My jaw tenses as I bite down on my molars.
“They do,” I respond, and he scoffs. “Your feelings matter too.”
He stops moving and just stares at me like I’ve grown an extra head.
“You really shouldn’t hang around places like Kensington. It didn’t look safe. Sure, it was late, but I don’t imagine it gets much better in the daytime.”
“It’s easy to judge things you don’t know a fucking thing about, isn’t it?”
“I’m not judging. I’m simply making an observation. That place looked like a dog died, came back to life and threw up all over itself before dying again.”
He looks deeply wounded by my statement and I’m trying to understand why he would even try to defend a place like that. What redeeming qualities could it possibly have?
He turns away from me, his scowl drawn tight and his brows creasing into his forehead.
I didn’t say anything wrong.
I’m sure his eyes work.
He saw the place.
Does he want me to lie?
“You didn’t answer my question!” I call after him, climbing down the seats.
“I don’t intend to,” he growls back, picking up the pace, crossing the room.
I grab onto his elbow before he gets to the door and he spins around and grabs me by the shoulders, pushing me against the wall. I can feel my heart racing in my chest as my breathing picks up speed.
“Stay the fuck away from me.” His eyes are dark, and he looks like an entirely different person. “If you see me coming, you go the other way. You don’t speak to me. You don’t look at me. And you sure as hell have no business thinking about me.”
“Why?” I ask defiantly and his eyes level with mine, unsettling me.
“People like you will never understand people like me and I sure as hell don’t need to be dragging around any dead weight.”
He lets go of me and heads for the door, but I’m on his heels, ever the persistent fool. “Where do you think you’re going?” I call after him, trying to keep up.
“Home,” he barks without missing a step or turning to face me.
“I could drop you,” I offer, and immediately feel the urge to kick myself in the shins.
Janey Arielle Bradshaw, have you actually lost your mind? My sanity screams the words at me, and I do my best to push them away.
Kace stops walking and without even turning to look at me, he bursts into hysterical laughter. He laughs so hard he has to lean over and rest both hands on his knees to keep from toppling to the floor.
“What’s so funny?” I ask, my face hot and red from an embarrassment that I cannot explain.
“You could never cut class, Janey. Besides, you don’t want to go back to my home.” When he turns to face me there is actual hatred written all over his face and I can feel something inside me breaking.
“Back? But I’ve never been-” I mutter.
“Of course you have. You weren’t too keen on the view though, remember? How did you put it? It looked like a dog died, came back to life and threw up all over itself before dying again,” he recites and there’s scorn dripping from every word. “Very. Fucking. Poetic. Really,” he growls in between mock rounds of applause and I find myself speechless. “What? What’s that? No witty comeback?” His disgust is as audible as it is visual, and I suddenly wish I could disappear. “Yeah...I thought so,” he scowls. “Stay the fuck away from me Janey Bradshaw. I want nothing to do with you. Got it?”
He’s out the door and my mind is still reeling.
Kace lives in this Kensington place?
Oh my gosh.
Does anyone else know about this? Does the principal know this?
How is this even possible?
I have so many questions and despite his bitter, ominous warning, I know myself enough to know that I’m not about to stop until I get some answers.
6
Kace
Shit.
I hadn’t planned on staying here until morning.
Shit.
I can’t believe I fucking overslept.
It’s already 9 o’clock and I have at least another 20 minutes before I get home.
Shit.
Cain is gonna have my ass. Just the thought of having to deal with him turns my mood from sour to stale. I’m in the parking lot now and my eyes fall on Janey’s car just as I’m about to make it to the back. This is all her fucking fault. If she’d just kept to her own damn business then I’d have never left Kensington last night in the first place. And what the hell was that just now? The defiance in her eyes, her searching me out like I didn’t warn her to stay the hell away from me.
Something in my head flicks and before I even know what I’m doing, I find that my hand is curled around my pocket knife and I’m taking it to the back tire of her car, slashing lines of anger into the rubber.
“That ought to teach her,” I hiss, checking behind me to see if anyone’s watching. Not that it would fucking matter.
A few quick steps takes me back to Cain’s Harley. Throwing one leg over the metal, I max the speed and zip down the I-95. The bike screeches as I enter Kensington, almost running over a stray cat in the road. The place looks the same as I left it, though I can’t seem to get Janey’s vivid description out of my mind. She’s not wrong and I hate that I can’t defend it on any other point besides the fact that it’s home to me.
When I pull up into our garage, I barely park the bike before I jump off and run up the steps into the house, panting and out of breath in the doorway. My brothers, Cain, Gabriel, and Josh are all sitting in the living room and they stop talking when I step inside. Gabe glances up at me and shakes his head before looking away.
I know he won’t be able to help me out this time.
I’m staring at the back of Cain’s head and I can’t seem to move or bring myself to say anything, so I just stand there, staring into the back of my future.
Josh glances up at me and looks away too.
That bad, huh?
“Had a good time?” Cain snarls, though he hasn’t bothered to turn around. I can see puffs of smoke winding upwards from his face.
