“Like?”
“We went zip-lining, and we’ve been training for a marathon.” I tore another piece of the label away from the bottle, rolling the scrap into a ball between my fingers, and finally glanced at Kiel.
“What else? And don’t bullshit me.” That grin returned, and for some reason, the gesture had me believing I couldn’t lie to him. Kiel cocked an eyebrow, staring at me like he expected nothing but the truth. “I know my brother doesn’t lose his shit unless…” His eyes widened as the pieces must’ve clicked into place. Placing his beer on top of the bar, he lifted his ass and pulled his stool closer to me. “You got the list?”
I nodded, and he motioned for me to hand it over. Rummaging through my purse, I pulled out the folded paper and handed it to him. It was easier for me to let him experience the list for himself than to say the words out loud. Somehow, the humiliation didn’t seem so great if I didn’t actually talk about it. That’s where Kane and I were alike. We didn’t need to speak much in order to communicate. We were on the same playing field, using our actions more than syllables, at least when it came to each other.
Kiel’s gaze moved across the paper as he rubbed his chin with one hand, running his thumb across the bottom corner of his lip. His eyebrows shot up just as I’d expected when he must have reached the one item that had Kane in a tizzy. A moment later, he folded it up, following the embedded lines and slid the paper back across the bar.
He was all confidence, a total professional as though what he was about to say was some sort of rational arrangement and not an act that would make that Kaino competition look like Monday Night RAW.
“I’ll do it,” he said quickly without so much as a hesitation in his voice. “If he won’t man up, I can fill his shoes.”
“But, Kiel…”
He placed his finger against my lips for a moment. “Shh, you’re in need, and I’m the perfect choice to help.”
Being needy was the understatement of the century. With the amount of work piled on my shoulders, I honestly couldn’t remember the last time I had sex…at least, amazing sex, because lackluster fucking was typically my norm. “I really shouldn’t just sleep with anyone.”
“Who said anything about sleeping, Kit?” He raised an eyebrow and smirked, stealing my breath once again.
“Well.” I couldn’t speak, and in all honesty, could barely think. In my head, this had seemed like a good idea, but now, with Kiel sitting next to me, offering me a roll in the sack, I wasn’t as confident about ticking that particular item off the list.
But then a flash of memory came over me—Kane’s soft mouth, his strong, demanding hands…and then, him pushing me off his lap as we camped in the mountains.
Damn.
I wanted a warm mouth and big hands. I wanted my body rocked and my pussy buzzing. I wanted all that with Kane, but it was clear to me now that he wasn’t willing to help me out.
I glanced at Kiel, returning the smile he gave me, and swallowed down the doubt, wiping it from my system. This was about the list and my cousin. It was about putting the past to bed and looking toward the future. It was about being greedy and wanting to be swept away. Kane wouldn’t give me that. Kiel would.
“The only thing I can’t help you with is falling in love because I’m not the right man to fill those shoes.” Kiel shrugged, waving a hand in forced apology. Then he looked around, moving closer, and I leaned in too. “But I can fuck ya silly and make you forget your name for a little while.”
I ignored the brush of heat that colored my cheeks and offered him a smile, hoping he bought the indifference I tried to pull off with my shrug. “I’m not looking for love, Kiel.”
I already loved someone and it wasn’t Kiel, but with no hope of anything more happening between us, I could at least get lost in one Kaino and get one step closer to finishing the list and having my life return to normal.
“Then, I’m your man.”
12
Kane
There were three sounds I couldn’t stomach hearing. One was a siren, loud and screeching, sounding like a panicked scream, announcing to the crowded city streets there was a shit-ton of trouble. That was never a sound that set well with me because it never led anywhere good. Second to that was a baby’s cry, especially one who can’t be consoled. It’s the wailing shriek of pain, something that doesn’t disappear until you walk away or they pass out. That one I didn’t like because it filled me with a helpless, useless sensation, something I never wanted to be.
But, the worst sound I think I’d ever heard was the desperate cry a woman made when she was scared, when she was so devastated that nothing that sounded anything at all like clear words left her mouth.
That was the sound that rattled through the receiver when my phone rang. My heart skipped beats, and I held my breath the second I heard Kit’s high-pitched, “Kane, I need you.”
The fact that she needed me because my fucking asshole of a brother had let her down had me pressing my foot harder against the accelerator as I sped toward Seattle.
“It’s stupid, crying like this,” she’d said, doing that sniffle thing she did when she was trying to hide the fact that she was upset. It reminded me of the same crack in her words that came after she’d gotten the call that Jess had died. “I just…when I heard the president was speaking today, and Kiel promised to get me in…” She paused, sniffling again before her words came out disjointed and breathy. “Jess…she knew I’d always wanted to meet him…just shake his hand.”
I’d listened to each wobbling word as I’d moved around my rental, half dressing, half listening as I tried to keep my own voice calm.
“It’s not stupid,” I’d promised her, silently listing the ways I’d do bodily harm to my kid brother. With each passing second, that list got longer and more brutal. The bastard had fucked up big-time, and I wasn’t about to let that shit go.
