I sat there watching him watch my house for an hour, then the grocery truck pulled up alongside my driveway. When I opened my door to collect my things, I shot a pointed look at Rudy. He waved lazily at me. I tried to hide my grin and couldn’t. He really wasn’t going to leave me alone. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little bit happy about it.
But I was still worried. If Julianne wasn’t the one who set me up—or even if she was just trying to pretend that she wasn’t—she would be coming over.
I didn’t know what she would do if she caught him out there. The options were virtually limitless. She had law, muscle, and rich white girl tears on her side.
She could destroy him without breaking a single sweat. I didn’t even have parents who cared enough about me to hang around half the year.
I stayed in the front room until long after the sun went down. Julianne never showed. Rudy stayed until eleven, never leaving his car.
I felt a little guilty about that—he was probably hungry and thirsty and in desperate need of a bathroom. If I hadn’t driven him away, he would have been able to protect me in comfort.
But the fact that he’d been willing to put himself through that just to respect my wishes made me smile.
In spite of the thundering silence from my parents and friends, in spite of the lingering aches and pains from my ordeal, I fell asleep that night with a smile on my face.
Chapter Nine
RUDY
I didn’t expect her to go to school the day after it happened, but when she stayed home on Thursday too, I started to worry.
Growing up the way I did, I saw a lot of kids do what she was doing—isolating themselves, pushing away anybody who might be able to help them, drawing inward until there wasn’t a single person left on the Earth close enough to hurt them—or care for them.
I had hoped that she would go to the police after she told me to leave. I figured that was why she did it, so that I wouldn’t be under suspicion—but unless she filed an anonymous report online (which wouldn’t do her much good in the protection department), she hadn’t even tried. Maybe she was too scared. Maybe I should try to convince her to do it.
I went back to her place after school and parked in the same spot I had the day before, right at the edge of her property line. If that wasn’t enough space she could go ahead and tell me, but I didn’t think she would. Well—I hoped she wouldn’t. Someone had to keep an eye on her, and her parents didn’t seem to be in too much of a hurry to get back to her. What kind of parents didn’t come home after their kid had been kidnapped?
A delivery truck rolled up, blocking my view of the front door. That wasn’t going to work for me.
Her “friends”—if you could call even them that—had been withdrawn and quiet, whispering in a huddle all day. None of them had tried to mess with me or my brothers, not even Thomas, which told me that they were plotting. Probably plotting against Kennedy, which meant I needed to be close enough to protect her; and I needed to be able to see.
I stepped out of the car as the delivery guy bounded out of the van.
“Hey,” I said. “Package for Lane?”
He glanced at the package, then up at me. “Yeah.”
I held my hand out for it and he shrugged. “Sign here.” I did and he hurried away.
Okay, so maybe I was being a little paranoid—but sending revenge through the mail isn’t unheard of.
I looked the box over as I walked toward the door. It looked like it was from Kennedy’s phone company, which would make sense considering her phone was trashed. But then I wasn’t the only person who knew that her phone was broken, and I wasn’t going to take any chances. I opened the box a good ten feet from Kennedy’s door.
It was exactly what it proclaimed itself to be. Just a phone with a cherry red case and a brand new screen protector, all bundled together in standard packaging.
Tension unwound from my shoulders. Of course this meant I’d have to explain to Kennedy why I was tampering with her mail, but I figured it was a small price to pay.
I rang her doorbell. After a few minutes I rang it again.
I frowned. Since she hadn’t gone to school, she should be here—unless, of course, she’d gone to the cops. A sick, cold fear twisted my gut as I realized the third option; that someone had taken her again.
I was just about to try the doorknob when it swung open from inside. Kennedy stood, fuzzy robe clutched over wet skin, her hair knotted up in a big pink towel. Heat rushed over my body and all the words I’d prepared raced out of my head to make room for some graphic imagery. I swallowed hard and stuck the box out.
“You, uh—you got a package.”
She blushed and grinned, then accepted the package. She frowned at it for a moment, then at me. “It’s open.”
“I, uh—I was just checking. Making sure that um, that it was safe.”
