Chapter 16
Kenzee
My chest aches in the worst possible way.
I can’t sleep for shit, even when the doc tried to give me sleeping pills, I refused them.
I stand in the bathroom looking at myself in the mirror and I can’t believe that it’s me staring back.
There’s dark circles under my eyes. I look like I’ve been on a fucking bender for a week straight.
I’ve barely touched any food over the last week, either. I can’t. He’s gone. He was there, and then he wasn’t. They took him. Why would they take him? Why didn’t they leave him like they left my dad? What was the point in taking him?
I want to cry. I really do, but I can’t. There are no more tears left in me. I’ve cried for nearly a week straight. I can’t do it anymore.
“Kenz?” I sigh when I hear Mylah’s voice. I don’t want to talk to her and I don’t plan on it. I know she’s only trying to help, and I appreciate that but I can’t do this with her.
“Go away.”
“I brought your lunch.”
“Just leave it.” I don’t open the bathroom door to thank her or even speak to her. I keep myself closed in here most of the time so that no one will bother me. I hear my door close, and I know she left, but then the bathroom handle jiggles.
“Go away!” I yell this time. No one answers me, but the handle keeps jiggling until the door pops open.
“What the fuck is with you?” I scream at the top of my lungs when I see Patch standing there.
“You’re not gonna keep doin’ this,” he says, nodding toward the bathroom.
“It’s my fucking room, Patch. I can stay in it if I want.”
“This isn’t healthy, Kenz. Your uncle is fuckin’ worried. Hell, we all are.”
“And? I’m fine. Go tell them I’m fine.”
“Are you fine?” he asks, cocking his head to the side. He takes me in, really looks at me before I look back at myself.
“He was there with me one second and then gone, Patch. It was like… I was little all over again, only this time they took him,” I admit to him as I look at myself.
“If you think for one second that we’re gonna let this go, we aren’t. We lost track of them after your dad, Kenz. That was all on us. As far as we knew, they didn’t stick together. Now that we know they’re out there, this shit isn’t over.”
“What if he’s dead?”
“We can’t think like that. It’ll eat us all alive if we do. They took him for a reason, sweetheart. If they wanted him dead, they would have left him too.”
I turn to look at Patch, and I don’t know what to say. Instead, I let the tears fall but Patch doesn’t. He steps toward me, grabbing my shoulders in his hands and shaking me slightly.
“This isn’t the girl I know! You’re not bein’ who you are right now, Kenzee.
The girl I know is a fighter. The girl I know doesn’t take shit from anybody.
I once watched you beat the fuck out of a girl for takin’ your ice cream, and you’re gonna let these motherfuckers take your man?
” He asks. When I don’t say anything, he releases me and steps back.
“I’m almost ashamed to call you a princess, Kenz.
This,” he says, waving his hand up and down in front of me.
“This isn’t you. Never has been. Even after your dad died, I saw the real you come out.
That ‘takes no shit from anyone’ side. The side that could bring a grown fuckin’ man to his knees.
This shit right here?” he says, looking me up and down. “This ain’t it.”
With that, he turns and leaves the bathroom, leaving me alone once more. I turn back to the mirror and see the tears still clinging to my lashes and quickly reach up and wipe them away.
He’s right. This isn’t me. I lost my dad, and I learned to live with that. I told myself that I wasn’t going to cry anymore because I knew he wouldn’t want me to. And neither would Storm. He wouldn’t want this for me. I don’t want this for me.
I drag my hands over my face once more before I turn, holding my head high, and walk out of the bathroom just to find Patch sitting on my bed.
“That didn’t take long,” he says, grinning at me.
“You’re right, Patch. This isn’t me.”
“You know I was just sayin’ that shit right? I know you’re strong, Kenz. I know you can do this, and I know that you belong here as a princess.” I smile at him now.
“I know. And I needed to hear it. They wouldn’t want this, neither of them. Not me sitting around crying my fucking eyes out or feeling bad for myself. Storm…he made me feel alive, Patch.”
“That’s a good thing to have in your life, then. Now come on. We’re eatin’, and then we’re all talkin’.”
“You’re letting me be included?”
“Ethan was your dad, Kenz. We all kind of figured out why you were trainin’ with Storm. We didn’t like it, but we let it be.”
“He told me I wasn’t a killer.”