“He said he’d do you a favor, and he flaked.” I’d taken a breath, holding the cell to my ear as I tore through my closet looking for something suitable to wear. It was a speech but not formal, so no suit, I didn’t guess. In fact, I should have just settled on jeans and a T-shirt. But the second Kit explained, in that shattered, sniffling tone of hers, that Kiel had landed press passes to hear the former president’s speech at the Westin Hotel in Seattle, that he’d even managed to find out when the perfectly timed speech would end and where the greeting line would be as the man left the building, I’d decided I had to finish the job.
“Besides,” I’d told her, sliding on a pair of black Dickies and a gray button-up, “the man is your idol. Shit, how many times did you have me helping you register voters or toting boxes of bumper stickers in my truck for you to pass out every time he ran for president?” That earned me a pleased sigh, and some of my panic ebbed but not one fucking ounce of my anger. As I slammed my front door closed and hopped in my truck, speeding through Ashford to hit the freeway, I added “two swollen eyes” and “a split bottom lip” to the list of things Kiel needed done to him.
“Kane… Look, the other day on set with your brother…”
She didn’t finish, likely thought my loud exhale was me gearing up to say something. Instead, I cleared my throat, figuring I should explain why I’d acted like a jealous boyfriend, but I chickened out, asking her for the second time in ten minutes where she was. “Near the kitchens?” I’d asked, breathing a little easier when she spoke and her voice sounded clearer.
“They won’t let me any farther without a press pass.” I could make out her heels clicking against what sounded like a tile floor as she walked, and I had to push back the image of Kit’s long, forever stretching legs in a skirt and tall heels.
I shifted in my seat, blinking when something came to me. “Ah, the Westin, you said?”
“Yeah.”
I nodded, though I knew she couldn’t see me, but I smiled, remembering a guy I knew from an old construction job we both had with the city fifteen years back. “I’ll be there in a bit. Leave
everything to me. I know somebody who can get us in.”
* * *
“Right here.” Chris Lewis nodded toward the crowd, pointing out three empty chairs at the closest table by the kitchens. “That table is sold, but I know for a fact Senator Collins is on the fifth floor getting personal lap dances from two Little Darlings’ strippers.”
“Nice,” Kit said. The smile lit up her face, even I could make that out despite the lack of lighting around the banquet hall.
There were at least two hundred round tables in the hall, all draped with white linen tablecloths and simple centerpieces. The president hadn’t been announced, but his wife was on the stage, looking like something out of a pinup movie, her dark skin lineless, beautiful as she stood in a cream dress that accentuated her curves, surrounded by the dark burgundy drapes of fabric that covered the windows behind her on the stage.
“He won’t show?” I asked Chris, pulling Kit back when she looked like she might want to make a beeline for the empty seats. “Wait till she finishes. We can sneak in when they stand and clap.”
“He won’t show,” Chris told me, shaking my hand when I offered it. “I’ll make sure he stays distracted. It’s good to see you doing so well, man.” The guy shifted his gaze from me to Kit, then smiled when he watched me again. “Long overdue.”
I didn’t bother correcting him, half wondering if Kit had heard the implication behind Chris’s words over the first lady’s speech. But Kit’s focus was on the stage, and her eyes widened, making her look mesmerized the longer the woman spoke.
“Thanks, Chris,” I said. “I owe you one.”
“No, you don’t.” He held up his left hand, and his smile went wide. “Fourteen years next month, all because my wife thought you were too grumpy.”
I laughed, feeling a little nostalgic over the memory of the worst blind date of my life. Bethany Wilkes hadn’t liked me one bit, and she might have left me in that restaurant when I’d clammed up and didn’t give much away. Hell, I’d only agreed to the blind date to get my mother off my back about me not dating anyone. But Bethany had been a good Samoan girl, someone my mom thought would be perfect for me. She was pretty enough. Had a banging body, but there was zero spark.
Well, there was zero spark until I ran into Chris outside the restaurant, and he and Bethany started up a conversation as I went to grab my truck. I stood zero chance with her after that first introduction.
“Glad I could help you out, man.”
“Likewise,” Chris said, nodding to Kit then me before he walked toward the back of the hall.
Just then, the first lady announced her husband, and we took advantage of the crowd’s roaring claps and standing ovation as the overhead spotlight landed on the former president who bent to kiss his wife and shake hands with the governor.
I led Kit to the empty table, guiding her with my hand on the small of her back. The noise of the crowd died down, and we sat next to each other, our attention on the man at center stage. He was tall and thin, looked a lot older than I’d expected, though I guessed he was probably more rested, and a lot more relaxed now that his second term had ended.
“He’s amazing,” Kit said. There was no hint of upset left in her tone, no sniffling wail that had greeted me two hours ago when I picked up my cell. The second I’d spotted her in the hotel, she’d run to me, face against my chest, fingers curled around my collar like I was the lifeline she’d been waiting for.
Gotta admit, that shit felt good. No matter that I’d made an ass of myself just a couple days ago on the set because Kiel had stood too close to her. Like always, Kit got over my mood and attitude like it had never made an appearance. Like always, I’d forgotten everything but making sure she was taken care of, that she wasn’t upset, because that’s what I did best. That’s who we were—friends, sure, but more than that. We were each other’s people. We had each other’s backs. No amount of pissy attitudes would change that shit.
