Chapter 32 - Kaia
Once Kaia saw all the gifts Diesel purchased for Rebel, he wanted to know what the bags and boxes contained.
Not long after Outlaw stormed away, Meggie stood and ushered the boys out to bring them to Ridge Moore.
Bunny left to do whatever was on her agenda for the day and Bishop headed to the swings with Gunner, leaving Kaia alone with Rebel and the presents that motherfucker gave to her.
“How are you feeling this morning, Reb?”
She yawned and shuffled eggs on her plate. “Still in pain. Tired. I couldn’t sleep very well.”
“You should’ve called me.”
“You were awake at two in the morning?”
“No,” Kaia admitted, “but I would’ve woken up to keep you company.”
She considered that, shuffled her eggs again, and stared at her plate. Not liking the table between them, he got up and walked around to her chair, dropping in the one next to her. He scowled at the bags and boxes around her.
“Are you opening them?” He thrust his chin toward her bounty. “I’d love to see what they are.”
Laying her fork aside, she smiled and started to lean over to pick up the first gift.
“Let me,” Kaia volunteered, grabbing the nearest one and handing it to her.
Her gifts included two pairs of sunglasses, perfume or parfum as Rebel called it, a beaded handbag, a cashmere blanket, thick socks, a scarf, a keyring, a small crystal box, earrings that Kaia hoped were fake diamonds and sapphires, an anklet, a belt, and a bracelet.
Rebel’s face lit up with each item she revealed and held in reverence.
As much as Kaia wanted to pretend the gold knotted earrings and bracelet lived up to Diesel’s gifts, he couldn’t. She wasn’t even wearing what he’d given her.
“Cool gifts,” he said mildly, annoyed beyond reason.
She lifted her blue gaze to him, as brilliant as the sapphires in her new earrings. Her luxurious blonde hair cradled her face and back, gleaming like satin and as soft as silk. Despite her physical trauma, her mental scars, revealed in her drawn features, she was exquisite.
“They are very cool,” she agreed, picking up the jewelry box with the diamond bracelet and studying it.
Kaia tensed, expecting her to ask him for his help to put it on and close the clasp as she had his. Instead, she set it down.
“I know how much you love diamonds,” he fished, wanting to know her thoughts but afraid to ask.
“I do,” she said, not falling for the bait. She slid her chair back, elevated one of her legs, and slid her nightgown over her knee.
At the sight of her pretty leg, within touching distance, Kaia choked.
Rebel didn’t notice. She lifted the anklet from its box and got to work securing it around her slender ankle.
Finished with her task, she smiled, slid her chair back further, and raised her leg, flexing her toes as she studied her handiwork.
Kaia was suddenly so aroused, he felt dizzy.
“It’s pretty, isn’t it?”
When he didn’t answer, she looked at him, and turned bright red, biting her lip, and immediately putting her leg down and repairing her nightgown.
“Sorry,” she mumbled.
“I’m not made of stone,” he said crossly, frustrated by the entire situation.
“I know, and I’m sorry,” she repeated. “I wasn’t thinking.”
Gritting his teeth, Kaia glared at that motherfucker’s presents, then growled and brushed a hand over his almost non-existent hair.
He wasn’t sure if he’d give her the other presents he’d purchased for her.
They were expensive—to him—but nowhere near Diesel’s budget.
The cost of the gold knot earrings and matching bracelet boggled his mind.
Defeat replaced his frustration and fizzled his desire. He couldn’t think of a poem to wow her with, the one area where Diesel couldn’t compete.
“Rebel, I want to apologize again and ask—”
Her fingers on his arm shut him up. “You’ve said sorry enough. I’m not innocent either. If I would’ve had sex with you, you wouldn’t have gone to Fia. Again.” She grabbed the beaded handbag, turning her attention away from him and avoiding his gaze. “I should’ve,” she repeated. “Except…”
“Except…?”
“I want…ed,” she pushed out, “Diesel to be my first.”
Wanting her brother, adopted brother, to be her first was a fucking choice.
Kaia gritted his teeth at the uncharitable thought, reminding himself—again—that Rebel had never lied to him about her feelings for Diesel.
Yet, she could’ve named anyone, anything, other than that arrogant fuckhead and Kaia wouldn’t have been as hurt, furious, or jealous.
He fucking despised Diesel simply because that motherfucker hated him and thought he had a claim on Rebel.
Which, apparently, he did.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, unaware of the storm raging inside of him. “But that still doesn’t completely exonerate you, Kaia. It would’ve almost been better if you’d slept with a different girl. You like Fia.”