“He was right. You’re not. But that doesn’t mean you can’t beat the shit out of some people,” he chuckles as I walk toward him. He stands from the bed and pulls me into a hug.
“Thanks, Patch.”
“I didn’t do anything but give you a pep talk.”
“And it was a damn good one.”
“I sure as hell hope so, or Jenson is gonna kick my ass,” he adds. I laugh as he pulls away from me, and I follow him out of the room and out into the main room. Everyone is sitting around talking when they look over and see me coming. The girls smile, while the guys wonder what the hell I’m doing.
“I’m a princess. I may not be an old lady, but I still belong here. I know I haven’t been acting like it, but I am now.” Everyone watches me before my uncle stands and comes toward me with Patch right behind him.
“You sure about this?” My uncle asks me. I glance over at Patch and then back to him.
“I’m sure.”
“And as far as old ladies go, I think that was already gonna be established,” Patch says as he pulls something out of a bag and passes it to me.
I look at him, a little unsure of what it is, until I open it up.
It’s a fucking leather cut that says Property of Storm.
Tears begin to fill my eyes once more, but I blink them away.
“He didn’t say anything to me,” I admit softly.
“I think it was a surprise, but after the week you’ve had, I think you needed to see it,” Patch adds. I smile as my uncle takes it from me and holds it up for me to slide my arms into it. Once it’s on, I smile again.
“Then what’s the plan?” I ask, looking at the guys. They share a look and then motion for me to follow them over to the table they were sitting at. I drop into one of the chairs when Anika passes me a beer. I smile my thanks and take a long pull.
“We don’t know where he is. We’ve had people tell us they’ve seen a few of them here and there, but nothin’ concrete.”
“So we have nothing to go on?”
“Seems that way. Doesn’t mean we aren’t lookin’,’ Patch adds.
“I know that. But where else can we look?” I ask just as Patch’s phone rings. He sighs and clicks it off, but it immediately rings again.
“Just answer it,” Tide tells him as he rolls his eyes.
Finally, Patch slides the screen to life and answers as the rest of us continue to chat amongst ourselves.
No one really says much until Patch is on his feet and pacing the room.
We can hear the one-sided conversation as we all share a look.
When he finally pulls the phone from his ear, he looks over at us.
“You’re not gonna believe this shit,” he says. “That was a girl named Jenny. Claims she knows where Storm is.”
“What?” We all ask at once.
“Don’t know how true it is, could be a setup,” he adds.
“Let me go talk to her,” I say.
“No. If it’s a setup, they’ll take you.”
“And if it’s not?” I ask.
“This isn’t a good idea,” Patch says.
“Why not? I can handle myself.”
“Didn’t say you couldn’t, but if this isn’t legit?” he questions.
“What all did she say?” I ask now.
“That he was bein’ held in the basement of an abandoned house. She’s sent in a few times a week to feed him,” he says, and my heart breaks. We can’t leave him to that if that is true. And we won’t know until we get there and find out.
“Then let me meet with her. You guys can be close by if anything happens, right?” I ask, looking around the table at the guys.
“I, for one, think she can handle it,” my uncle says. I look over and smile at him, knowing he has my back on this. Not that I didn’t think he would, it’s just good to hear him say it.
“Okay. Then I’ll call her back and let her know you’re meetin’ her. If you get any bad vibes you signal us, Kenz. I won’t have them gettin’ their hands on you, too,” Patch says, looking me in the eye. I nod my head and agree with him.
We talk more as he calls her back and sets everything up. My heart is beating so damn quickly that it’s hard to calm it down just thinking that he might still be alive out there.
“You ready for this?” My uncle asks me.
“I’m ready. Storm taught me well.”
“I bet he did. And are you ready for him to be home?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Claimin’ you the way he planned on isn’t an easy thing, Kenz. You didn’t want this life once before, and now you’re divin’ in headfirst.”
“I know. And I know what I said. But I know what I feel when I’m with Storm. I didn’t ask for this, Uncle Jenson. It just…happened.”
“I think Storm is a good man deep down, but we all do shit, Kenzee. You saw it yourself,” he reminds me.
“I know that too. But I trust him.”
“You love him?”
“Yeah, I do,” I say without even thinking about it. I do love him. He’s shown me nothing but love and caring since we’ve been together. Yeah, he might show it differently, but it’s his way. It’s our way.