Her eyes twinkled but she kept the frown in place. We stood there like that for a long, awkward moment, then she sighed.
“Oh, come in,” she said, sounding resigned. “It’s not like your car isn’t a huge giveaway already.”
I waited until she turned away from me to break into a grin. I’m not going to say that I was hoping she’d say that—but I sure wasn’t hoping that she wouldn’t.
I followed her inside and locked the door behind me. She curled up on the couch, tucking her feet under her robe. It fell open slightly, revealing the smooth curves of her thighs. I had to sit down fast.
She paused in the middle of putting her phone together to flash a little smile at me. “You can go get a soda or something if you want.”
Soda. Sure. I ripped my gaze away from her tantalizing skin and nodded, then walked to the kitchen. My brain didn’t start working again until refrigerated air washed over my body, and I took a few long, deep breaths as I stared into the pristine depths of her fridge.
“Okay, Rudy, get it together,” I muttered to myself. I yanked a coke out of the door and cracked it open, then turned around and leaned against the closing door. “If she thinks you’re only hanging around looking for sex, she’ll get rid of you so fast you’ll never be able to see the bad guys coming.”
I was babbling and not entirely sure I could follow the train of my own thoughts. I sucked down the sticky sweet drink, letting the carbonation shock my head into something approaching rationality. Slightly more sure of myself, I went back out to the front room.
Kennedy was frowning at her phone.
“What’s the matter?” I asked.
“There are no texts,” she said. “Not from any of them. I mean, all my old texts are still there, but there’s nothing after Monday.”
I blinked. “Yeah—because your phone was broken on Monday.”
She huffed impatiently and shook her head. “I have everything backed up. I already downloaded it. Nobody’s tried to get in touch with me, Rudy, not the girls, not my parents, nobody except Mr. Foster and all he sent was a picture of my car and a question mark.” She looked at me then, her eyes a little wild.
“I could have died,” she said quietly. “I could have died and nobody would have noticed for days and days. I would have mummified in the trunk of that damn car.” Her voice was getting thin and high, wavering at the edge of a panic attack.
I was across the room in a flash, holding her close as she trembled. She didn’t curl into me. She was too tense for that.
“I would have noticed,” I told her.
She stopped shaking all at once, but not in a relaxed sort of way. It was more like she’d stumbled over a thought so massively important that it rebooted her nerves. She turned toward me stiffly, her eyes huge.
“You would have,” she agreed in a vague sort of voice. “But the clues weren’t in your locker, were they?”
I shook my head. “They were in Chris’ locker. Way I figure it, everybody knew Chris didn’t like you. He’s loud and obnoxious and ever since he ended up in the same class with you he had it out for you personally. I th
ink she was trying to frame him for your—” I was going to say “murder” but I thought it would tip her all the way over into a whole panic attack. “—disappearance,” I finished instead.
She frowned. “Tell me how it happened,” she said.
“Okay. When you didn’t show up Monday night, I figured you were scared or pissed off that I was pissed off or something. I tried to call you but it went straight to voicemail, so I figured you had your phone off. Next morning we get to school and you aren’t there. Now I figure you’re avoiding me.” It hurt to tell her this to her face. I looked at a shadow on the carpet instead.
While I’d been growing more and more resentful of her, she’d been scared out of her mind, inching toward a horrific death, trapped in a steel box.
“The girls were all giggles and smiles and smart mouths,” I growled. “Thomas was pushing people around and being stupid, but he was in a good mood too. Second period, Julianne snatches all of Chris’ pencils and he has to go get one from his locker for a test.”
I struggled to breathe against the memory of the panic that had encased my chest when I saw what was in Chris’ locker.
“He’d just cleaned it out,” I said quietly. “I was there next to him, giving him shit for letting Julianne get him like that, and he opened up his locker and just froze. Then he said my name. I looked, and—” I clenched my fists, wrestling my fury under control. “And it was all pieces of you,” I whispered. “Your smashed phone. A scrap of your hair. And the flyer for Benjamin’s store.” I ground my teeth.
Kennedy went sort of boneless and sank into the back of the couch. She was quiet for a moment and I could see her thinking hard.
“But—why did you think that it was Julianne who did it?”
