by Kaylea Cross
“I can pick him up this weekend if you want.”
“No, I’ll drop him off one night for you, if you’re okay giving me your new address. I’ve got some mail here for you too.”
Of course he was okay with her having his address. “You’re the best, Ab.”
“I know.” Another pause. “Hey, can we talk about something?”
She sounded so serious, he stopped what he was doing and straightened. “Sure, what?”
“I’d rather say in person.”
He turned away from the cupboard to lean against the counter, not liking the cryptic edge to her words. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m just a little unnerved, is all.”
“Why, what’s going on?”
“Tell you when I see you.”
He frowned. “Abby, straight up. Are you all right?” Because something was bothering her and she never complained about anything.
“I’m okay. I’ll just feel better once I talk to you about a couple things.”
Why wouldn’t she tell him over the phone? That concerned him. “Okay.” He checked his watch. “You eaten yet?”
She huffed out a laugh. “Is food all you ever think about?”
He grinned. He had quite the reputation where food was concerned. “Nah, but I’m just on my way out to meet some of my teammates at a bar about fifteen minutes from you. Can you meet me there? We can grab a bite to eat and talk after.”
“After what?”
“After I defend my title.”
“What title?”
Anticipation curled inside him. He wanted her to see him in action tonight. Wanted to see her, period, and find out if there was any chance she might view him as more than a friend now that they weren’t living across the hall from one another. Either way, whatever was bothering her, he would help. “Just come. You’ll see.”
Chapter Two
Abby arrived at the bar forty-five minutes later to find Cindy already waiting for her by the front door. The sight of her bestie standing there in skinny jeans and a flowy, pale yellow top made her smile and erased the niggling anxiety inside her.
“Hey,” Cindy said, wrapping her up in a big hug. “Good to see you. You look awesome.”
“Thanks. You look hot.”
Cindy leaned back and grinned, her green eyes sparkling. “I know. So, were your Spidey senses tingling on the way here?”
“Not really.” She’d been alert on the drive over here, and hadn’t noticed anyone tailing her.
“Good. Now when do I get to meet your hunky neighbor?”
An irrational spark of jealousy sliced through her gut at the thought of watching Cindy and Kai flirting all night. Not that she could blame Cindy, as her friend had no clue about Abby’s new feelings toward him. But after witnessing the emotional chaos of his relationship with Shelley, Abby felt irrationally protective of him. Which was stupid, because he could more than take care of himself. Just not when it came to the fairer sex, apparently.
Abby frowned at her. “You’ve never met Kai?” How was that possible, with him living across the hall from her all this time? Surely he and Cindy would have crossed paths at some point?
“Uh, no. So? When?”
“I guess pretty soon.” She yanked open the door and was immediately hit by the unmistakable scratchy lyrics to AC/DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long. The place was packed, even though it was only seven o’clock on a Friday night.
Abby wove through the tables arranged around the periphery and skirted the edge of the crowd, heading toward the stage up front where a big bearded guy wearing jeans and a plaid button-down shirt over a white tank, and a tweed flat cap on his head was lip syncing to the song for all he was worth.
He looked familiar, but it took her a moment to place him. Logan. One of Kai’s teammates who had come to help him pack the day he’d moved out. With his reddish beard and that shirt, he reminded her a little of a lumberjack.
“Wow, he’s really good,” Cindy yelled to her over the music, nodding her head in time to the beat, a wide grin on her face as she took in the show. Cindy loved being wherever the action was.
Abby nodded absently and glanced around, searching for Kai. He was huge, therefore impossible to miss, and if Logan was here performing, he had to be close by. She couldn’t see him though. Defend his title, he’d said. As in, a lip-sync title?
“Hey! Abby!”
She spun around to see a dark-haired man with a bronze complexion waving her down from the edge of the stage. She smiled in greeting. “Zaid, hi.” He’d been there to help Kai move too.
