I kissed him and headed back for the house as their truck went in the opposite direction.
There was a black car in the driveway when I got back to the house. Jason. Ugh. I opened the door and called out.
“Jason?”
No answer. Lovely.
I checked the kitchen and the living room, but he wasn’t there. I looked in the office and noticed my bedroom door was open. What was he doing in there? Man, I didn’t like that boy. I poked my head around the corner to see if I could catch him somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be, but he sat on my bed like he was waiting for me.
“Hello, Naomi, come have a seat. We’ve got some talking to do.” He was holding a bunch of pictures. I ripped them out of his hand.
“What the hell? You had no right.”
He smirked. “Of course I didn’t, but I did it anyway. I’m good at secrets though. I won’t tell anyone.”
I looked down at my pictures. The one on top was the picture of the first time Puck kissed me, after we got back from Arkansas. He’d been so careful, keeping everything light and fun. That night he’d taken me to an improv comedy show and then out for ice cream. I’d playfully offered him a bite of my ice cream but ate it myself instead. He went after it. The picture catches me laughing and pulling away. It was moments later that I told him I loved him. That was the first of many, many kisses, and Kai’s spies caught it on camera. I clenched my fists. I missed Puck, and Jason wasn’t going to make this easy for me.
“It’s not a secret. Kai already knows about these pictures,” I said.
“Yes, but does Kai know you keep them hidden in a drawer?” he asked.
Things were going so well. Why’d Jason have to come in here and stir things up? He wouldn’t understand that Kai had to believe I was in love with him.
“No. You won’t tell him either.”
“Sure thing. If you’ll help me out with something.”
I groaned and sank on the bed next to him. He hunted those pictures down so he could have something to hold over my head. What an ass.
“What do you want?”
“Your friend Tiff.”
I creased my eyebrows. “But she already likes you.”
“Not really, she doesn’t. She really likes Kai and she thinks things are iffy between the two of you. She’s waiting to see if you all fall apart before she commits to anyone else. I want her to commit to me. Encourage her.”
“If I do that, you won’t tell Kai about the pictures?”
“Lips sealed.”
“Until you need something else from me.”
“Naturally.”
“You really are a Destroyer. I don’t know how you managed to fool Puck and the others that you were a Guardian.”
He put his hand over his chest. “I’m hurt that you would think such horrible things of me.” He smirked.
“Get out. I don’t want you here.”
He sauntered out of the room. The door slammed and I heard a car start up.
I flipped through the rest of the pictures in my hand. I remembered all the things I loved about Puck. His honesty and his playfulness. Life with him was fun and easy. This thing with Kai was so complicated. I had to let myself feel things for him, but I loved Puck so much. Every time I kissed Kai it felt like I was betraying Puck. Yet, if Kai found these pictures, he’d think I was betraying him.
I yawned. This had been a long, long week. I put the pictures back in my drawer and headed outside. Roses always made me feel better.
When Kai showed up in the garden a few hours later, guilt still swam thick in my veins. Was I being fair to him? Probably not. But Puck said this was the only way to bring him back.
“It’s Saturday,” Kai said.
“So?”
“Poker night.” Oh, that. For the past couple of Saturdays I hid in my room during poker night. The first night was more than enough for me. Again, not totally doing my job, but for some reason I felt like I had to fake it more around those other Destroyers than I did with just Kai.
“Maybe we should take a trip to the library so I can get a book.”
Kai knelt down next to me and sniffed the rose I was tending. He brushed his finger against my cheek and I smiled.
“Actually I was thinking you could play tonight.”
“Why?”
“You remember how we discovered we can kiss in front of Destroyers?”
“Yeah.” I wasn’t sure I liked where this was going.
“I want to test it. That means we both have to be super careful about our Guardian energy, but it’d be an interesting test.”
“Why is it important for us to be able to kiss in front of them?”
“Because I want you to start coming with me on jobs. The only way we’ll be able to pull that off is if we can flaunt our relationship without worrying about the Guardian showing through.”
That made sense. It also meant he trusted me enough to let me help him with Destroyer stuff.
“I don’t know the first thing about Poker.”
“Then I guess it’s time I taught you.”
The men all glowered at me as I tried to shuffle the cards. They fell out of my hands and all over the table. Kai smiled at me and my dad nodded, but the rest of them were not happy with my presence.
I finally managed to get the cards in somewhat of a stable order and slowly dealt them around the table. The cop glared at me and the man with the harelip, Wnyatt, groaned.
“Seriously, you can’t deal faster than that?”
“Give her a break, she’s new,” said my dad.
Wyatt rolled his eyes. I picked up my cards. A king and a queen and a few numbered cards. I knew that wasn’t good. But face cards were good, right?
I had one black card in my hand and threw it away and got a nine of hearts. I knew that if the cards were all in order, I’d have a straight, but I also had a two in my hand. Darn. What to do? A few of the men threw in a couple of chips and so I did, too. A couple of men folded, including my dad and Kai. Two men were left, and so was I. I simply kept putting in the same number of chips as everyone else. Finally it was just me and the harelipped man. He sneered at me.
He threw in a couple more chips and I did the same.
