26. Jace
Kayla draws her eyebrows down in an adorable attempt at a scowl as she puts her dress back on and then brushes her hands over the dark blue fabric to smooth it down. Since that dress and her underwear were the only things she needed to put back on, she’s already done getting dressed while I’ve only just pulled my jeans up. My belt clinks as I start buckling it while I glance around for my t-shirt.
“This changes nothing,” Kayla announces, with that adorable little scowl still on her gorgeous face. “I’m still going to kill you.”
I raise my eyebrows at her in a show of confusion while I let a sly grin spread across my lips. “For what? Giving you three consecutive orgasms?”
Her cheeks turn an incredible shade of red. “No, it?—”
“Oh, that’s right. It was four consecutive orgasms, wasn’t it?”
“No,” she snaps, still looking flustered. “For having me kidnapped. I will get back at you for this.”
Before I can reply, she spins on her heel and stalks towards the door. Her long red hair flutters behind her like a stream of liquid fire as she yanks open the door and storms out into the short corridor before the stairs on the other side.
Then she lets out a yelp. From in here, I can’t see what caused it, but this is Eli and Raina’s house so it can’t be anything dangerous. Well, not anything too dangerous. Alright, nothing overwhelmingly dangerous. Actually, scratch that, this house belongs to my most unhinged brother and the craziest fucking girl I’ve ever met. There are plenty of dangerous things in this house.
After a second of stunned silence, Kayla blurts out, “Who are you?”
“Who am I?” Raina says from what sounds like halfway down the stairs. She sounds suspicious, which is really bad. “Who the fuck are you?”
Ah, shit.I hurry over to where my shirt is and snatch it up.
On the other side of the door, Raina raises her voice and calls, “Eli! There’s some girl in our basement. Did you put her here for a specific reason or should I get the poison?”
“What the fuck,” Kayla exclaims, sounding horrified.
While pulling on my shirt, I quickly make my way to the door. Strolling out into the short corridor, I flash Raina a grin while motioning towards Kayla. “She’s with me.”
“Oh, that’s right!” Eli calls back from upstairs since he obviously couldn’t hear my answer. “I forgot to tell you. We kidnapped Jace’s girl.”
Kayla jerks back and then whips her head towards me.
I groan inwardly and clear my throat a little self-consciously at the way my infuriating brother just referred to her as Jace’s girl.
On the stairs, Raina relaxes. “Oh.”
I breathe a sigh of relief since it would have been very difficult to explain to Trent Ashford that I also managed to get his daughter poisoned after I fake kidnapped her.
Kayla shoots me a vicious glare before turning back to Raina.
“I’m not his girl,” she snaps.
Amusement flickers in Raina’s piercing green eyes, and she shoots a pointed look down at Kayla’s legs. “The fact that you have his cum dripping down your thigh would suggest otherwise.”
I choke on my breath.
Kayla snaps her gaze down to her legs where a thin stream of cum is indeed sliding down her skin.
Her entire neck and face turn flaming red.
Raina smirks like the little villain she is and then simply turns around and starts back up the steps, her long black hair swaying over her back as she moves.
“Come on,” Raina says without turning to look. “There’s a bathroom upstairs.”
With embarrassment still staining her cheeks bright red, Kayla quickly wipes the trail of cum from her thigh and hurries after Raina. I shake my head at both of them as I follow.
The night outside is dark, but Eli and Raina’s house is brightly lit and full of noise. Or at least, the living room is. While Raina shows Kayla where the nearest bathroom is, I saunter through the hallway and into the living room.
It’s an elegantly decorated room, completely at odds with the sex and torture chamber basement. And I know that it’s all Raina’s efforts, because Eli doesn’t give a shit about interior design. He just wants whatever Raina wants.
God, all of my brothers are so whipped.
When I walk into the room, I find all three of them sprawled on the couches made of dark wood and deep green fabric. Light glints in the golden candleholders along the low coffee table, and in the whiskey and wine glasses littered on the dark wooden surface too.
Alina sips from a cocktail, her gray eyes glittering in the warm candlelight, where she sits in an armchair. Her long blonde hair spills down over the rich green backrest. To my left, Isabella pulls out a bottle of red wine from the liquor cabinet. Her shoulder-length auburn hair sways slightly as she straightens, but her blue-gray eyes are as sharp and perceptive as ever as she turns to look at me when I walk through the doorway.
“Did you make a mess?” Eli asks, a wicked smirk on his face where he lounges on the couch with his feet up on the coffee table.
“Of course not.” I flash him a grin full of challenge. “Jeez, didn’t you know? You’re supposed to come inside her. Not paint the walls with your cum.” Tutting, I shake my head. “Classic rookie mistake”
On the couch opposite him, Rico chokes on his whiskey while Kaden snickers into his own glass.
Eli narrows his golden eyes at me, making the scar through his eyebrow tighten. “Careful now, little brother. Remember whose house you’re in.”
Strolling over to the couch, I reach behind it and pull out a bat. “Since when has that ever stopped me?”
Surprise pulses across Eli’s face as he sees the bat, and he sits up straighter and turns so that he can see it properly. With that stunned look still on his features, he snaps his gaze back up to my face and demands, “Where the hell did you get that from?”
“I put it there last time I was here.”
“You can’t just hide random bats in our house.”
“Why not?”
“Because—”
“I want to go home,” Kayla suddenly says from the doorway. The embarrassment on her face is gone now, replaced instead by cold command as she locks eyes with me. “Now.”
Raina breezes past her in the doorway and walks towards where Isabella is still standing on the floor. While Isabella’s sharp eyes assess Kayla, Raina casually plucks the bottle of wine from her hand and strolls over to the couch. Isabella shifts her gaze away from Kayla and instead rolls her eyes at Raina, who flashes her a grin in reply.
