Chapter 9 #3
“Did you tell me everything you said about your uncle so that I would feel obligated to talk about this now?”
Kain shook his head at my question, gradually closing some of the distance between us as he took measured steps my way.
“No. Like you said, I can tell you things.” He stepped in between my legs, our heights leveled out with me sitting on the kitchen counter.
Kain was doing that thing again where he got dangerously close, when he could basically seduce compliance out of me.
I wondered if he could hear my heart thumping. “And you can tell me things, too.”
“I’m sure Marlon gave you the rundown,” I rebuffed.
“He gave me his side. Told me you were really shaken up. I wanna know what happened before he got there. What happened?”
“It’s so stupid, really,” I mumbled, unable to maintain eye contact. “My professor cancelled class last-minute.”
“And you didn’t tell anyone.”
I huffed. “We’d been doing this bodyguard crap for three weeks and I’d never seen anyone!” I defended. “Sometimes I go to Walgreens, or something, and I feel like I’m being watched or whatever. But no one’s ever approached me before. No one’s ever grabbed me.”
“You assumed that meant no one has ever tried,” Kain guessed, a slightly annoyed hilt in his words, as he stepped back a few steps to put some distance between us.
“I feel like I would notice if someone tried,” I clapped back.
“People have tried,” he revealed, simplicity in his delivery—like it should’ve been obvious to me. A slight shiver ran down my spine. “At least three times a week since this ‘bodyguard crap’ started. Think about it, how often do you spot Marlon, Amir, or Jay?”
Almost never. I felt like I would lose whatever argument we were having if I told the truth. So I stayed silent.
“One of them is always close by, you know,” he informed.
“And it’s alright that you never notice them.
You’re not supposed to see them. I mean…
if it’s obvious to you, it will be obvious to everyone else, too.
But just like how you can’t see my friends, you don’t see the danger you’re constantly in. ”
“They see it, though, huh? And they report it back to you, but won’t tell me.”
“You’d never leave the house if you knew.” Kain stepped in close again, his torso brushing against the inside of my thighs. “Tell me what happened before Marlon got there.”
I sighed, sporadically breaking eye contact as I recapped the events of last Tuesday.
In truth, I’d been feeling so stupid over the incident.
This truth was made evident in the way that my voice shook as I explained.
“…And that’s when he pulled out his cell phone and called someone else to pick us up.
While we were waiting Marlon showed up, and—I’m sure he told you what happened next. ”
Kain nodded, his gaze concerned. “Yeah. I got the run down.”
Marlon had intercepted and shouted at me to run. I did. I ran and I didn’t look back. For three hours after that, I sat biting my nails in the school library, waiting to see if Marlon made it out of that situation safely. When he found me again, there was some blood on his shirt.
And it wasn’t his.
I didn’t ask any questions. I just apologized.
“It’s okay, Panic Button,” Marlon had said with a tired smile, giving me a new nickname. Panic Button. I shook my head at the memory, looking up to find that Kain was still watching me, his eyes gut wrenchingly sympathetic.
“You don’t have to look at me like that, you know.
It’s not like I died or anything.” I shrugged, averting my eyes for a moment before I added, “Marlon said he only came looking for me because you checked my phone’s location, saw I wasn’t where I was supposed to be, and contacted him.
I guess I owe you a thank you.” I tried to smile and said, “How often do you check that thing?”
“Often.”
My smile faded, a little intimidated by the seriousness of his tone. His unsmiling features prompted me to ask, “Are you mad at me?”
Kain’s expression softened then. “Why would I be mad at you?”
“I don’t know.” I forced out a sigh, leaning in a little closer. “You told me not to do anything stupid when all of this started, and I—”
“Baby, I’m not mad at you,” Kain interrupted.
My heart fluttered. As if it were the most natural thing in the world, Kain had just called me baby for the first time.
It was unnerving how much I liked it. Kain moved on seamlessly, eyebrows pulled together compassionately.
“This whole situation… It’s not fair. Something as simple as sitting on a bench on a sunny day…
” He brought a gentle hand to my cheek, holding my gaze affectionately.
“Something as simple as that shouldn’t be life or death. It’s not fair, and… I’m sorry.”
If I could have found my voice, I would’ve told him that he didn’t need to apologize for this.
It wasn’t his fault. Instead, I just sat there on that kitchen counter, rendered voiceless by the intimacy of that very moment.
I finally looked away, bringing my hands to my cheeks and cooling off some of the heated tension that had begun to rise between us.
“Jump off the counter,” Kain spoke first. It was sudden. “I need to show you something.”
