Above all Else

by Sophia R Heart

  I rolled my eyes. ‘We’ll see. Now, drink up.’

  We downed the shots, and headed for the dance floor. The club was full, but not too packed. Axel hadn’t been sure if he’d like clubbing the first time we’d come here, but he’d ended up loving it. He enjoyed the atmosphere and the feel of the beat through the dance floor.

  ‘How does it feel, dancing without hearing the music?’ I signed, stepping back a little so he could see my hands better. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to experience the world like Axel did.

  He put his hand on my back to pull me close again, and spoke against my ear. "I don't mind if it means I get to rub up against beautiful girls."

  I laughed, elbowing him away from me. He could be such a guy sometimes – although I often felt like he was only that way around me. For the longest time, it'd only been his mom and me who could sign in his life. We’d been the only ones he could communicate comfortably with.

  ‘See anyone you fancy? I could find a girl for you.’ He’d been my best friend for years. I could be his wingman for one night. It was his birthday, after all. Didn’t guys want to get laid on their birthdays?

  I’d never actually known him to sleep around. He'd never dated anyone in high school – not that anyone could blame him. It had made me cringe how some girls had treated him. Sometimes cruelly, but mostly just awkwardly, like they weren't quite sure how to talk to him. He’d been pretty introverted and hadn’t had many friends before he met me.

  Being at college, with other deaf people, had been great for him. He didn’t shy away from social situations as much anymore, and he was a lot more confident. I think there was even a girl, but he’d clammed up when I’d asked him about it.

  He shook his head. ‘I’m good here.’

  We danced for a few more songs before we headed back to the bar for more drinks. The crowd on the dancefloor had gotten busier, so we decided to take our drinks to a table and rest for a bit.

  He slipped into a chair across from me and sipped at his drink, his cheeks flushed from a combination of the dancing and the drinks. He put his drink down, and signed, ‘Thank you.’

  I paused, tilting my head at him. ‘For what?’

  ‘I don't know.’ He shrugged, looking down at his drink. ‘For my birthday. For being my friend.’

  His clear blue eyes looked up and met mine, his cheeks flushing with even more color.

  I felt my lips twitch, as I stared at him. It seemed he was going to be a sappy drunk tonight. I stood up, and slipped into the seat next to him. Leaning my head against his shoulder, I gave him a squeeze.

  He rested his head on top of mine, and I felt a sigh go through him. He was the greatest friend ever, and I was incredibly lucky to have him. It should have been me thanking him – not the other way around. I didn't want him feeling grateful that I was his friend –as if it was some big burden, and not an absolute pleasure to have him in my life.

  I moved my head back slightly. ‘Thanks for being my friend too,’ I signed, also well on my way to being a sappy drunk. We were sat so close, it was difficult to sign. I spoke the next words out aloud, moving my lips clearly. “I don't know what I'd do without you.”

  And I really didn’t. In the five years I'd known him, he'd become such a massive part of my life.

  He stared at my lips as I spoke, and it felt odd. I hadn't really spoken to him in ages – not since I'd become proficient in ASL, and certainly not with me sitting so close to him. For a second, I remembered the last time I’d felt odd as he stared at my lips... but that had been a different situation altogether.

  Though we’d been drunk then, too, now that I thought about it.

  ‘Do you want another drink?’ I signed, putting some distance between us.

  He blinked. ‘I’ll get them.’

  I had to stand up to let him pass. Not a minute after he left, a random man sat down next to me.

  Great.

  "Hey." He smiled, and I shrunk back from him a little. He was a lot older than me; at least in his early thirties. He wasn't big; in fact, he looked abnormally thin, almost emaciated. His eyes were sunken, and his crooked, yellowing teeth were bared in a smile that was totally unnerving.

  "Hi," I said politely, not wanting to piss him off by ignoring him. I looked around for Axel, shifting my weight. "If you'll excuse me, I have to go–"

  "Oh, no. Why don't you stay, April?" he said, as I got up. His smile grew wider, a gold tooth on the front row of his teeth glinting under the club lights.

