by May Dawson
Color rose in my cheeks. “I knew it might be a dog—”
“It doesn’t make it any less unusual,” he said. “Lots of people wouldn’t stop for just a dog.”
The way he looked at me, like I was something incredible, when I was so used to being looked at like I was nothing, made me uncomfortable. My gaze dropped.
“Let’s go downstairs,” he said. “Callum’s making us all breakfast before school.”
“That does seem very Mr. Mom.”
“It’s the least he can do for me right now,” he said, an edge of bitterness in his voice. Then he shrugged, as if he were shrugging his feelings away. I wondered what bothered him. The tension between him and Kai seemed intense. I guessed things were complicated with him and Callum as well. How long ago did their makeshift family come together? When he talked about having been hurt, like I’d been hurt, I wondered if it had been Callum who did something to him.
He held his hand out to me as he opened his door, and when I walked out ahead of me, he touched the small of my back as if he was guiding me. His hand lingering on my back, just for a second, sent sparks flying up my spine. It wasn’t just that his touch was full of heat and excitement for me; he touched me like I meant something to him.
Could he have the same kind of sudden, hopeless, crazy crush on me that I had on him?
Despite everything going on in my life, I felt a sudden rise of joy in my chest. I tried to push it down, though. A crush wasn’t real.
My plan, my escape, my future independence—that was real. That was a lifeline.
No crush was going to solve my problems.
Downstairs, the kitchen was full of warmth and chatter. Kai and Nick both sat at the kitchen table, bantering with Callum. The aroma of bacon and coffee and the warm vanilla scent of pancakes hung in the air.
Today, everyone wore a shirt. That was notable. Unfortunate, but notable.
Nick’s eyes widened as he saw me, and then his face brightened. Kai twisted in his seat, and he had the opposite reaction, falling silent.
Only Callum, who stood at the kitchen island, seemed unaffected. “Good morning, sleeping beauty,” he said. “How do you like your eggs?”
“Oh, you don’t have to make me anything special,” I said. “I usually skip breakfast.”
“Not in this house,” Callum said. “It’s the most important meal of the day.”
“We’ve got to get to school soon,” Josh said, casting a glance at the clock. “Or you know, not at all.”
“School’s important,” Nick said, then grinned as Josh, who was in the process of sitting down beside him, threw an elbow his way.
“Only one day in and you already want to take a day off?” I asked lightly.
“I can’t wait for the weekend,” Josh said.
Kai patted the back of the chair next to him. “Come on, Piper. Let’s see if you put away pancakes like you put away burgers.”
“Kai,” Callum said. “Be a gentleman.”
Kai rolled his eyes. “It’s like you don’t know me at all.”
Before I could sit, Callum slid a plate of crispy bacon across the island and glanced at me. “Can you put this on the table, please?”
As I reached the island, he leaned against the other side, resting his broad forearms on the granite. “I noticed your car is a bit dented up after last night.”
It wasn’t my car. And my father was not going to react well to the damage I’d done to the Mustang
“Yeah,” I said dully.
“I know a good body shop guy. He’s quick and he owes me a favor,” he says. “If you want, Josh could drive you and I could get your car in. I’ll get it back to you after school.”
“That would be…” I trailed off. “I can’t. I can’t pay for that.”
“I’m not asking you to.” His eyes flickered to the table, so quick it was almost imperceptible, before he looked back toward me. “That accident was our fault. We can take care of it.”
I chewed my lower lip, and he said, “I insist, Piper.”
His tone was firm but gentle. His deep, gold-flecked brown eyes met mine across the island. An inappropriate flutter rose in my chest, followed by warmth in my cheeks. He had to be ten years older than I was. He’d graduated medical school while I was on the verge of dropping out of high school to run away. I must just seem like an awkward kid to him. Certainly, there was nothing but warm compassion in his eyes when he looked at me.
“All right, thank you,” I said. “I’ll give you my keys before we go.”
