The Heavier The Chains...

by M. E. Clayton

  I moved closer.

  Her tawny-colored eyes snapped to mine then returned to the front of the classroom. “Could you not,” she hissed, knowing full well what I was playing at.

  I reached around, grabbed the back of her neck-which I shouldn’t have, because the buzzing in my veins skyrocketed-and squeezed. She grimaced, and it was a beautiful sight. I leaned in, so my breath could tickle her left ear. “Do you need a credit check? Is that it? Do you need to see a person’s car? Do you need proof of bank statements before you let a guy touch you?” I taunted. “How many commas need to be on that bank statement before you let a guy crawl in between those thighs of yours?”

  Her jaw clenched, but she stared straight ahead, not acknowledging my words. So, I squeezed tighter until she let out a painful whimper. “Let me go,” she seethed.

  My tongue darted out and licked over that diamond stud I knew was real. “How many commas, White?”

  She couldn’t move her neck, but I could feel her eyes slide my way. “White?”

  I released the grip on her neck and ran my fingers under her hair, letting my thumb caress the slope of her neck. “You remind me of Snow White,” I admitted. “Black hair, light eyes, fair skin, and the fact that, if you don’t live in a castle now, you used to.” I didn’t know her story other than the rumors Lars and Hunter had brought me throughout the day. She’s Alexandria Grant’s cousin and moved in with them a couple of weeks ago, or so. The guys were going to dig deeper, but the rest of it didn’t matter to me. I didn’t care who she was related to or where she came from. All that mattered was that she was here.

  “Now answer the question, White,” I demanded. “How many commas need to reflect on my bank statement for it not to be rape?”

  Her head snapped sideways, and her eyes burned with loathing. That word usually got a woman’s attention. Her teeth were clenched, but she still got her words out. “Because there’s a possibility of that happening?”

  Fuck no, there wasn’t.

  I wasn’t a goddamn rapist or sexual predator.

  But I wasn’t going to tell her that.

  “I think, like all spoiled, money-grubbing bitches, you’ll spread your legs for the right dollar amount,” I answered instead. “Hell, you might even swear it was love if the diamond’s big enough.”

  Her eyes danced back and forth between mine. “You don’t know anything about me,” she repeated from this morning’s encounter.

  I smirked. “Oh, so you’re one of them, huh?”

  Her brows shot down. “One of what?”

  “You’re one of those rich sluts who likes to slum it with the help, huh?” The corner of my mouth lifted in an ugly grin. “You like being held down by a guy who had dirt under his fingernails, White?”

  Before she could answer-or slap me sideways-Mr. Styles took exception to us not paying attention to him. “Mr. Draven and Ms. Mitchell, while I’m sure you guys are simply getting comfortable in your tight confinements, I do need your attentions focused up here, please.”

  Kenzlee growled while I chuckled, and I finally let go of her neck and leaned back to give her some breathing room. The rest of class was spent with Kenzlee trying to pay attention to Mr. Styles, and me paying attention to only Kenzlee.

  Knowing she was in two of my classes killed my resolve to stay away from her. I wasn’t going to be able to now. I still wanted to, but I wasn’t a drama queen, and I didn’t lie to myself. I was a big boy. I knew whatever determination I boasted of earlier to stay away from her no longer existed. The second she started walking towards me in the way a woman is supposed to walk to her man it was over for me.

  And her.

  Chapter 6

  The thoughts that consume us.

  Talon~

  “So, I hear you’re stalking the new girl and, like, stamping your name on her forehead and stuff,” Edie announced as she sat her annoying ass on the edge of my bed.

  I was always home before she was because she had a ton of after-school programs and activities to pad her college applications. Plus, I think she liked being involved in different things. Edie’s mind was as open as a person’s could get. She didn’t judge, and she thought anything was possible.

  Mom had just left, and I had just finished putting dinner in the oven and was getting ready to do some homework when Edie waltzed in. “How many times do I have to tell you not to listen to gossip? Especially, if the gossip is about me?”