“Cain-”
“Yes or no, boy? Was the slut you brought up into my house a fucking good time?”
There he goes with that ‘boy’ thing again.
“It’s none of your damn business,” I respond, crossing my arms even though I know better.
Cain jumps to his feet and turns to face me with a wild look in his eyes. He seems thrilled at the back talk. An access card to punching me out without having to explain himself to anyone, not that he ever did.
Gabriel is shaking his head at me, hinting that I should back down, but I’m already too riled up by his bullshit to back down.
“What did you just say?”
“I said it’s none of your business.”
Cain starts laughing.
“Did you hear that fellas? It’s none of my business!” He roars with laughter, but neither Gabe nor Josh join him.
Cain snuffs out his cigarette into the arm of the sofa and starts walking over to me.
I stand my ground. I’ve had a pretty shit morning so far and I’m not in the mood for his crap.
“I tell you to get here for 4 yesterday, but your ass wasn’t even here at 4:30, when I left. I get back and Gabe here tells me you rolled up with a bitch and then took dad’s Harley out for a nice lil spin. Now it’s 9:30 in the morning and you got the fucking nerve to tell me that you disrespecting a direct order is none of my business?”
He’s inches away from my face and before I can take a step back, he leans back and head butts me so hard I think I’ve gone blind.
“You done lost your fucking mind in that bitch’s cunt. Is that it?”
His fist cracks down on my jaw and I stumble backward.
“You lost your mind boy?”
He raises his fist and I go for his ribs. This time, we both wind up on the floor. I get two good shots in before h
e’s on top of me and all I can do is block my face with my elbows. Cain is twice my size, a trained fighter and fucking heavy.
“Get off of him!” I hear a tiny voice screaming across the room.
Shit.
Why is Abby still here?
I try to push Cain off of me, but he keeps slamming his fists into whatever part of me is left exposed.
“Get off.” The voice sounds closer.
Too close.
I open my eyes and Abby is yanking at Cain’s shirt, trying to part a fight that she shouldn’t have had to witness in the first place. A fight that started years ago and had nothing to do with either of us.
Cain pushes her away and she falls hard against the cabinet, hitting her head. Gabe jumps up and rushes over to her and out of nowhere, I summon the strength to get this heavy motherfucker off of me.
“Is she okay?” I ask through lips that are already starting to swell.
Abby is screaming on the top of her lungs and I’m pushing Cain off me as I make my way over to her. I take her from Gabe and sit on the ground with her in my lap.
My face is swollen and everything inside me hurts, but I swear to every God that ever was and ever will be that if there’s even a drop of blood in her hair, I’m gonna gut him right here in this house that he seems to love so much.
“Abby,” I try to calm her down, but she has a firm grasp on her head as she wails with her eyes squeezed tightly shut.
“Abby? Baby girl, it’s okay,” I try to soothe her.
My breath is choppy, and it feels like there’s a two-ton iron ball sitting in my chest as I pry her tiny fingers away from her hair and examine her head.
“She’s fine,” I hear Cain growl and my head whips around to face him.
“You better fucking hope so, Cain. Anything happens to her and you’re going to have to put me down too.”
I see a sneer form on his lips, but he says nothing. He may be an asshole, but Rick loves Abby. It’s the only thing we have in common. Cain would be dead fucking meat if he actually thinks he can hurt her and get Rick’s approval for it.
“Let me see it Abs. It’s okay. I won’t touch it if it hurts, I promise.” My voice is barely a whisper as I try to calm her down.
Her screams slowly turn to whimpers and everyone in the room seems to exhale at the same time when I tell her it’s just a little bump. No blood. No worries.
I scramble to my feet and pick her up, heading to her room.
“Kace!”
It’s mom.
Shit.
“Kace! Bring her to me.”
The panic in her voice is piercing and I try to soothe Abby who picks up on mom’s distress and starts wailing again as we enter her bedroom.
“What’s wrong with her?” her voice shakes as she speaks.
Abby has her hands around my neck as I pat her back, trying to calm her uncontrollable sobbing.
“She fell.”
“Cain pushed me,” she screams, and I cringe.
“Kace?” Mom asks and I nod.
She looks away from me and stares up at the ceiling before throwing her arm across her face. From here I can see a tear slip down her face and my heart breaks.
“Ma, she’s okay, I swear,” I try to convince her even though Abby is still wailing like a wounded puppy on my shoulder.
I’d say anything to have her stop crying, to make them both stop crying. I hate feeling as helpless as I do now, and I can only imagine that mom feels worse.
“Did he do that to your face?” she asks, without looking back at me and I can’t answer. I already know what she’s thinking, and I don’t want to be the one who causes her any additional stress.
Cain and I have been at each other’s throats since we were little. He’s Rick’s favorite son and I like to think that I’m mom’s favorite. I’m the only one of all of us who has ever given a damn about something other than ascending to the freaking D’C throne that Cain seems to think holds the elixir of immortality or some shit.
In my silence, Abby’s whimpers and whines of discomfort are the only sound in the room. She’s slowly starting to settle down, though her hand is still resting on her head.