So fucking what? She was stuck on repeat with that, while he had accusations of his own. “And you like Diesel, so we’re even.”
“Honesty is always the best policy. You want us back together. I’m trying to be honest with you. Not that I’ve ever lied to you about Diesel.”
He almost wished she had.
“Unlike you with Fia.”
“What do you want me to say, Rebel?” he demanded. “You took accountability for your own actions that led to mine. The reason why you held yourself from me is supposed to make me feel better?”
“I don’t know, Kaia,” she said in frustration. “I just wanted to talk to you. I…Diesel said the fact that you’ve slept with Fia more than once and didn’t want me to know means she’s your mistress.”
She was adding insult on top of injury Kaia narrowed his eyes. “You talked to that motherfucker about our relationship?”
“I trust him,” she snapped.
“You shouldn’t. He’s the last motherfucker you should fucking trust.”
She ignored him and asked, “Who else was I supposed to talk to?”
“What about me? You know? The other half of your relationship? Or how about anyone except him. He doesn’t like me, and you fucking know it. You want him to co-sign your decision to keep me at arm’s length.”
“Look, fuckhead, I don’t want a fucking relationship built on lies and mistrust. No matter what I decided that night, that didn’t give you the fucking right to cheat, so fuck you and that bitch.
I wouldn’t accept it from Diesel. I don’t accept it from you.
No, fuck you two times. I wouldn’t accept a cheater no matter who it is or how much I love them. Fuck you until the end of eternity.”
“You were the one who accepted the fucking blame, Rebel. I’m just agreeing with you. I’m a grown ass man with needs that apparently you can’t fulfill. You can’t even wear my fucking jewelry. So, yes, fuck, I slept with Fia and—”
Rebel reddened, allowing Kaia’s angry words to catch up to his brain.
She was so fucking livid that her breath came in short pants, like an angry little pony.
It shouldn’t have surprised him that she began kicking his fucking chair.
He tried to grab her ankle or her leg, but she moved like lightning and clamped her fingers around his wrists, digging her short nails in while still kicking the chair.
“You motherfucker,” she snarled, low, not breaking his skin, but hurting the fuck out of him. “I had that fucking jewelry on but Diesel told me it wasn’t real. They’d turn my ears and wrist green.”
Kaia stopped trying to free himself. “That motherfucker said what?” he demanded, just as she finally toppled the chair and he fell on his ass.
She got to her feet and began to walk away, her limp reminding him of her ordeal. Crawling in front of her to block her escape, he raised up on his knees and hugged her, laying his head against her stomach.
She sucked in a breath.
“I’m sorry, babe. I’m so sorry. Forget what I said.”
“Let go of me,” she said in a thin voice.
“No, please—”
“You’re hurting my stomach. I’m home but I’m not healed.”
He released her as if burned and jumped to his feet, horrified at her teary eyes. He cupped her face between his hands, her soft hair against his palms like a shot of adrenaline.
“Sit for a minute, Chi. Please. Let me explain.”
She sniffled and nodded. Relieved, he helped to the seat, then righted his own chair and sat next to her.
“I can show you the receipt for the jewelry, Rebel. It is 14k gold.”
“He said you wouldn’t be able to afford five-thousand-dollar jewelry.” She cocked her head to the side, unconcerned with the random tears sliding down her cheeks and wetting strands of her hair.
He hated that motherfucker so much. Diesel was forever in the background, undermining everything. He had a fiancée. He needed to focus on her and leave Rebel the fuck alone.
Slipping her hair behind her ears, he thumbed her tears away. “I got an advance on my pay from your mom,” he told her, not entirely the truth. “I bought the set and a few more gifts. I wouldn’t do that for any other girl, babe. And, yeah, I know how you feel about Diesel.”
“Good, because I don’t.”
“Fair enough. Do you know how you feel about me?”
“Not anymore. I did. I thought I…no, I knew. I wouldn’t be so hurt if I didn’t have feelings for you. I would just be humiliated and furious.”
“Rebel—”
“No, don’t you understand? For months, we had this Bash cloud over our heads. It affected everyone. Me. Daddy. You. Momma. CJ…everyone in my family, including aunts, uncles, and cousins. No, everyone in our orbit.”
“I don’t think so, sweetheart. I don’t even know Bash.”
“You don’t have to know him.”
“I’m not in the club, so how can I understand?”
Rebel shrugged. “I suppose you can’t, but I lived it.
It was a domino effect. Bash began circling.
He was, and, to me, still is, the architect of all our misery.
Somehow, it all ties back to my immediate family.
Every problem of every person that Bash has affected ties back to us.
The Caldwells. Either personally or because of the club. ”