  She chuckled. “Oh, come on, Tal. I can’t help it if people feel the need to tell me all about my brother’s escapades or sexapades.”

  I seared her with a look. “Don’t, Edie. I’ve already told you about that shit.”

  Ever since I started fighting, girls have done the most to grab my attention, and many of them had thought they could go through my sister to get what they wanted.

  That never worked out.

  The minute a girl made any comment about talking to my sister when I knew they weren’t real friends of hers-because I knew all of Edie’s friends-I’d shut her down, but not before telling her to stay the fuck away from my sister.

  Now, normally, when I invoked my don’t-fuck-with-me tone, people knew to back off. However, Edie wasn’t one of those people. She was the only girl not afraid of me. Well, she used to be the only girl. “So, then the rumor that Lars and Hunter warned Jason off her during gym is a lie? Or how about how you shared your desk with her during seventh period? Is that a lie, too?” Edie leaned closer to me and grinned. “Or how about the rumor that you had your hand wrapped around neck during class and Mr. Styles had to order you guys to pay attention?”

  Motherfucker.

  Didn’t people have better things to do than worry about what I was up to?

  I grabbed my books to take them into the kitchen so I could do my homework and keep an eye on dinner. “Dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes,” I replied, ignoring her questions.

  Edie hopped off my bed, her blue eyes wide. “Are you seriously not going to tell me?” She slapped her hands together in prayer. “Oh, come on, Talon,” she whined. “I just want to know if you like her.”

  Did I like her?

  Did I like Kenzlee Mitchell?

  Hell fucking no, I didn’t like her. I didn’t like one goddamn thing about her.

  I’ve liked girls before. I’ve been attracted to girls before. I could appreciate a good-looking female or one with a kick-ass personality.

  But like Kenzlee Mitchell?

  Nah.

  What I felt for Kenzlee wasn’t like. I wasn’t going to call it love because that would be just fucking ridiculous since I’ve only known the girl for five minutes. But, whatever it was I felt for her, it was way past the level of liking her. And that’s what I didn’t like about her.

  And, although I wasn’t going to tell Edie all that, I still didn’t want her to be in the dark. She was everything to me, and I didn’t like her feeling stupid because she thought other people knew me better than she did. I didn’t like her being blindsided by gossip.

  I walked over to my sister, placed one hand on the back of her head, and brought her in for a kiss on the forehead. I leaned back at looked down at her. “If anyone asks, what I do and who I like are none of their business,” I told her. She nodded, and she looked a little sad because I knew she believed I wasn’t going to tell her anything personal. “But as far as you, Lars, and Hunter are concerned, Kenzlee’s mine, Edie. She kind of doesn’t know it yet, but she is.”

  Then my sister did something I’ve never seen her do. Her head fell downward, and she started wringing her hands in nervousness. “Do you think she’ll like me,” she whispered.

  I stood there dumbfounded that my, usually, happy, positive, upbeat sister was nervous about a girl she didn’t know liking her. My voice came out harsher than I would have liked. “First, since when does anyone not like you, Edie?” I asked. “And, second, why do you care if she likes you?”

  Edie’s head popped back up, and she rolled those blu
e eyes that matched mine and Mom’s. “I know I get along with everyone, but she’s not everyone, Tal,” she stressed as if I was slow in the head or something. “You’ve never liked a girl before, and…well, this is big.”

  I sat down and patted the space next to me. Edie let out a dramatic huff but sat down, nonetheless. I turned my head, so we were looking at each other. “I need you to understand something, Edie, okay?”

  “Okay,” she whispered.

  “The day will come where I’ll have a wife, and God willing, a bunch of little girls-daughters,” I told her. “But, until that day comes, no female will ever come before you or Mom, Edie. I absolute adore you and if anyone has a problem with that, well, it won’t be my problem.” Her eyes glossed over, and she gave me a small nod of her head. “And even after I get that wife and those daughters, you’ll still always be my sister, Edie. I need you to understand that. I need you to understand that everything I’ve done, and everything I’m doing is for you. It’s for you and Mom. You two are the loves of my life, right now, and no one will ever come between that. No one.”