  "Do... do I know you?" I asked him, though I was sure I’d never seen him before in my life. He looked like he'd been a heroin addict for the past decade – not someone I usually associated with.

  Where the hell was Axel?

  "No. I don't think you do know me, darlin'." He didn't say anything else, and his eyes continued to bore into me.

  Okaaay. I was out of here.

  I turned to leave, relieved to see that Axel had returned, two drinks in hand. He came and stood right next to me, his chest puffing up.

  "Let's go dance,” he said loudly. Passing me one of the glasses, he ushered me away with a hand on my back. He shook his head at me when we were back on the dance floor. “Only with your luck would the creepiest guy in here hit on you.”

  “He knew my name,” I said, talking out aloud since I had a drink in my hand. I frowned back at the table we’d been sitting at, but the guy had disappeared.

  "He did?" Axel looked surprised. I nodded, my eyes moving across the other bodies in the club. Something about that guy had completely unnerved me. Axel followed my movements, looking concerned. “Do you want to leave?”

  I shook my head. It was his birthday. I wouldn’t let some guy freak me out. He’d probably heard Axel say my name at some point; he’d been talking a lot tonight, his hands too busy to sign.

  We finished our drinks, and moved back to the dance floor.

  I was facing Axel when I caught sight of a familiar figure moving across the floor several feet away. I only glimpsed the side of his face for a second before he was lost in the crowd, but I could have sworn that it was... well, Kellan.

  ‘What?’ Axel asked, looking over his shoulder.

  ‘I think I just saw Kellan,’ I signed. Wasn’t he working with Dad tonight?

  Axel looked back at me strangely, before glancing around the club. He raised an eyebrow at me, as if to say, ‘really?’ I shrugged. It was pretty dark in here, and with the strobe lights, I could have easily mistaken someone else for him. There was a teasing smile on his face as he signed, ‘I think your little crush is messing with your head. Making you see him when he’s not there.’

  I scowled at him, signing forcefully, ‘I do not have a crush on Kellan.’ He put his hands in the air in surrender. Over his shoulder, I caught another glimpse of the figure that had caught my eye earlier. It was Kellan. I was sure of it. I tugged on Axel’s sleeve to get him to look at me, and signed, ‘It's definitely him.’

  ‘Are you...?’ he began, but dropped his hands, looking over my shoulder this time. I turned around and nearly bumped into someone standing right behind me. I looked up, my mouth falling open.

  "Dad?" I said. Another figure appeared and stood next to him. Kellan.

  Dad’s face was not impressed as he looked at me. I’d told him that we were going to The Pulse, an eighteen-and-over club, for Axel’s birthday. They gave wristbands to anyone with valid ID, but were notorious for checking for fakes. It was far too difficult to get a drink in that place, which was why I’d told Dad we were going there. I’d never dreamed that I’d be seeing him here.

  "You told me you were going to The Pulse," Dad said, his eyes moving around the club quickly and appraisingly, seeming to take everything in at once. Kellan was doing very much the same, looking lethal with his arms crossed over his chest.

  They were hunting someone.

  "We changed our minds," I said, swallowing. It was probably one of
the weirdest moments of my life, bumping into my dad in the middle of a club.

  "Well, you need to leave. Now," Kellan said, curtly.

  Even though a rational part of me knew why they’d want me gone if there was a criminal around, the command still irked me to the core. I was buzzed from the drinks, and not feeling very rational. I glared at him. Who the hell did he think he was?

  He looked back at me, unfazed by my anger. He was in his element; his grey eyes glinting darkly, a muscle in his jaw flexing. He looked ready to take on the world. He looked… deadly.

  “We're not leaving. It's Axel's birthday!” I signed as I spoke, knowing Axel was probably struggling to keep up with the conversation.

  "You guys are leaving," Dad interjected firmly when Kellan looked like he was about to toss me over his shoulder. And that was that. There was no point in arguing with Dad.

  They escorted us out of the club, hailing a cab outside. My buzz had faded considerably, and I was beyond annoyed with the two of them.

