19. Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Eighteen
Kane
I wake with an overbearing need to piss and a pounding headache. I shift, a low grunt sounding beside me and I freeze, realizing I am not at home.
I look to my side, noting Ryder is beside me.
Naked.
I glance at the clock. It’s not terribly late. Just after midnight.
I could easily slip out and go home, leave Ryder to his bed. Call him in the morning maybe, but I can’t deny I like the feeling of being next to him like this. Even if I have to pee something fierce.
I throw my legs over the side of the bed and find my underwear.
I put them on, if only because I don’t want to deal with sticky sheets.
Slipping through the door, I carefully pad into the hallway.
His place is small, so it’s not hard to locate the bathroom, and I let out a sigh of relief as I take my piss.
My head is splitting. But I suppose that’s what I get for drinking wine.
This is why I stick to beer.
I finish up my business, wash my hands, and that’s when I hear them.
Voices.
Women.
Though I can’t hear what they’re saying.
Ryder didn’t mention any roommates, but this is New York, so it’s not unheard of. But now I feel awkward and guilty as hell, because if I would have known…
No, it wouldn’t have mattered. I know that.
I wait until I no longer hear anything to venture out into the hall, and that’s when the sharp pain hits me.
It’s like someone’s snapping the neurons in my skull, and I cry out.
“Fuck!”
“What was that?” a woman calls out. Her voice is high pitched, sweet.
“Probably an axe murderer,” another voice calls, but it’s strangely familiar.
My vision starts to blur and bright lights blind me. I hear footsteps.
Voices.
No… no, this can not happen now, it can’t, I—
“What the hell?” the sweet voice calls out.
My body locks up and the pain in my head is too much. I can barely speak, all I can do is scream one word, one name.
“Ryder!”
“Get your brother,” the even, smooth voice says. Why does it sound so familiar…
The lights flicker and a moment later, I hear footsteps.
“Look at me,” the smooth voice says.
I can’t.
“It hurts,” I cry. “Fuck, it hurts!”
“I know,” she says. “But you have to open your eyes so I can check you out.”
Check me out?
What?
“I’m a med student,” she says. Her voice clear, solid.
I open my eyes, but everything is blurry. I feel Ryder beside me, his arms pulling me close.
“Kane, are you okay?”
“Kane?” the woman says. And I know I’ve heard her say my name before.
Though her voice isn’t even and smooth now. It shakes.
“That’s his name. It’s Kane.”
Jasper’s voice falters, bleeding into Ryder’s.
This is it.
This is how I die. My mind fracturing and ruining the one perfect moment I dared to have.
Someone shines a light in my eye.
“Look at me, Kane,” the voice says.
I blink, trying to clear my vision, the tears.
And when I do, I wish I kept my eyes closed.
Because I’d know those dark green eyes anywhere.
They’re his eyes.
My father’s.
My entire body tenses and the air escapes my lungs.
And I know she knows, too.
“Kane…” she breathes, the light hitting the floor like a pin drop.
I reach out without thinking, needing to touch her. To know she’s real and I’m not hallucinating.
Her cheek is soft, but cold. Her green eyes fill with fear as some dark hair falls in her face.
She looks just like her mother. Just like I remember.
“Tori…” I breathe her name, unsure if it’s a thought or words.
And then the pain hits me harder than a brick and the world goes black.