“Good,” he said.
I took the plate of bacon, feeling strangely self-conscious around Callum, and carried it to the table. I settled in next to Kai, wrapping my hands around my warm mug.
Callum settled a plate full of fluffy scrambled eggs and a golden-brown pancake in front of me. “You’d better throw some elbows if you want bacon. Kai usually tries to eat it all.”
“Thank you.” I smiled up at him.
“Next time, tell me how you like your eggs cooked,” he said, heading back for the island.
“There’s going to be a next time?” Josh asked, with innocent mischievousness, his eyebrows rising.
“Piper’s your friend,” Callum said, with subtle emphasis on friend. “It’s possible. If Kai’s manners don’t scare her off.”
Kai made a show of swiping a handful of bacon, then dropped the crisp, fragrant strips on my plate. “Eat up, hungry girl.”
“Be nice to me,” I said, but I picked up one of the strips of bacon and crunched into it anyway.
“We talked about nice last night.” Kai’s tone was mischievous, instead of rude, at least. He took a long sip from his coffee. The movement pulled the sleeve of his t-shirt up his arm, exposing the width of his bicep and the edge of a black tattoo I’d barely registered last night. I couldn’t help being curious now about his tattoos, and Josh’s, too.
“Sorry for the trouble with your car and everything,” Nick said to me, drawing my attention. When I met his vivid green eyes, he was frowning, his gaze intense under his dark brows.
“It’s okay.” I couldn’t tell now if it was my fault or not. Maybe I should have been driving slower. But just thinking about how I’d felt last night made my chest tighten, my heart beginning to race again. I tried to smile, but Nick’s eyes widened, as if he noticed my reaction.
Nick reached across the table, leaning forward as if to comfort me, and his fingertips grazed my forearm. As soon as he shifted forward, he seemed to wince, biting down on his lower lip, as if the spontaneous movement had hurt him. I stared back, more confused about why he was in pain then I was about his touch, but he pulled back almost as quickly as he’d reached for me. Faint color rose in his tanned cheeks.
I stumbled for something to say, to ease the moment so he wouldn’t feel self-conscious.
Josh said, “We should get to school.” He clapped Kai on the shoulder as he stood from the table.
I shoved another, last piece of bacon into my mouth. It was only then that I realized that I felt better. All the anxiety, the constant low thrum of fear, the tightness in my chest and restlessness in my body, it had all faded away. I felt a warm sense of well-being instead. It was the same way I felt when I spent the day outside, as if I was grounded by nature.
Nick stayed at the table, unmoving, as Josh and Kai got up and headed for the hall. I pushed in my chair and then paused with my hands still on the chair back. “Aren’t you coming?”
I felt the pause in the room, Callum and Josh and Kai listening for Nick’s answer.
“I’m not feeling well,” he said. “I’ll be back in school soon.”
It had the ring of a lie, and I frowned.
“You won’t miss him,” Josh said, joining my side. “He barely talks anyway.”
“Be nice to your brother,” I chided.
“Yes, ma’am,” Josh said easily.
“It’s actually a nice contrast with these two,” Callum said, and Josh shook his head in resp
onse.
“See you later,” I said to Nick, and he nodded back to me instead of saying anything. I glanced back into the kitchen when we reached the hall. He stayed still at the table, as if he was waiting for something.
I didn’t get a bad feeling from the four of them, but I definitely got a weird feeling. Something else was going on in this house.
I found my keys where I’d left them on the living room coffee table. Callum held his hand out. His forearms were marked with tattoos, more ink than Josh or Kai, but what drew my attention was his palm; it was covered with a spiderweb of raised white scars. I glanced up at his face quickly, embarrassed at having noticed, but still feeling a rise of curiosity.
He closed his fingers around the keys and thrust his hand into his jeans pocket, flashing me a casual smile. “See you after school. I’ll bring your car by.”