  Kellan leaned against a wall outside of the club, lighting up a cigarette as Dad held the cab door open for me. I glanced over my shoulder, ready to make a snarky remark about the effects of second-hand smoke, but the words died on my lips when I noticed that Kellan's eyes were glued to my ass.

  I wasn't imagining it.

  They lingered on my butt before sliding decadently down my legs as he blew out a ring of smoke. He glanced up – almost as though he felt my gaze.

  Our eyes caught, and held. I tried, but I couldn’t get a read on them. Kellan Reed had always been an enigma. A complete mystery.

  I slid into the cab after Axel, feeling breathless. I barely heard Dad as he said something about seeing me at home.

  It happened sometimes over the years. He'd say something, or I'd catch his eye, and I'd feel... this small flutter in my stomach. It rarely happened, thank God, and it was easy enough to squash down the small, traitorous pangs.

  It wasn't as though I was still harboring a crush on him – most days he drove me insane.

  It was his looks, I decided. He was just too good-looking for his own damn good. That's all it was. Physical attraction. I’d have to have be blind not to notice.

  "Well, I guess our night is over," Axel said with a sigh.

  I glanced at him in the darkness of the cab, and switched the light on in the back. ‘No way. It's your birthday. We're going to another club. This time, we'll really go to The Pulse, and try our luck. See if we can get wristbands. We'll get ridiculously drunk, and have a great time.’

  And we did.

  - KELLAN -

  I scowled at the back of her stubborn little head. She just had to be here tonight. We'd been so damn close to catching our guy. It had only been a matter of tracking him down inside the club and following him out when he left so we could subdue him in a quieter place. We could have had the fucker back behind bars by tonight.

  He was long gone now – and all because we'd had to escort Ballerina's ass out of there.

  It was a fine ass. I couldn't help but notice, my scowl fading as I took her in. She walked confidently towards the edge of the sidewalk, as Mario hailed down a cab. Her legs in that dress... God, how had I only recently started to notice?

  I’d been blind.

  I wished I’d stayed that way. It would have been a million times easier to think of her as the little blonde girl in the pink tutu she'd been when we first met. She'd nailed me with a football, right in the balls, within seconds of us meeting.

  She’d always been a little firecracker, but I hadn’t started to appreciate that quality until recently. The thoughts that had begun to plague my mind... fuck. I felt like a pervert.

  I dug into my pocket for a smoke and lit it up. I didn't smoke half as much as I'd used to – though I'd failed epically at trying to quit. I’d done okay for a few months. Then Louise had died, and I couldn't take all the fucking sadness.

  Smoking was a stress reliever, and just thinking about what Mario would do if he ever found out about the thoughts running through my head made my stressed.

  Feeling a pair of eyes on me, I glanced up and caught her startling green gaze.

  Had she really just caught me staring at her ass? Shit.

  She didn't look horrified, though. No, she looked curious. Her eyebrows puckered as she bit down on her full bottom lip. God, those lips. They were painted a deep red color, and I imagined them on mine... or wrapped around a certain part of my anatomy that was currently standing to attention.

  Shit. I needed to calm down. I needed to stop thinking so damn much.

  Her eyes stayed locked on mine. I didn’t know what I’d expected. For her to glance away in embarrassment? She didn’t.

  She continued to stare at me. Unnerved, I looked away. And then felt like a complete pansy ass for it. My face shifted into a glower, and I brought the smoke to my mouth.

  April Mansten was driving me fucking crazy, and she didn't even know it.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  * * *

  - NOW -

  "OOPS.” I GIGGLED, SWAYING a little on my feet as I climbed the porch steps and fumbled with my keys to find the right one. I felt a hand on my ass as I swayed again. "Hey!" I said indignantly.

  Axel blinked innocently back at me, but his mouth was curling up into a grin. Even if he hadn't heard my exclamation, the look in my eyes was easy to decipher. ‘I was just trying to help steady you,’ he signed, his hands moving sloppily.

  ‘You… you opportunist,’ I signed, dropping my keys in the process.

