Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
KAGE
My heart normally races whenever I glance at Summer, but now, it feels like it’s flying through the cosmos at the speed of light, soaring to new heights every time her bare skin brushes against mine.
We lie under the thick blankets on my bed, Poppy curled at the end near Summer’s feet.
After dinner and some pain meds for her concussion, she crawled onto the mattress and slipped quickly into sleep, muttering promises about planning ways to murder my brother.
Her humor is a deflection for her underlying fear, but I won’t begrudge her whatever it takes to get us through this next phase.
Summer shifts in her sleep, letting out a harsh sigh before sinking deeper into the blankets and shivering.
“Can’t you use that massive body of yours and keep me warm?
” she grumbles into the pillow. My shoulders shake with a silent chuckle, and I roll onto my side, slipping my hand to her bare hip.
She’s remained naked and hasn’t shown an ounce of demureness.
I’m not about to complain, either; I love seeing the purple and indigo bruises on her ass, and the budding maroon ones between her pretty thighs.
Summer will never need tattoos, because she will always bear the markings of my obsession for her in some way or another.
She rolls her shoulders haughtily and glares at me through slitted eyes. “Do you seriously not know how to cuddle? Spoon me.”
Spoon? I don’t understand her meaning, but I like the way she’s bossing me around. When I don’t move, she softens, reaching behind herself to grip the waistband of my sweatpants. My dick immediately twitches to an almost-full erection.
It’s been half-hard the entire time we’ve been in bed together, but I know her body needs a break.
“Put your hips against my butt and your arms around me and hold me. Please.” She tacks on at the end, her voice coated in a thick layer of exhaustion.
A flare of nervousness courses through me, but I obey, scooting closer to her until her backside is pressed to my front.
I like the way she fits so snugly against me, and when I wrap her in my arms and tuck my face into her thick, fragrant curls, I’m rewarded with a prompt, loud snore ripping through her dainty nose.
I smile against her and squeeze her a little bit tighter, as if using my physical strength to hold her will somehow keep us together against what’s to come.
Although I’m fucking tired too, I can’t fall into a deeper sleep than a simple doze; every noise alerts me to possible danger, and even though the sun is streaming in through the windows and the daylight chases away the phantoms of my past, I still see the memory of them; my brother and my father, leering through the windows, circling like hawks waiting to dive in for the kill.
A soft pinging sound from my phone has me snapping out of my horrid daydreams, and I fumble around behind me in blind search of the offensive rectangle.
Clasping it, I bring the screen to my aching eyes and swipe open the message from Dale—the man who lives next door to me and who has his own—rather illegal—grow operation.
Summer ran into them the other night, and though they wouldn’t have hurt her, it worked for my benefit to have her be frightened enough to stay put so I could catch and punish her for that little stunt.
My eyes scan the words once, twice, and then a third time as the reality sinks in.
Saw that fucker at the hardware store ten minutes ago. Whole mountain has a BOLO.
My mouth runs dry. I knew Carter would follow closely behind Clyde. I just didn’t think he’d appear this soon.
I know he’ll wait until nightfall to attack. Know he’ll be brazen. If I can lure him in, there’s a chance I can best him one on one. But what do I do with Summer? She doesn’t need to witness that, and on the chance my brother kills me…then what?
“He’s here, isn’t he?” Comes her raspy voice.
It startles me, and I drop my phone to the blankets and instead hold her gaze.
There’s no point in hiding the truth from her anymore, so I nod grimly, lips clamped together.
A mix of emotions flits across her features, but she settles on cold determination—a look I’ve grown accustomed to over these past few months.
It’s a look she wore when she was plotting ways to escape (or end my life, I’m sure), but it’s also a look I noticed in her videos.
She wasn’t happy doing what she did, but she did it flawlessly all the same, gritting her teeth and bearing the unbearable hatred of thousands of faceless monsters just to bring smiles and happiness to the ones who appreciated her.
Sure, her line of work seems a little odd and pointless to someone like me, but what lured me in with Summer, what made me see through that shiny mask, was her kindness.
How someone would leave a comment in a sea of thousands of others, asking for help, and she would.
Backpacks for kids, donations to cancer patients, volunteering at the animal shelter—all things she never advertised or filmed herself doing, but things that were right there for the world to see if they cared to look past her curated, aesthetic videos and posts to the lonely girl on the other side.
She hated her job but loved what it afforded her to do, and I loved watching her slowly realize that in the months before I was forced to take her.
She sighs, rolling gingerly onto her side and cupping her cheek, blinking up at me with exhaustion and pain laced through every sleep-crease on her face.
Flicking those narrowed, green gems to my gaze, her expression becomes stony, and she says with utter seriousness: “So are we gonna Home Alone his ass, or what?”
I have absolutely no idea what she’s referencing, and I slowly quirk my brow at her with a bemused look on my face, silently asking for further explanation. She smacks a hand to her precious freckled cheeks and nose and shakes her head. “What kind of fucking cult doesn’t let you watch Home Alone?”
Before I can attempt to answer, she launches into a detailed explanation of the plot of this children’s movie, and I find myself laughing with how animated she’s become. I have to hand it to her, though; it is kind of a brilliant idea. Carter will expect some form of a trap.
But he won’t expect Summer to be the mastermind behind it.