The men all worked for the DEA, but she didn’t know in what capacity. Other than their job was dangerous enough that it had resulted in the team being targeted by the Veneno cartel. She wanted to talk to Kai about his work, find out what he really did and why he was gone so often, but he was private about it and she hadn’t wanted to push. Until now, because of the scare with the cartel.
Zaid pushed through the throng of people crowded around the edge of the stage and took her elbow, leaned down so he could talk in her ear and be heard over the music. “You here for the battle?”
“I guess I am.”
“Good. Come on up front with us, so you can see better.”
She gestured beside her. “I’ve got my friend Cindy with me too.”
Zaid smiled at Cindy. “Nice to meet you. Right this way.” He led her by the arm to the front row, where five more huge guys stood drinking beer from the bottle, some solo and others with their arms around a woman. She couldn’t help notice that Zaid had a bottle of water instead.
Once they were in place he bent down to speak next to Abby’s ear again. “Granger’s giving it all he’s got, but I don’t know if it’ll be enough to unseat the king,” he said, shaking his head in amusement as Logan pretended to belt out the chorus. The crowd was totally into it, singing along and cheering, throwing their hands in the air. “You already missed Rodriguez and Colebrook’s duet.”
She blinked at him. “A duet?”
Zaid nodded, a smirk on his face. “It was epic and romantic. We told ‘em to go get a room.”
Laughing, Abby turned her attention back to the stage. Logan stalked from one side of the stage to the other in that iconic tweed cap of the AC/DC front man, gesturing with his arms, holding the dead mic out to the crowd during the chorus in a bid for audience participation. The volume in the room immediately doubled, making the air throb and the floor shake.
Wow. This was way more intense than she’d expected.
The song ended in a flourish of drums and electric guitar. Logan held up both arms then lowered them as he bowed, the crowd whistling and cheering, including Cindy and the rest of Kai’s teammates.
“All right, people, and now it’s time to see what our defending champion has up his sleeve. Please welcome Master Kai to the stage!”
Another raucous cheer went up from the crowd. Two women behind Abby squealed and pushed between her and the bar. Abby exchanged a loaded look with Cindy and bit back a laugh.
But it died in her throat when Kai stepped out of the shadows and onto the stage. The women in front of her screamed and started jumping up and down, waving at him.
Oh my god, he had lip-sync groupies?
Cindy elbowed her sharply in the ribs.
Startled, Abby met her gaze with a scowl. “Ow!”
Cindy jabbed her with a finger this time. “That’s Kai?”
Abby nudged her friend back with her elbow for good measure. “Yeah, what of it?”
“You lived across the hall from that for almost two freaking years, and this is the first time I’m meeting him?” Cindy smacked Abby’s arm. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“I don’t know how you never saw him before. And he was taken,” she said over the noise, her gaze sliding back to Kai. But he’s not taken now. Who could blame her for staring?
“Mmm, that is a whole lot of man right there,” Cindy added appreciatively.
Don’t I know it. Six-foot-four of muscular, Pacific Islander hunk lit up by a spotlight, the ray of light highlighting his short black hair and dark caramel skin.
“You’re going down, Maka!” Logan yelled, hands cupped around his mouth where he stood with his teammates at the edge of the stage.
Kai shot him a cocky grin, raised an inky eyebrow. “Lemme show you how it’s done, son.” He raised the mic, then his expression went all serious and he lowered his head. The lights dimmed. Next to her, Zaid raised his phone to video Kai as the music started.
The instant the first iconic notes hit the air, a roar of laughter erupted through the room. Abby laughed along with them as Kai raised his head and began lip-syncing to Let It Go, from Disney’s Frozen.
He was damn good, too. Adorable, charming, his willingness to poke fun at himself endearing as he hammed it up, adding dramatic movements and gestures while he pretended to tell Elsa the ice princess’s story and belt out the lyrics. Abby shook her head at him.