  Finding the right key was a struggle. Once I found it, I shoved it into the keyhole, almost falling over when the door unexpectedly swung open from inside.

  Dad stood in front of us, arms crossed over his chest.

  “Hey, daddy.” I blinked, wide-eyed.

  He shook his head. “What am I going to do with you?” He looked over my shoulder at Axel, pursing his lips at whatever Axel was signing. “Come inside, you two, and drink some water. It’ll help lessen the hangover you’ll have in the morning.”

  We followed him into the kitchen obediently.

  To my dismay, Kellan was there, shuffling some papers together.

  “Thanks,” I said as Dad handed me a glass of water. I hadn’t realized I was thirsty until the water touched my lips. I gulped it down.

  Axel didn’t drink his water, his gaze fixed on the papers in Kellan’s hand. ‘It’s the creep from the club,’ he signed.

  “What creep?” I said, going over to look. Kellan shot us both an annoyed glance as he shoved the papers into a folder. He wasn’t quick enough, and I blinked as I recognized the guy in the photograph. It was the weirdo from the club. He looked less thin in the picture, a little less gaunt, but it was unmistakably him. “Hey, I saw him!”

  “Saw who?” Dad said sharply.

  “The guy in that picture,” I told him, pointing at it. “He knew my name,” I said stupidly.

  Kellan shot Dad a sharp, fleeting glance that I would have missed if I hadn’t already been looking at him.

  “Are you sure it was him?” Kellan demanded, looking between Axel and me. He shuffled through the folder for the photograph, and then shoved it right under my nose.

  I stepped away from him, irritated. “Yeah.” I looked between Dad and Kellan. “Who is he?”

  They exchanged a glance, before Dad turned to me. “His name is Archie Chambers. I sent him to prison four years ago.”

  "What?" I said, reeling backwards. "How does he know who I am?"

  "Now that is a very good question," Kellan said, his eyes glittering dangerously as he stared out of the window. A muscle ticked in his jaw, and it looked like it was taking everything in him to not jump up and head out the door. He was poised for action.

  “He must have done some research of his own.” Dad was frowning as he rubbed the back of his head. When Axel did that, his hair became tussled in the most adorable way, but Dad’s dark h
air, peppered with a little grey, was shaved closed to his head in a military haircut.

  When he looked at me, his green eyes filled with fear. For the first time, I noticed how prominent the little lines at the corner of his eyes had become, and wondered how I hadn’t noticed before. He was getting older. It was a frightening thought.

  “I’m okay. He just said hello. He didn’t try anything,” I told Dad, feeling more sober. The trepidation didn’t leave his eyes as he wrapped an arm around me.

  “Anything could have happened…” he said, his voice trailing off.

  “It’s wasn’t a coincidence that Archie was at the same club as her tonight.” Kellan looked away from the window, his eyes lingering on me for a second before he looked at Dad. “He knows who she is.”

  “Why would he even take the time to track me down?” I asked, a shiver working its way down my spine. Dad rubbed my back, his whole face tight with worry.

  “Revenge,” Kellan said softly.

  “Revenge?” I said, my voice raising a few octaves. It wasn’t uncommon for criminals to want to get their own back after being thrown in jail, but the thought of Dad being at the receiving end of that kind of vengeance scared me to death. He was the only family I had left in this world, and I didn’t know what I’d ever do without him. I never wanted to find out.

  “Thanks for that, Kellan,” Dad said, his face turning hard. Kellan’s own face was lined with regret. “It’s been a long night. Why don’t you head up to bed, sweetheart?”

  “No. I think I should hear about this,” I said, concern making me more alert. “This guy wants revenge because you sent him to prison, and you’re still trying to track him down? It was him you were looking for in the club, wasn’t it? Why would you search him out if your life might be in danger?” My voice grew louder with each passing word, and I was in near panic by the end.

  “April. April!” Dad put his hand on my chin and tilted it up so that I was looking up at him. “My life isn’t in danger. I know how to take care of myself, and some thug making idle threats isn’t going to scare me.”