“I’m going to get some ice for Abby, mom.” She turns and holds out her arms and Abby climbs over to her.
I grab the opportunity to escape from the intense emotions in the room. I can’t stand to see her like that, knowing that she deserves better and that I’m not man enough to give it to her.
Gabriel is in the kitchen when I get there. He’s older than me by three years, but he looks just as ancient as Cain does. ‘Live fast, die young,’ I guess. A bullshit motto for a bullshit life.
“How is she?” he asks, and I have to remind myself that even though he’s Cain’s lackey, he’s only half as bad.
“She’ll live,” I grunt and grab an ice pack from the freezer.
“You should get one for your face, bro.”
I turn to stare at him through my squinted eyes and I can’t tell what expression registers on my stiff face. “You just stood there, Gabe.”
“Nah bro, that’s your fight. You don’t come runnin’ when Cain and I are manning it out, so why would I rob you of a glorious moment to finally kick his ass?” he asks, taking a hit of something that smells like weed.
“And Abby? You couldn’t have stopped Abby from getting that close?”
Gabriel is quiet, and I think, if it’s possible, there’s a fleeting moment of guilt registered on his face. I can’t really tell.
“She’s your sister too, Gabe. She’s just a baby. Cain may not give a shit, but you don’t have to be Cain.”
“I sense a whiney bitch callin’ my name.” Cain enters the kitchen at the mention of his name and I slam the freezer shut and head out.
“We’re not done, little brother.”
“Eat a dick Cain,” I curse back and head to mom’s room.
He doesn’t come after me. I don’t expect him to. We may be hooligans to little miss Janey Bradshaw and the likes of her, but within our community, we have rules. Cain just broke Dad’s second rule, Mom’s first rule and my only rule. He knows that if mom weren’t paralyzed she’d be all over his ass herself.
She turns to look at me as I reenter her bedroom and I know she feels more helpless than I do. We protect our young. It’s just what we do. Cain’s never been good at that rule. He’s never tried even once to protect me. Not even as kids.
Back in mom’s room, Abby is falling asleep as mom sings her a lullaby. I hand the ice pack to her and she places Abby on her lap and rests the icepack on her head.
She’s fast asleep within minutes.
“You didn’t answer my question.” Mom’s voice is unusually soft, and I assume it’s to prevent her from waking Abby.
I nod and she takes a deep breath.
“I know you joined the gang.” She gets straight to the point. “I’m so sorry.”
I can see tears welling up in her eyes and I want her to stop. “It’s not your fault, mom. Don’t apologize.”
“I was supposed to protect you from him.” Her face is wrung into twisted lines and I know she thinks about this all the time. “You should be in school now. Why are you here?”
I hang my head.
“There’s a peace treaty meeting at 10.”
“You shouldn’t be here, sweetheart. You shouldn’t have to go to that meeting.”
“It’s okay mom.”
“It’s not.” Her voice is firm, and Abby turns in her lap. “It’s not okay. This is not the life I wanted for you. I wanted you to get out. That’s why I worked so hard to make sure you could get into that fancy school outside of here. You were supposed to be the first good thing to come from this place.” Her cheeks are wet with tears and I reach over to wipe them away.
“I have to take care of you and Abby now that you can’t do it yourself. That’s the most important thing.”
“There are other ways-”
“Not for me. Not for people li
ke us.”
“Baby, you could get a job,”
I laugh at that statement and start pacing the room.
“Not while living here.”
“I did it-”
“You’re a woman, mom. It’s different for you guys. Nobody expects anything from us. Nobody sees us as worth a shot. Nobody cares. We’re all branded as hopeless and dangerous because of a fucking street address!” She glances down at Abby and I apologize for raising my voice.
The air is heavy with unspoken words as she lays with her bottom lip trembling, trying not to cry. I glance around the bedroom; it’s full of pictures of her and Rick, and I wish she’d take them all down already. I wish she’d let me drag them all down and burn them.
When I look back at her, she’s quietly staring at me. “I know,” she whispers, and I know that she does, even without me saying a word, but I have to say it anyway.
“It should have been him.”
“Kace.” She’s using the tone she always does when she’s trying to tell me to be reasonable, which is ridiculous, giving the unreasonableness of her current state.
“No. Don’t you dare defend him to me.”
I love my mother more than life, but that monster ruined all our lives and I can’t sit here and listen to her try to explain to me, yet again, how misunderstood my fucking shit of a father is in “real life”. She may have met and married a decent human being, but whatever decency he used to have died long before I was born. The scum of the whole fucking earth is all I’ve ever known him to be, so that’s all he’ll ever be to me.
“He loves y-”
“Enough!” I stand and Abby stirs like she’s about to wake up. “Sorry baby girl,” I whisper and she slowly settles again.
Quieter now, I shift my eyes to my mother. “I love you, mom. You gave me everything and you have my whole heart, but he took everything from you. It should be him sitting here paralyzed. It should be him that’s confined to a life of dependence. He did this to you.”
“Kace you know he didn’t-”
“Really mom? You’re defending him still? Even now?”
Rebel: Enemies to Lovers Bully Romance Page 5