He laid down his cards. “Straight, queen high.”
I looked at his cards. Then I set my own down. “Does all red cards count for anything? I can’t remember.”
Kai laughed. “She’s got you beat, Wyatt. All hearts, a flush. Go ahead, Naomi, take your money.”
I pulled the chips toward me with a grin and looked at Kai. He raised his eyebrows and kissed me quickly on the lips. I focused on Dark chocolate instead of cinnamon. No Guardian energy allowed. We played a few more hands. I lost all of them, but it was fun. I learned to fold when I didn’t have anything.
The men talked a lot. Mostly Destroyer stuff. I listened carefully.
Eventually they started criticizing Kai again. “Things aren’t getting any better. Kai, have you come up with any solutions yet?” asked the cop.
“No, but I have spoken with a liaison from the Guardians. They’ve agreed to give me more time to figure it out.”
Who was that liaison? Me? Puck? If so, why hadn’t he said anything to me? Maybe he was lying.
Wyatt spoke. “And? What are you going to do?”
“I don’t see how that is any of your business.”
The cop spoke again. “We are your council. Of course it is our business.”
Kai tensed. “I’m working on it.”
Wyatt dealt the cards.
“Work harder,” he said.
I had two queens. Not a great hand, but not a bad hand either.
“I’ve taken care of some pretty big things, I need more time. This is a bigger mess than I thought it would be.”
“You only took care of those pretty big things because of Naomi,” the cop said.
“What the hell does that mean?” Wyatt asked. By now, everyone had folded but me and Wyatt.
I wished he’d just fold. I didn’t want to fold my own hand, but he was betting big money. To my surprise, when his turn came, he laid his cards down. He folded a lot right after the cards were dealt, but never after he had skin in the game and he never bluffed. You knew if he played all the way through, he had something in his hand. Strange that I would think that and have it happen.
I won by default. Wyatt looked pissed, and was too distracted by his loss to remember where the conversation was going. Thankfully.
When the next hand was dealt, I folded almost immediately. All numbers, different colors, and not in a row.
I looked to Wyatt. He looked like he was about to throw his cards away. He should bluff. Bet everything. Instead of laying the cards down, he creased his eyebrows together and kept his cards in his hands. Play went around the table a few times, and each time it got to him he looked like he wanted to throw his cards away but he didn’t. Finally, it was down to him and Kai. Wyatt shoved all his chips toward the middle.
“All in.”
Kai grinned and shoved all of his money in as well.
Wyatt’s face was a mixture of fear and revulsion. He stood up and threw he cards down on the table face up. Kai looked at the cards. A two, king, ace, seven, and a five. A totally crappy poker hand.
Kai laughed. “You bluffed.”
Holy cow. There it was again. I thought that Wyatt should bluff and he did.
Then Kai laid down his cards. Two queens and three sixes. “Full house.”
He pulled all the money toward him and kissed me full on the lips. My mother’s energy rose to the surface and soon neither one of us paid much attention to the rest of the people in the room.
The men scattered after that. Kai asked the cop to stay.
“You blew it. You are off the council.”
“What the hell? Why?”
“You nearly blew Naomi’s cover.”
“Shit man, I was only trying to help, to let the rest of the council know you were taking care of things.”
“That’s not what it sounded like. It sounded like you were trying to tell them all what Naomi could do. We had a deal.”
The man stood up and paced the room, furious.
“Fine, then I’ll tell everyone that you are a wuss who is only able to do his job because he has a girl who steals power.”
“If you do anything like that, Naomi will hunt you down.”
The man looked at me. I did not want to be a weapon for Kai. That was not part of the deal, but I had to make a decision. Was I with Kai, or wasn’t I? Did I want to use the power I had or not? I did like accessing my mother’s power to kiss Kai. Maybe this wasn’t so bad. I hesitated for another few seconds, and then nodded my head. I was all in.
Ruth Alexander Rose=Alive?
MONDAY MORNING KAI DROPPED me off. Stupid suspension. I suppose Dwayne getting his nose broken was worth it.
“I’ll pick you up right after school.”
I looked up at the front doors and trudged up the thirty stairs. I didn’t want to be going to school without Kai. When I opened the front doors, I turned and waved. He drove away. It was nice that he waited.
We ate breakfast at home so I found an empty table and took out a project for English I’d been working on. I had a few things to annotate.
Tiff sat down next to me. “We missed you at the bonfire.”
“Yeah, Kai got in a fight.”
“I heard about that. With that creepy Dwayne Yerdin. What was that all about?”
I took out the green highlighter, and I looked at Tiff.
“Dwayne thinks I belong to him.”
She scrunched up her face. “What makes him think that?”
“My mother forced me to date him last year.”
She shuddered. “Ew. I hope you didn’t kiss him.”
I laughed, grateful I didn’t actually have to experience that. “No. I tried to stay as far away as possible from him.”
She nodded like she understood. Jason sat down on the other side of me. Why did he feel the need to sit right next to me? I thought he liked Tiff.
“Morning Tiff, Naomi.”
Tiff leaned across me and I caught a whiff of a fruity perfume. “I had a fun time at the bonfire, we should do that again sometime.” She wiggled her eyebrows.