After grabbing two wine glasses, she starts filling them up while casually saying, “Was this your first kidnapping?”
Silence falls over the room.
In the doorway, Kayla starts slightly when everyone turns to look at her.
“Uhm, yes,” she replies when she realizes that the question was directed at her.
“Ahh,” Raina says with a contented sigh as she leans back and takes a sip from her wine glass. “The first kidnapping is always the most exciting.”
Disbelief pulses across Kayla’s face. “Exciting? I thought I was going to die!”
Raina snorts as if that’s a ridiculous reaction.
“If I remember correctly,” I begin, flashing Raina a knowing smile. “The first time we kidnapped you, Eli put a gun to your brother’s head and made you crawl up to our feet and kiss our boots while groveling for forgiveness.”
Across the room, Kayla snaps her gaze to me, shock evident on her face. Eli groans on the couch while Raina narrows her eyes at me.
And because I simply can’t help it, I lie through my teeth and mess with her even more as I add, “I still have those boots. Saved them in that exact condition just to preserve that memory.”
“Do you know what I still have?” Raina says, her voice turning lethally sweet as she holds my gaze. “That poison that I used to make you grovel. I could go and get it if you want?”
“Don’t antagonize her, Golden,” Eli says. Amusement and deep love flicker in his eyes as he glances to his girl. “You know how it ends.”
Yeah, I do, unfortunately. And since I don’t want to spend the next few months checking every piece of food and drink I consume for poison, I just roll my eyes and stop baiting her. Raina takes that as a victory and flicks her hair behind her shoulder, looking entirely too smug.
“Golden?” Kayla suddenly echoes. Her brows are furrowed as she sweeps her gaze over my family. “Why do you call him that?”
Pushing off from the couch, I spin the bat in my hand and rest it on my shoulder as I start towards her. “Don’t listen to them. You wanted to go home? Let’s go.”
“Fine,” she replies, annoyance settling back on her features. “Just one more thing.”
Her eyes turn sharp as she drags them over my brothers, holding each of their gazes in turn for a few seconds before moving on to the next one. Eli and Rico exchange an amused look in return while Kaden just looks back at her, his eyes dark.
I glance between her and them. “What are you doing?”
“Memorizing their faces,” Kayla replies, her eyes still on my brothers. “So that I know exactly who to target after I’m done getting revenge on you.”
Three things happen almost simultaneously.
Isabella pulls a gun and levels it straight at Kayla’s temple.
Fury flashes in Raina’s eyes as she shoots to her feet and declares, “I’ll get the chemicals to dissolve her body.”
And Alina pushes up from her armchair and says, “Great, I’ll prep the bathtub.”
I groan in exasperation and rub a hand over my forehead, massaging my brows.
Shock and panic pulse across Kayla’s face, and she yanks up her hands while making calming motions. “Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. What the fuck is going on?”
“What’s going on?” Isabella echoes, her voice full of threats. While still holding her gun steady against Kayla’s temple, she motions towards my brothers. “If you touch them, any of them, I will shoot you in the head.”
“And then I will dissolve your body with fast-acting chemicals so that there is nothing left of you for anyone to find,” Raina adds, a smile full of poison on her lips.
“And I will make sure that we all have airtight alibis,” Alina finishes.
For a few seconds, Kayla just stares at them in utter shock and confusion, as if she can’t figure out if they’re joking or not. They just stare right back, dead serious.
Then Kayla turns and gapes at me, disbelief pulsing in her eyes. “What the fuck is wrong with your family?”
On the couch, Eli, Rico, and Kaden just laugh and raise their glasses to their girls in a synchronized salute full of approval and loving pride.
I heave another exasperated sigh and put a hand on Isabella’s arm, pushing it down and lowering the gun.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” I mutter. Then I sweep a pointed stare over all six of them. “Way to introduce yourselves, guys.”
Kaden lifts his shoulders in a nonchalant shrug. “You’re the one who asked us to kidnap her.”
I tip my head to the side. “Good point.” Shifting my bat to my other hand, I wrap my arm around Kayla’s waist and start pulling her with me. “Anyway, we should get going so that she can take out all of her rage on me instead of making empty threats directed at you.”
“Wait,” Raina says, her green eyes still locked on Kayla. “So you’re not actually planning to hurt Eli?”
“And Rico,” Isabella adds.
“And Kaden,” Alina finishes.
Kayla flicks a glance between the three of them as if she’s not sure how she’s supposed to reply to that.
Lowering my mouth to her ear, I whisper, “They were serious about the killing and dissolving and alibis stuff, just so you know.”
Her gaze darts to me for a second before she looks back at the three murderous women in the room.
“Uhm, no,” she replies hesitantly. “I’m not actually planning to come after any of them.”
“Good,” Raina says, and plops down on the couch again.
Isabella slips her gun back into her pants and strolls over to steal one of the wine glasses that Raina filled earlier. Once more seated in the armchair, Alina reaches for her cocktail again.
Equal parts exasperation and amusement flicker through my soul.
Next to me, Kayla stares at them all as if she can’t figure out what to make of this anymore. Her eyes are wide and her mouth is slightly open, as if she’s still reeling. Blinking, she shakes her head a couple of times.
I huff out a soft laugh at how absolutely bewildered she looks, and then I start pulling her with me through the doorway.
Before we can disappear, Eli calls after us. And I can hear the wicked grin in his voice.
“See you at the wedding!”
That seems to be the final straw that makes Kayla’s sanity snap. Whipping her head around, she stares at me with an expression full of confusion and exasperation and utter frustration.
“What fucking wedding?”