  “I know that, Tal,” she murmured. “But that’s why it’s important to me that Kenzlee likes me. With everything you sacrifice for me and Mom…well, if she matters to you, I want her to like me.”

  “If she doesn’t, Edie, then she’s gone,” I replied. “It’s simple as that.” I willed it to be that simple. “Your future is not worth any girl.”

  “It is if you love her,” Edie countered.

  “Perhaps. However, I’m not in love with Kenzlee,” I said, hoping I wasn’t lying.

  “Do you think you could be one day?” she asked, sounding like she was 6-years-old again and I was reading Snow White to her.

  I smiled at her because I didn’t want my sister seeing just how dark her brother’s soul was. “Anything’s possible, Edie.”

  After a few seconds of silence, Edie muttered, “I passed her a couple of times today at school. She’s awfully pretty, Tal. Like, really beautiful. It’s a good thing you got to her first.”

  “Yeah, she is,” I agreed.

  And, yeah, it was.

  ~

  Kenzlee~

  Dinner was agonizing, but I understood.

  Uncle Allen and Aunt Sheri had wanted to hear all about my first day of school and asked all the standard questions. How did I like Lakeside? Did I make any friends? Did I like my teachers? I told them everything except about Talon.

  Hell, I wouldn’t even know what to say if I had mentioned him. I mean, how do you explain how we met? How do you explain what went down in gym, or godawful seventh period?

  Seventh period.

  That stunt he pulled by sharing his desk had me ready to throw my book at his beautiful face, but when he had wrapped his hand around the back of my neck, I had almost bolted out of the classroom. The only reason I hadn’t was because I truly had not wanted to cause a scene. That nonsense during gym was bad enough, I hadn’t needed to add to it by running away from him in class.

  But, the second his fingers had circled around my neck, I knew I needed to stay away from the guy. Another person’s touch should not be able to alter your physical chemistry. It shouldn’t make you feel hot and cold through the marrow in your bones. It shouldn’t make you feel…tethered. Human touch is supposed to make you feel connected, comforted…it shouldn’t make you feel chained to someone. And it sure as hell shouldn’t make you feel chained to a someone you’ve only known for a day. And that’s what I felt.

  I felt chained to Talon Draven.

  His hand wrapped around my neck had made me feel…honestly? Like crawling into his lap and letting him make the entire world go away.

  I had to laugh.

  Neglect can make you feel that way from the first person who shows you something different.

  And it can make you lose your mind over the first person who makes you feel something different.

  And, Sweet Jesus, when he licked my earring…Christ.

  It wasn’t right for a person to be that lethal. It wasn’t right for a person to have that much pull or control over another human being.

  After dinner I had gone straight to my room, and after an hour of staring at the ceiling, I still had no answers where Talon Draven was concerned. I knew I needed to stay away from him, but that’s as far as I’ve gotten.

  My phone rang, dragging me out of my thoughts. Grabbing it, I saw the name flashing across the screen and smiled. “Julie,” I breathed.

  “Hey, Kenz,” she greeted over the phone.

  Julie Crane and I had been friends since we were in grade school, and while she hadn’t been my best friend, she had been the only one who hadn’t abandoned me when my parents had lost everything. My best friend, Belinda? Yeah, she had abandoned me faster than the bank had cut off our credit. But, if I’m being honest, she had started abandoning me around the same time Cameron had dumped me; around the time I stopped being self-absorbed and wanted to be a better person.

  “What’s the haps, chica?” I asked, suddenly missing her terribly.

  “It’s the same old thing here,” she replied. “I’ve got nothing important to report. I’m actually calling to hear all about what you’ve been up to.”

  “Oh, nothing much,” I deadpanned, “just a new life, new school, new friends, and new future.”

  “Yeah, but does that new life, new school, new friends, and new future include new hot-looking guys?” she laughed.

  Little did she know.

  “Well, they’re definitely not interested in me, but there are these two brothers who look like they would belong on a magazine cover except they look too…rough to pull it off,” I admitted.