He grinned. “Absolutely. Anytime.”
I had to restrain my eye roll. Honestly, he was such a player.
Desi beckoned to Tiff from another table.
“Be right back,” she said and bounced over to Desi.
I didn’t wait more than two seconds before I pounced.
“I thought you were having trouble winning her over. That didn’t look like trouble.”
He stretched out his long legs under the table and put his hands behind his head.
“My trouble is that she is mooning over Kai. If I can get her to forget him, then maybe she’ll see me as more than just a make out partner at parties.”
Yeah, right.
“I never took you for one who valued commitment.”
“You really are blind, aren’t you? I called Ricki for weeks after she broke it off. Which was your fault, by the way.”
“What about when you made out with that girl at the kissing party?”
“That was a misunderstanding. Honestly, Ricki wouldn’t work out now because of the distance. But Tiff. She’s right here. I like her.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. You’re just going to betray her in the end.”
“That’s what you think. Doesn’t really matter, because I can tell Kai about the pictures anytime. Just put in a good word for me.”
Jason took off before Tiff sat back down again. She started chattering right away.
“Listen, on Wednesday after school we are going for a girls’ night down in Rogers. You wanna come? We are going to dinner and then catch a movie.”
I smiled. “That would be great. I don’t drive, though.”
“That’s okay. Desi lives out by you. She can take you home afterwards.”
She paused for a few seconds. “How long will Kai be out of school?”
“A week. He started it.”
“Well, you were worth it, I’m sure.”
“Yeah. Hey Tiff.”
“Hmm?” She cocked her head.
“Kai and I have been together a long time. I don’t see that changing anytime soon.”
She looked down at her fingernails. “Is it that obvious?”
“Just to me. I don’t think Kai has a clue.” I hesitated, not sure I really wanted to continue. “Jason’s a great guy though. If you’ve got something going with him, you should pursue it.”
She laughed. “You and Jason hate each other. Why would you say that?”
I grinned. “Okay, you caught me. Jason and I have a rocky past, but he’s good friends with Kai. If you and he were together, then I wouldn’t be the lone girl when they hang out.”
She put her arm around me and squeezed. “That would be fabulous. I like Jason. But I was hoping….” She sighed. “Ah, well. Maybe in another life.”
Jason needed to ask her out so I didn’t have to be involved anymore.
Seconds later, he plopped down next to her. “Whatcha doing tonight?”
She looked at me, startled. “Homework, probably.”
“How about ice cream at Sonic after practice? Just you and me.”
“Okay, sure.” The bell rang and she got up left, her face bright red.
“That was bold,” I said to Jason. “What made you do that?”
“Felt like I should.”
Weird. I was just thinking he should ask her out.
That night, I came home to find a surprise waiting for me on my bed. A very ugly surprise. The cat, covered in puckered skin, blinked at me from my pillow.
My dad stood behind me as I approached him.
“Can I touch him?”
“Sure, he doesn’t hurt anymore, but he’ll only grow patchy fur. That son of a bitch did a doozy on him.”
I sat down on my bed and let him approach me. He nuzzled my hand I scratched him behind the ears. He began to purr. I looked up at my dad and smiled. Things hadn’t been easy for us. But he was trying very hard. I wished I could just close my eyes and forget about everything he’d ever done. Maybe someday.
“Looks like he likes you. What are you going to name him?”
“I don’t know. I think I’ll take him out and see what roses he likes. I’ll let him pick his own name.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
I picked him up and took him out to the garden. His skin felt odd. Small patches of fur grew as if nothing had ever happened. From the looks of it, he’d be a ginger cat with spots of long fur. I set him down on the grass in the middle of the rose garden.
He sniffed at the ground for a few minutes. He approached the Jason turned Destroyer rose, but wouldn’t go any closer than three feet from it. He hissed, batted at the air and ran for another part of the garden. I followed, and found him sniffing around my grandmother’s roses. He pranced around among them and then curled up underneath the first rose my Grandmother planted. A bright red Mr. Lincoln. It was one of my Grandmother’s favorite roses and she often had a bloom in her hair. The blossoms smelled heavenly.
“I guess your name will be Lincoln then,” I said, petting him. He purred.
Kai came in and Lincoln hissed at him. “Ooh, looks like he doesn’t like you.”
Kai smiled. “He did earlier. But I’ve been doing Destroyer work. He can sense it on me.”
I grinned, dropped my shield, then reached up and kissed him. The wicked dark chocolate taste on my lips was heavenly. Lincoln hissed again and ran away.
I pulled away in time to see his tufted tail disappear through the trellis at the entrance to the garden. The one that had my Ruth Alexander roses.
“Guess he won’t be sleeping with us,” said Kai, grinning.
“Guess not. What are you up to?”
“Trying to find a few rogue Destroyers. Listen, I have a few guys that need some persuading. Any chance you can pull just a little power from them as a threat?”
“Have I become your strong arm?” Of course I could do it. Pulling power was easy. A little too easy.
He shrugged. “I guess. Will you do it?”
The Thorn Chronicles-Books 1-4: Kissed, Destroyed, Secrets, and Lies Page 32