She was right about one thing. The man on the stage was amazing. He was impressive, and while I’d never been in his fan club the way Kit had, I respected him. He was charming, articulate, and as far as I could tell since I didn’t really pay too much attention to politics, meant what he said when he said it.
The speech progressed, with the president cracking jokes, earning laughs and rounds of applause here and there, but my attention wasn’t on the intelligent man trying to drum up votes for his party’s local senatorial candidate. I gave exactly one shit about politics and it wasn’t a very big one, but I loved watching Kit’s expression. It was open, awed. The tears had dried off her face, and the slow wobble in her chin was completely gone now. Every now and then, she’d look away from the stage, shooting a glance at the side of the stage or the exits, I guessed trying to see if anyone was coming to kick us out. But then she’d look at me, eyes soft, expression relaxed, and I stopped caring about what the president had to say or how many laughs his corny jokes got.
Kit looked beautiful, as always, but there was something so open, so exposed to the look in her eyes as she listened to the speech. Those large dark eyes were wide, unblinking, and her lips were separated slightly open, enough that I could just make out the tip of her pink tongue when she wetted her bottom lip.
Shit, I wanted to kiss her. No matter what I’d told her about wanting her the way I did or how it had to be for me. Just then, I didn’t think about keeping Kit at a distance. I didn’t think about her list or the things I definitely wanted to do to her but couldn’t subject her to. In that second, I only knew she was happy, she was amazed, and she had never been more beautiful to me.
“That’s why I think it’s essential that we elect folks who will assure that the next generation…”
“He’s wrapping up,” Kit whispered, leaning next to me so close that I could smell the hint of coffee on her breath. She took my hand, moving one side of her mouth up as she watched me. “Even if I didn’t get to shake his hand, this is enough. Kane, you did this. You made this happen, and I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t…”
“Come on,” I told her, cutting her off when the crowd stood again, and the president waved to the crowd, his wife at his side.
“Kane…wait, we can’t…”
“Jess said shake his hand, not just hear him speak.” Kit kept up with me as I pulled her through the crowd, spotted two of the men Chris had talked to to get us past security and through the employee hallway.
“But, Kane, there is no way…”
“You giving up?” I asked her, shooting a frown over my shoulder. That stopped her, and Kit tilted her head, moving a slow smile over her mouth. “Didn’t think so.”
We made it to within five feet of the stage, bypassing the gathering crowd of reporters as they congregated toward the backstage area, near a roped-off section that led from the stage to the back entrance. There were no velvet ropes or plastic tape sectioning off the area. But there was a row of men, all decked out in black suits and white shirts, black ties, dark shades; all with earpieces as they stood shoulder to shoulder, attention on the grouping of reporters and the small crowd of hotel staff that inched over each other, getting up on their toes to see past the Secret Service.
“Damn.” I heard Kit say, holding on to my arm as we stopped behind the reporters. She followed as I moved, leaning to the right to see what we could make out in the smallest space between the stage steps and the first Secret Service man. I pulled Kit in front of me, but I could easily see over her head as we both angled our bodies toward that opening.
I was about to apologize to her, feeling shitty that I hadn’t been able to make up entirely for Kiel being such an asshole. I’d even gone so far as to lean down, closing my eyes against the smell of her hair and the heat of her skin. But then there was a small commotion from the reporters, and the security team inched to the left as the governor left the stage, then several more people, and Kit gasped, pointing to the steps as the first lady descended.
“Look, Kane…” she start
ed, and I nodded, smiling at the excitement in her voice.
“Kit, I’m sorry I couldn’t…”
“Ms. Carlyle?” We heard, both of us looking up when a mammoth Secret Service man stepped away from the crowd and stood right in front of Kit.
“Yes?” she said, stretching her neck to look up at the guy.
“Someone would like to speak to you.” He paused, glancing up at me. “Both you and Mr. Kaino.”
“Oh,” she said, reaching behind her to grip my arm. We followed the man, and Kit kept a tight hold on my fingers, so tight that I had to move her hand, holding it in mine as we moved past the reporters and were led farther down the hallway and into a small room near the back exit.
“Wait here,” the man told us, then left, pulling the door shut behind him as he went.
“What the hell do you think…” Kit started, whirling on me as she paced. She was worked up, doing a lot of small, irritating things that were her usual way when she was nervous. But I didn’t tell her to calm down or stop bouncing her foot when she leaned against one of the five round tables in the room. I thought maybe she’d work up some static electricity with the white and beige carpet from how quickly she paced, but I kept my suspicions to myself. Kit didn’t need me telling her to calm down. That shit wasn’t gonna happen no matter what I said.
“Did you…” she started to ask, going silent when I held up my hands, then gasping under her breath when the door behind us opened and the first lady and the president walked into the room. “Holy shi…” She went quiet when I nudged her, and then, just like that, on-air Kit showed up.
Nailed Down: The Complete Series Page 10