A bra flew past her head and landed on stage three feet in front of Kai. He grinned and winked at the thoughtful audience member as he continued his performance.
Cindy leaned her head close to Abby’s to be heard over the music. “I’d throw mine too, but I need one under this top.”
Abby didn’t answer, staring at Kai. She couldn’t take her eyes off him, he was that magnetic. The entire bar was singing along now, even the guys. How did he even know the lyrics to this?
At the end of a loud, drawn-out note he suddenly stopped, a comical expression on his face, one hand raised in the air, fingers curled upward in a dramatic pose. The song ended abruptly, then the opening bars of Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off started up.
More laughter swelled around her, the volume becoming almost deafening when Kai started dancing around on stage, his gestures and goofy facial expression priceless. Abby grinned and shook her head, then started clapping along with everyone else.
By the time Kai struck his last pose a couple minutes later, nailing the ending, there were four bras on the stage, and one pair of panties. While he stood there with that killer smile and accepted the adoration of his enthusiastic audience, his teammates were all whistling and yelling Hana ho—whatever that meant—as they flashed the ubiquitous Hawaiian shaka at him. That, she knew.
“Thank you for that riveting performance, Master Kai,” the announcer said. Kai gave him a thumbs up and bent to scoop up the bras and panties, handing them to one of the bouncers before returning to the center of the stage. “And now it’s time to find out if the king has fallen. Let’s have all the contestants on stage, please.”
Six guys lined up with Kai, including Logan and two other guys from the team, Jamie and Easton. All big, good-looking guys.
But none of them even came close to Kai.
The announcer called each performer forward and asked the crowd to rate their act by volume of applause. The first three acts got anemic responses. Jamie and Easton got a slightly less lukewarm reaction. They both stared at the audience with incredulous expressions and raised their hands in a perplexed “what the hell more did you people want from us” gesture.
Logan stepped forward next. Cheers and shouts rang out throughout the room, several women screaming his name. He grinned good-naturedly and put his arms in the air, basking in the praise. Before stepping back into line, he gave Kai a shot in the shoulder with his fist. Arms folded across his massive chest, biceps bulging under the sleeves of his T-shirt, the punch didn’t even budge Kai.
Finally, it was his turn. He lowered his arms and stepped forward, unleashing another round of swooning female response.
“And now, for our defending champion. What did you think of Master Kai?”
The audience’s reaction nearly shattered Abby’s eardrums, but she was too busy whistling and clapping to care. Cindy was hopping up and down as much as the two women in front of them, their shrill screams adding to the din. As for Kai’s teammates, they were all booing and giving him the thumbs down.
“And the king keeps his crown!” the announcer shouted. “Congrats to our defending champ.” He walked onstage to clasp Kai’s hand and raise it in the air victoriously. Kai’s smile hit her straight in the gut, and when those dark brown eyes landed on her and held, it felt like her heart stopped beating.
Holding her gaze, he crossed to the front of the stage, the two women there seeming to melt away as he hopped down right in front of her. With his focus entirely on her, for a moment it weirdly felt like they were the only two people in the building.
“Hey, thanks for coming,” he said, reaching those long, powerful arms around her back to pull her into a hug.
Unprepared for it, Abby had to lock her knees to keep from melting to the floor. As his clean, spicy scent swirled around her and those warm, steely muscles pressed to her front, every nerve ending in her body seemed to short-circuit. Including the ones in her brain.
She distantly heard someone clear his or her throat beside her, and remembered Cindy was standing there, waiting for an introduction. “Oh. Um, this is my best friend, Cindy,” she said, pulling away. “Cindy, Kai.”
Kai offered his hand to her. “Hey. Nice to meet you.”
Cindy’s smile was full of dazzled female appreciation. “Likewise.”
He introduced them to his teammates and significant others, a couple of them new to Abby, then faced her. “You wanna grab a bite now?”
She glanced at Cindy in question before answering. “Sure.”
“Actually, I can’t stay,” her friend said.
