Chapter 6
Ares
Watching Cave chase Vero with a corn sword is the highlight of my week.
I don’t go into the cornfield; rather, I stand on the edge of the stalks and watch.
Cave and I have an understanding, and it doesn’t include me barging into his territory.
I answered his riddle correctly a few years ago, entering because he unsettled me, and I needed to understand why.
He is the only person on the island I can’t read, and I didn’t like that.
His riddles are personal, and people don’t seem to be able to understand that fact. He is telling you what he knows about you, so the answer really isn’t the point—it’s whether you know yourself well enough to find it.
It surprises me that Kayla answered it correctly, as it tells me a lot more about her. It’s harder for me to read her when she is reading me; I can’t seem to guard myself and read her at the same time. I hate knowing that she can see through my facade.
I hear Clay before I see him, and he is dragging Kayla with him. I knew he would find her.
He never loses anything that belongs to him, and though he hasn’t admitted that he views her as his yet, I know it’s eating at him.
“Is no one going to help Vero?” Kayla snaps. “His screams are giving me a headache.”
I step into the corn and move in front of Cave, putting myself between him and Vero. He stops, his eyes a void.
“Enough,” I say. “They are mine and you can’t have what belongs to me.”
I mean it in a clinical way, not possessively like Brawley, or protectively like Clay. I have invested in them, and I am not about to let the damn Scarecrow take them from me.
Cave stares back at me for a second, then nods.
I nod back, knowing that a favor granted is one owed.
Cave will collect when he is ready. The last time I stepped in and saved Vero from getting a cob of corn shoved up his ass, Cave woke me up at two in the morning.
He stood over my bed with two shovels and had a bag the size of a body on my floor.
How he got it all up the stairs without waking the others is a mystery.
I got up, dressed, and helped him dig a hole. I didn’t ask what was in the bag.
I am also useful to Cave on a daily basis, which means he needs me. He comes to the bar each night and collects his food, then goes back to his cornfield.
I watch him turn and disappear without a sound, though it still amazes me that a man of his size can move in complete silence. I stand there for a few minutes after he is gone, as I don’t want to turn around and see Kayla. I have not let myself think about her for days, and now she is here.
When I finally spin around, Vero is on Brawley’s back like a spider monkey, and Clay is storming this way with Kayla thrown over his shoulder. She is beating on his back with her fists.
“You smell annoyingly good for an asshole,” she snarks, and Clay snorts. “And you know this is a really shitty way to apologize.”
“I don’t apologize,” Clay says.
“Clearly,” she snaps. “Add it to the list of things that are wrong with you. It’s getting long, in case you were wondering. I might have to start a second page soon.”
Vero appears at Clay’s shoulder, walking beside them. “What’s on the first page?”
“Vero, I swear to god,” Kayla grits out.
“I’m just asking so I know where I rank. I can’t fix it if I don’t know.”
“You’re not on the list.”
Vero puts his hand to his heart like he’s offended. “I’m not?!”
“No, the list is for assholes carrying me against my will.”
“I could carry you,” Vero offers.
“I don’t want anyone carrying me.” She shifts her weight, grabbing the back of Clay’s belt with both hands and twisting her whole body sideways. It catches him by surprise, and she drops to the ground but quickly jumps up and starts running before any of us fully process what has happened.
Clay straightens up and rolls his neck, exhaling through his nose. No, he let her go. He looks back at me and smiles. “It’s more fun this way.”
All of us race after her, and it isn’t hard to track her when everyone on the island is on our side. I race past Banks, who points toward the alley where I see her slipping into the bar.
When I push through the doors, I find her standing behind the bar with a bottle in her hand, but I pause, not wanting her to throw it at me. There are still a handful of people here, and they look between us.
“Out!” I yell, and they all get up and leave quietly. As the last person walks out the door, I remove the stupid mask and drop it to the ground. Vero, Brawley, and Clay walk through the door, and the lock clicks shut as one of them secures it.
Kayla glares between the four of us, then glances down at the bottle in her hands and undoes the cap, swigging some before placing it down on the bar.
Vero is the first to move closer. He doesn’t care if things are thrown at him, as he knows this is a situation he created and will do whatever it takes to make it right. I wait to see how this plays out.
He goes around the bar and she watches him, remaining silent. Vero stops right in front of her, and all his manic energy drains from his face. It’s not something I have seen before.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “So fucking sorry. I know what I did was wrong, and I won’t make excuses or pretend that it was okay. It wasn’t.”
Watching her face, I can see she wants to believe him, but she pulls back.
Kayla is guarded, and I want to know why.
Something has happened to her to make her like this.
Having your walls up so fucking high is formed by trauma, and a sick part of me wants to break her open and see all of her broken parts.
She reaches up and places her hand against the side of his face. “I know you are.”
To Vero’s credit, he doesn’t push, staying quiet as he leans into her hand, needing the connection between them.
Clay uses the distraction to move closer to the bar, and Brawley follows him, his scowl toward Kayla not lessening.
I know he is pissed that she walked away after saying she wouldn’t.
When it comes to Vero, everything is black and white for him—there is no gray.
He doesn’t get that Vero is a lot for some people.
Even when they think they can handle him, most people can’t.