  “Ooooohhh, do tell,” she chuckled.

  “Are you in your room?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Go to your computer, pull up the social media platform of your choosing, and type in Lars or Hunter Finley,” I told her.

  “F. I. N. L. E. Y?” she asked.

  Shit. I wasn’t sure. “I think so,” I replied.

  I waited patiently, and a couple of minutes later, I heard her appreciation loud and clear over the phone. “Holy hot damn hell, Kenz,” she squealed. “What the hell kind of water is in the lake at Lakeside?”

  “Right?” I laughed.

  “And how do you know they’re not interested in you? Everyone’s interested in the new girl,” she argued. “That’s like…part of what makes the Universe go round.”

  “Well, I’m just a dime-a-dozen here,” I disagreed. “And if you’re drooling over their pictures, like I know you are, you can clearly see that those two brothers can probably get any girl they want. I am not anything special here, Julez.”

  “I think you actually believe that bullshit,” she tsked. “You’ve always been special, Kenzlee. You just hung out with people who couldn’t see that.”

  “How’s Scott?” I asked, changing the subject. Scott Middleton was Julie’s boyfriend of about a year, or so, and while he had money like the rest of them, he wasn’t a jerk about it. He was actually a decent guy. And he was fucking crazy about Julie.

  “Wonderful as always,” she sing-songed. “And I’m not going to water down how wonderful he is to soften the blow to anyone who isn’t dating someone as wonderful as him.”

  I laughed, and it was probably the first real genuine laugh I’ve had in ages. “As you shouldn’t,” I told her. “Yell it to the world, girl.”

  “I do,” she quipped. “Often.”

  “Just don’t make me wear some godawful monstrosity of a bridesmaid dress when the time comes,” I teased. “I do not want to have to wear some tangerine taffeta suffocating contraption.”

  “First off, you’d look great in tangerine,” she sassed. “Second, if we do get married, it’ll be after college, and who knows what will be passing for bridesmaid dresses by then.”

  Her casual mention of college caused a pang in my chest, but I knew she hadn’t meant anything by it. Besides, the world didn’t need to
be miserable right alongside me just because my parents were narcissistic fools.

  “There’s always Vegas,” I reminded her.

  “Sounds perfect to me,” she snorted.

  The rest of the conversation was avoiding anything at all to do with Madison Prep.

  Chapter 7

  The hidden steel in our spines.

  Kenzlee~

  I wasn’t in the mood today.

  After getting off the phone with Julie, I had laid awake doing the worst thing a person could do. I thought nonstop about the past four years and everything I couldn’t change.

  Funny thing, that.

  The things that do keep us up at night should be the things we can change. We should stay up thinking of all the ways we can change our unfortunate circumstances for the better. Instead, we stay up thinking about things that are beyond our control. And that makes no sense. What’s the point? What’s the purpose in worrying over things you cannot do anything about?

  My brother was dead. No amount of wishing I had gone to our parents mattered. My parents were broke. No amount of wishing they had made better choices mattered.

  None of those torturous wishes mattered.

  I stayed up last night thinking about Kaden, my parents, Madison Prep, Julie, hell, even Cameron. I thought about everything that wasn’t anymore. And then that led me to start thinking about what was, and that sent me down another spiraling rabbit hole. It made me start thinking about Talon Draven and what the hell I was going to do about him.

  I knew I needed to stay away from him, but what if he didn’t stay away from me? Then what? Because I couldn’t lie and say I was strong enough to fight him off, because I wasn’t sure I was. Even if I wasn’t an emotional, psychological, and physical wreck, there was no denying the guy was hot as all get out. Those damn eyes of his, alone, were enough to make you forget he was a jerk. He was tall, broad, strong, and if Alex’s rumors were true, the boy could fight. He was the epitome of male force and protection. And he adored his sister. Alex said the rumor was that he absolute adored his sister, and that was worse than thinking he was jerk. A jerk with no redeeming qualities was just an asshole. But a jerk who loved his sister was plain dangerous.