Wait, what? They always hung out on Friday night.
“I just came for the show. Gotta meet some other friends across town. See you later, Ab.” Cindy hugged her, leaning close to murmur in her ear. “You better call me later and tell me everything,” she warned, then shot Kai a gorgeous smile and sauntered away.
Abby stared after her. This wasn’t part of the plan. But there’s nothing to tell. He’s just a friend.
One that gave her shivers whenever he touched her now. But that was her problem, not his.
“So,” Kai said, drawing her attention back to him. “Shall we?” He set a hand on her lower back and gestured toward the rear of the bar where all the tables were set up.
The heat of his palm sank through her leather jacket, igniting heat of another source in her body. She slid into the booth, a bit surprised when he scooted in beside her rather than take the chair opposite her. She didn’t consider herself to be a small woman, and years of struggling with body image issues and poor self-esteem made her feel bigger than she actually was, but next to him she felt tiny. In a heightened, ultra-feminine way she liked a whole lot. Not that she’d ever admit it, being a strong, capable and independent woman who could take care of herself.
Kai slid a menu over to her. “Okay, tell me what’s bothering you,” he said without preamble.
Not seeing the point in dancing around the subject, she simply told him flat out. “Well, for one, Shelley was waiting for me in the parking garage when I got home from work tonight.”
AT THE MENTION of his ex, Kai’s entire body stiffened.
His attention sharpened on Abby, every single one of his protective instincts bristling. If Shelley had threatened her, Kai would take care of it personally. No one was going to bother Abby while he was around, whether it was his ex or a freaking Veneno cartel member. “What did she want?”
She shrugged, the scent of her trademark black leather jacket reaching his nose, her cap of pale blonde hair almost glowing in the dim light. “To know where you were and find out whether I’d seen you. I told her I hadn’t, which is true. She was really upset, but when I didn’t have anything useful to tell her, she left.”
Kai absorbed everything and analyzed it. After almost two months apart, he didn’t miss Shelley, or the constant exhaustion from having to soothe her ruffled feathers all the time. He’d tried to make it work for way too long, when the truth was, nothing would ever have mad
e it work. He saw that now.
Thanks to Abby.
Sometimes it took another person’s perspective, then time and space to give you the distance to look at things with new eyes. He hadn’t liked what he’d seen about himself, that he’d been enabling toxic relationships for pretty much his entire adult life. So he’d finally ended it, though Shelley didn’t seem to have accepted that they were done.
“I’m sorry she did that,” he murmured. Abby had been privy to more than her share of the drama that had played out between he and Shelley. It embarrassed him that she was still dealing with more of it because of him. He wanted that chapter of his life over and done with, so he could move on. To better things.
And hopefully, to Abby.
“It’s not your fault. But the thing is…” She hesitated a moment, fiddled with her menu. “Okay, I don’t have any proof, but I feel like someone’s been following me around lately.”
He frowned in concern. “What? For how long?”
“Around a week or so. When I’m driving.”
What the hell? “Why didn’t you call or text me?”
“Because you were gone, I didn’t have any proof, and I thought I was just being paranoid because of the reasons why you had to move so suddenly. When she showed up tonight I thought maybe it might have been her I sensed, but she seemed genuinely stunned that I would think that.”
Shelley had her problems, for sure. Insecurity and jealousy being the worst ones. Would she be frantic enough to stalk Abby just to try and get a lead on him? Maybe. She’d said and done a lot of things he wouldn’t have thought her capable of during their turbulent relationship. “I can’t say for sure that she wouldn’t do it.”
“I thought so too, but her reaction to my question was real, and believe me when I say she was too upset to be able to make up that convincing a lie so fast. She was in such rough shape I barely recognized her when I first saw her standing there.”
Kai covered a wince. He felt badly for Shelley. He might not want to be involved with her anymore, but that didn’t mean he wanted her to suffer, either. “I’ll contact her and tell her to leave you alone.”