It’s why the island is perfect for him. Everyone here has trauma, and everyone is broken—some beyond repair.
There is no judgment when things get hard; we all band together and get shit done.
I stand back and watch, needing to understand the situation fully before I move.
Right now, I am still working out what her angle is.
Forgiveness doesn’t come that easy—not from someone like her.
She is holding back, and rightfully so. She doesn’t trust us, which is a good instinct to have, and I respect it, even if I plan to dismantle it completely.
“You scared me,” Kayla whispers. “I looked at you and I didn’t know what you were going to do. I couldn’t reach you. That is what I need you to understand. The damage to the bar was one thing, but feeling so fucking helpless hurt me more.”
“I’m sorry,” he says, a tear rolling down his cheek, which she swipes away with her thumb.
“I don’t know why, but I couldn’t stay away. I was pissed and wanted to yell at you. To tell you that your flowers didn’t mean shit. Flowers are not a way to apologize.”
“Brawley wouldn’t let me kill someone by paper cuts and deliver them to you, so I thought flowers would be the next best thing.”
“No dead bodies either.” She shakes her head at him.
“I need my workplace to be safe, so I can go in there and do my job. You and Clay can’t show up there and decide who can and can’t look at me.
” She drops her hand from his face. “If you can’t give me that, then I don’t know how any of this will work. ”
From the other side of the bar, Brawley makes a sound low in his throat. Kayla turns her head toward him slowly. He has his arms folded and is staring her down.
“You have something to say?” she asks.
“I warned you,” he says flatly. “I told you what would happen if you hurt him.”
Kayla laughs. “You think I hurt him in this situation?”
“You told him to get the fuck out of your life.”
“I did, because he destroyed the bar, he beat people up, and I don’t know if you know this, but that is not acceptable behavior, episode or not. It’s one thing to put yourself in danger, but when innocent people get hurt, that is not okay.”
Brawley says nothing; he just continues to stare at her.
“I’m here now, though,” she continues. “I needed time to cool down and then throw some shit—so sue me. But if you have made up your mind that I am the problem here, then punish me for a situation he caused, or let it go.”
Brawley’s face goes through a range of emotions; he protects Vero no matter what, but he knows she’s right. He looks over at Vero, who hasn’t taken his eyes off Kayla, almost as if he’s worried he’ll blink and she might disappear. Brawley drops his arms and relaxes without saying a word.
Kayla must see that it’s his way of letting it go and turns back to Vero. “I promise I’m not going anywhere, but I need you to understand it can’t happen again. I need that job, and my independence. I rely on myself, and you don’t understand what that means to me.”
“I hear you, I promise I do. If they have to chain me up when I get like that, I’ll do it. Banks microchipped me, so now I can be tracked as well.”
“HE WHAT?!” Brawley snaps, rage radiating off him. “I told you no—you’re not a fucking dog. I’ll kill him.”
I sidestep in front of the exit so Brawley can’t go and do anything stupid. It really isn’t the worst of Vero’s ideas—knowing where he is during an episode could be helpful. There have been too many times we have had to search for him for hours, not knowing where he is or if he’s hurt himself.
“It isn’t the worst idea, so how about we be calm about the situation,” I reassure everyone.
“Vero is an adult, so if it’s something he chooses to do, you shouldn’t kill anyone.
I may not think it was the best way to handle the situation, but it made sense to Vero, and if it is something he wants, we need to respect his choice. ”
“I need you to be able to find me, and this is the only way I thought would work. And I won’t ever say this out loud ever again, but Vesper was right, you all need to stop babying me.
I need to be held accountable for my actions.
I fucked up and I am owning that, but I was so worried about losing something that I was lost in myself, and I hate feeling like that.
Please accept this is the choice I have made. ”
“Works for me,” Clay says. “The less time I have to spend looking for your ass, the better.”
Kayla looks at Clay and smirks. “Must be nice having so much free time to not care.”
Vero makes a sound that is halfway between a laugh and a sob, and Kayla reaches out, twisting her hand in his jumpsuit. She pulls him closer and wraps her arms around him, and he buries his face in her neck.
Clay’s radio crackles. “I don’t know which one of you assholes ordered what looks like every flower in the world and had it delivered to my driveway,” Nixie snaps, “but there are petals everywhere. I just slipped on a lily and almost broke my hip. So whoever is responsible better grab a shovel and fix this. I am not in the mood for your bullshit today.”
“I can’t believe you ordered that many flowers,” Brawley says to Vero.
“It was Banks’s idea.”
Clay snorts. “Since he also microchipped you, I’m not sure he should be your go-to person for this stuff.”
The radio crackles again. “I’m not joking. I want to know who’s responsible for this.”
Vero raises his hand, and Kayla laughs. “You heard the woman—you four have a mess to clean.”
I observe the interaction, searching for the detachment I have used a thousand times before, only to find it further away.
I make a mental note that it moved and turn my back to open the door.
I don’t feel in these situations; I find a way to use them.
Right now, I can find nothing to my advantage, and that bothers me.
All I want to do is clean up the flowers before Nixie finds out that Kayla was the one who caused the chaos on her island.
I need to get closer to her so I can understand her better, and protecting her from Nixie’s wrath is the first step.