I met his eyes again, a questioning look on my face as he walked away from me, toward one of the cabinets above the stainless steel stove. He looked over his shoulder briefly before opening it, and I jumped down from my seat, watching him curiously.
He reached into the small storage space, eliciting a gasp out of me when I realized he’d pulled out a black handgun.
“Don’t tell me that’s for me,” I quipped unenthusiastically.
Kain grimaced into an amused smile. “No. You don’t know how to use a gun yet,” he reasoned.
“Yet?” I echoed. Ignoring my question, he fussed around with the piece, looking over it before removing the bullets, and setting the magazine onto the counter.
“Follow me into the living room,” he said simply. Beckoning me along with him with the unloaded gun.
Kain stood facing me in the empty living room, his athletic frame looking so damn good. I could almost pinch myself as my eyes trailed up from his black sneakers, to his loose-fit dark jeans, then to his black Henley shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and ultimately his gorgeous face.
“What are we going to do with a gun and no bullets?” I asked, a single eyebrow raised.
“We’re reenacting what happened to you on Tuesday,” he replied casually. “Except this time, you’re gonna disarm them.”
My eyebrows climbed to the top of my forehead. “You think I’m gonna be able to wrestle a gun out of someone’s hands.”
“I know you will.”
I shook my head, a chuckle escaping me. “Look, I’m thrilled that you have that much faith in me. However, this is crazy. I can’t do that!”
Kain disregarded my doubts and simply asked, “Where was the gun?” To my confused expression, he clarified, “Where did he position the gun when he held you at gunpoint?”
I huffed out a sigh. “He showed it to me at first. And then when I stood up, he pulled it out and pressed it here.” I turned and pointed toward my lower back along my spine. “He said if he shot me there, I’d never walk again.”
Kain looked away for a moment, a clear wave of anger coursing through him at that revelation.
“Okay.” He tried to maintain his composure, forcing out a calming sigh. “So here,” Kain said coming up from behind me, the cold metal of the gun’s barrel pressing into my skin through my shirt. Kain didn’t sound like he was enjoying any part of this.
“Yeah,” I confirmed, a chill running through me due to the reminder.
“Was he positioned strategically at all? Like maybe holdin’ on to your shoulder or your waist with his free hand?”
“No,” I remembered. “He stood about a pace behind me and told me where to walk.” Kain backed up a little.
“Alright, so this was how it was?” I nodded at his question. Kain began to list off directions. “Turn to the right and step backward.”
Before I listened to him, I raised a skeptical question. “Won’t he just shoot me as soon as I move?”
“Silas wants you alive,” Kain reminded. “Nobody’s gonna shoot you unless they absolutely have to. Also if you’re quick about it, his reflexes won’t catch up fast enough to shoot you. Go. Fast.”
I turned to the right and took a quick step back.
“Now use your right hand to grab the barrel of the gun and turn it away from you as hard as you can. Fast.” I did as he said. “Use your left knee to cross over, and go immediately for his nuts with all your strength.”
“You don’t want me to really hit you, right?” I questioned, cracking an immature smile, to which he shook his head. I followed his directions, swapping out all of my strength for a light pat. Kain let go of the gun. “Wait! What if he doesn’t let go of the gun?”
“A hard knee to the balls will make even the strongest person drop everything,” he assured. “If he doesn’t drop it, a second knee will usually do it. Now that you’ve got the gun, put your finger through the trigger and point it at me.”
“I don’t know how to shoot a gun.”
“Doesn’t matter. Just pull the trigger, and empty out the magazine on him.” I shut my eyes. “You have to keep your eyes open, Lauren.” I pulled the trigger and nothing happened, not even the click I was expecting. “You didn’t check the safety,” Kain explained.
“You didn’t tell me to!” I argued. “I’ve never even held a gun before. How was I supposed to know the safety was on?”
“It’s right there,” he pointed out, flipping a switch on the handgun.
I pulled the trigger again and, this time, the click was heard.
“The safety might be different on other guns. When I get home, I’ll send you photos of all the types that could possibly be used on you.
It’s your job to familiarize yourself with them.
Now let’s do all of this again in real-time speed. ”
We spent the rest of that afternoon going over possible danger scenarios where Kain would walk me through my options. Over and over and over again, and then fifty more times on top of that.
As the night went on, we’d moved through every possible gunpoint scenario and Kain had simply begun to advise me through self-defense with no weapons involved.
I was incredibly grateful for his efforts, but at some point during the night, it dawned on me that he was also doing this for his own peace of mind.
For the next two weeks, we’d be apart and it became apparent to me that it was just as calming for him as it was for me to feel like I would be able to defend myself if I needed to.