“Not to my house,” I said quickly.
“I’ll bring it to you at school,” he promised. “I’ll be outside.”
“You’re a lifesaver,” I said.
He nodded, but there was some quick flicker of emotion across his coolly neutral face that made me think he knew how much truth was in that sentence. My cheeks flared with heat—karma for making Nick blush, I supposed, even though I hadn’t meant to—and I turned away quickly.
Josh stood in the door, holding it open for me. Kai was already past him on the porch, with a markedly patient, longsuffering look written across his face.
I was following the two of them across the yard to the car when I heard Nick’s low voice, muffled by distance.
“We’re just going to let her go home?” he asked. “To whatever’s going on there?”
I couldn’t see Nick when I glanced back, but Callum stood framed in the doorway, watching us go.
I had always had good hearing, better than anyone else I knew. Maybe it was a survival skill.
“Don’t get distracted by the pretty face,” Callum said, turning his back on the three of us. “We’ve got work to do here.”
“It’s not the pretty face bothering anyone, and you know it. If we don’t get distracted by shit like that, are we really the good guys anymore?”
“Nick.” Callum’s voice was chiding.
Josh opened the passenger door for me, with a flourish, drawing my attention back to him.
Kai stared at me, a troubled look written across his face, as if he’d caught me eavesdropping. I stared back at him. Kai was far too observant for his own good, or mine.
I slid into the passenger seat, flashing Josh a distracted smile. “Gallant.”
He winked at me, then closed the door. For a second, as he walked around the front of the car, I was alone with my thoughts.
What the hell was their work? What were they doing in our tiny town of Blissford, with their big house and their mysterious plans?
I had trouble enough of my own. I shouldn’t worry about it. I should stay away from them.
Kai slid into the seat behind me. He leaned forward between the seats, as if he wanted to say something, but then he paused.
“What is it, Kai?” I asked, expecting the latest dig.
He seemed to consider his options. From my peripheral vision, I saw him lick his lower lip. He didn’t seem like the type to hold back when he had something to say.
At least, I hoped he hadn’t been holding back last night. I hoped that was Kai at his worst, because otherwise…my god. The boy had a sharp tongue.
Josh swung into the car beside me, his big shoulder briefly brushing mine, and I inhaled the scent of his aftershave and felt the heat coming off his body. The memory rose again of how he’d brushed his thumb over my lip the night before, the way the heat of his body had radiated against mine as he pinned me—sweetly—against the wall. Just the thought caused a sudden, strange throb low in my belly.
Whatever Kai had wanted to say, it was lost now. He leaned back. I caught his movement in the rearview mirror, and my gaze was drawn as he pulled his seatbelt across his chest. His gaze flickered up and caught me, our eyes meeting in the mirror for one charged second. Then I glanced away, out at the trees that lined the long driveway and hid the house from the road. They were beginning to change color now. Winter was coming on fast.
“Long driveway,” I said as Josh put the car into drive, and we began to roll down the dirt track. “You guys like your privacy.”
“You have your secrets too, Piper,” Josh said lightly.
“Maybe,” I said.
They didn’t feel like secrets. They felt like chains, tying me to my father’s house.
But one day—if I just stuck to the plan, if I didn’t get distracted myself—my secrets were going to turn into the keys, and I would escape.
Chapter 9
“Do you need to go home for your books and stuff?” Josh asked as we turned onto the long country road.
The thought made my stomach tighten, but my father would be at work already if this was a normal day for him. I doubted he’d stayed up all night, worrying about where I was and if I was safe.
“I don’t want to make you late,” I said.
Kai snorted. “You don’t need to worry about us. A tardy is not really something I care about.”
“Where do you live?” Josh drummed the wheel with his fingertips.
“Right outside of town. I’ll show you.” For some reason, it felt strange to bring them to my door. I’d met them less than twenty four hours before. Now they would know where I lived.
