappeared. The storm.
The years. The hurt. It was just us. Having his lips against mine felt so familiar and so new at the same time.
Five years, and my body still remembered him like no time had passed at all.
My chest tightened, and our kiss deepened, and just as I started to lean into him, a loud crash echoed through the stairwell.
“KO! KO, you in there?” someone called from downstairs. My heart jumped into my throat as another bang rang out, causing Dakoda to stir on the couch.
“Mama . . .?”
“I’m right here, baby,” I answered him just as KO pulled back, already on his feet.
“That’s Jaylen.”
“In this storm?” My brows pulled together, confused. Jaylen? Another bang echoed through the stairwell.
“KO! Open up!”
“You know my brother.”
I nodded slowly. Yeah, I did know him. Jaylen had always been super protective, especially when it came to KO.
If anybody was crazy enough to be out in the middle of a hurricane to come get him, it would be Jaylen.
I pushed off the ring and moved toward Dakoda, brushing my hand over his back as he shifted in his sleep.
Behind me, KO was already moving toward the stairs, not saying anything, acting like whatever had just happened between us hadn’t happened at all.
I pressed my fingers to my lips. They were still tingling.
My chest was still pounding. The seat of my leggings was still wet.
“Start gathering your stuff,” he said, already halfway to the stairs. “We not staying here.”
I took a deep breath. Didn’t argue. Didn’t say anything back. I just nodded. Then I leaned down, shaking Dakoda gently.
“We gotta go, baby,” I muttered, lifting him slightly as he stirred.
“KO!” Another bang echoed through the stairwell.
I glanced toward the stairs, then back down at my son, and something in my chest shifted, because I knew once we walked out that door, our lives weren’t going to be the same.