I thought of Josh, threatening whoever hurt me the night before, and I shifted in my seat. “If you’ll stay in the car.”
Josh’s eyes flickered to the rearview mirror, exchanging a quick look with Kai I couldn’t quite catch.
“All right.” Josh said.
“No trouble,” I warned.
Kai’s lips turned up slightly. “No trouble, of course. My middle name is practically no trouble.”
“I doubt that very much.”
We fell into comfortable talk about nothing important as I directed Josh toward my house. The guys had a lot of questions about school, and they laughed at my explanations of the strange characters dominating Blissford High, which encouraged me to tell them more.
The comfort fell away, though, when I had to point to my street. “This right.”
Josh turned the wheel, his hands quick and competent, but he was suddenly quiet and unsmiling, to match my mood. We drove down the stretch of big homes, all set on rolling five acre lots. This was the nice part of Blissford: stone or brick homes, large and solid, set so far apart from each other no one could hear you screaming.
“This driveway,” I said, my stomach tight, pointing to the pressed-concrete driveway marked by white stone pillars.
Josh turned, and we drove slowly up toward the stone house, an enormous block of a house in the midst of an expanse of green lawn.
There were no cars in the driveway, and the three white carriage-house style garage doors were all closed. The windows of the house were like blank empty eyes, staring out at us. There were no hints as to whether my father was truly gone or whether he was home this time.
Getting him back his Mustang unharmed would help us both pretend that nothing had happened. Showing up in a strange car with strange boys? That would not be helpful.
I fixed a smile on my face anyway as I opened the car door. “Be right back!”
Kai and Josh looked at each other, sharing some wordless communication. I shut the car door, the sound loud in the deep silence of the morning.
When I let myself into the house, it was quiet. I looked around the entryway—the ghosts of Eli and my father rising around me, the situation from the night before beginning to replay—and then raced upstairs. With my heart pounding in my chest, I grabbed my books from the desk and threw them into my backpack. My room, with the stripped mattress and the bare shelves beneath the sparkly crystal chandelier, was a blur.
I hurried back down the stairs, stopping at the kitchen to grab a granola bar a
nd an apple since I didn’t see my wallet. My father must have taken my wallet and phone again. I threw them into the front pocket, zipping my bag up as I headed for the door. Maybe Josh and Kai would invite me to have lunch with them again. The thought made longing rise for me. I would like to sit in the cool air outside with them, having a break from the noise and chaos of Blissford High, but I didn’t want to invite myself.
When I come back out the front door, the two guys leaned against the hood of the car, watching the house. Their arms were crossed over their muscular chests, and they looked protective. Warmth flooded my chest. There was just something about the way they seemed to want to look after me.
But I couldn’t count on it. We barely knew each other. They were, like Nick had said, nice guys. That didn’t mean they wanted to be with me. It just meant they didn’t want to see anyone get hurt.
“I told you to stay in the car,” I teased, tossing my backpack into the passenger seat and then swinging in myself. The guys both got back into the car too.
“You’re not the boss of me, woman,” Josh said, his voice light and teasing. “I stayed by the car. Close enough.”
“Anyone home?” Kai asked.
I shook my head. I could just imagine the nightmare if my father had been in there, and if the guys had come in to rescue me… I knotted my hands in my laps. My legs were shaking, and I dug my fists into my thighs, trying to hold them still. I didn’t think Josh or Kai missed much, and humiliation dulled my mind as they tried to make small talk again. This time, I didn’t manage to be fun, like Josh had said I was earlier this morning.
A few minutes later, when we got out of the car in the student parking lot, I said, “Well, see you guys later.”
Josh raised his eyebrows at me over the top of the car. “We’re going to the same room.”
“It’s a small town,” I said frankly.
He stared back at me. “And?”
“If you walk from here to there with me, people are going to notice.” I gestured between the car and the school. “And they’re going to say something about it. Maybe not something you hear, but they’ll say something.”