I wanted to say it was because it was fucking obvious, but I swallowed that. “Because she was standing right there when we found the stuff,” I said quietly. “We didn’t know what to think of any of it. We were talking, trying to figure out what it all meant, when she wiggled up to us, laughing.”
My fingernails bit into my palms as I remembered the evil smile on her face. “She said, ‘ooh, a mystery! Hope y’all figure it out before the cops do!’ then she laughed and went off with Thomas. He had a bruise on his shin. I’m not a detective or anything—but I saw the little dark spots in it, tiny stars—like the little stars on the back of your sneakers.”
She went pale and I pressed my elbows against the boiling rage in my gut.
“So I called Benjamin,” I said. “Asked him if there was anything weird going on at work. He said he spotted an old abandoned car on his way in. Said he was going to get the manager to call the tow truck if it didn’t leave. I told him to hold off. Then I grabbed everybody and we ditched.”
“And you found me,” she said softly. She shook her head, looking more than a little surprised. “You’re really smart.”
I shrugged a shoulder. “Whatever. Point is, there was no reason for her to be hanging out there. And what she said doesn’t make any sense unless she knew what was going on. I know it was her, Kennedy. Her and Thomas, maybe the rest of them too. It’s why they haven’t texted you. It’s why nobody has come over to see you.”
I watched any number of justifications and excuses flit over her expression before reality pressed down on her with enough weight to make her shoulders slump.
She was hurting and she was trying to hurt silently. If I could, I would have taken all her pain and stuffed it into my own heart.
I knew what it was like to have backs turned on me.
I knew what it was like to want somebody to care and have nobody who did.
I was poor and broken, angry and hopeless until Seymore took me into his home. Now, there wasn’t much of that feeling anymore. Sometimes the people who are supposed to love you, don’t, but then you find people who have no reason to love you, but do anyway. That’s what the Seymore home brought me.
Love. A family. Acceptance. Protection.
Not only did Kennedy’s friends turn their backs on her, but they fucking tried to kill her. And the ones who didn’t, well, they sat back and allowed it to happen. And maybe that would have been something she could shake if she had the kind of parents who were there to help build her up. To love her. To protect her. To fight for her. But she didn’t.
On the surface, it looked like Kennedy had every damn thing in this world. Now that I was on the inside, I knew that despite the big house and the car and the smiles, she had next to nothing.
What I told her about Chris’ locker might not have been enough to make a court case, but she knew as well as I did that it was the truth. Julianne had tried to kill her and frame Chris.
Her hands started to shake and she balled them into fists, tucking them close to her body.
I touched her shoulder gently, wincing as I felt her control a flinch that rippled through her whole body. I backed off, giving her space, but not too much. She wanted to be alone, sure. But she needed to know that she had at least one person who was in her corner.
“What are you going to do about it?” I asked her gently. “How can I help? Whatever you need, just name it.”
She closed her eyes and pulled in a slow, deep breath. She held it for a few seconds, then blew it out again, just as slowly. Then she opened her eyes and I saw a steely resolve there that made her look older and just a little bit dangerous. I liked it.
“I need you to go away,” she said. “Farther than the end of my driveway. I can’t just sit here and let her get away with this.”
I recoiled slightly, eyes wide with shock. “Kennedy—I can help you.” Please let me help you.
She shook her head. “No, you can’t. Not this time. I don’t know what I’m going to do yet, but—”
She was interrupted by her phone chiming in her lap. Scowling down at it, she unlocked it and read the message. Her eyebrows flew up in surprise, her eyes darkening with anger.
“Bitch,” she hissed. “Listen to this. ‘You ever gonna come back to school? Someone’s gonna think you died.’ That bitch, that fucking bitch!”
Kennedy stepped off the couch and paced, her robe fluttering like a cape around her legs. She left the phone on the couch and snarled at it when it chimed again. She looked magnificent like that. Like a war goddess or a violent fairy.
The towel slipped on her head and she ripped it off, tossing it on a chair. Her damp hair tumbled around her shoulders. Julianne had no idea what kind of hell she had just unleashed.
Kennedy stalked over to the phone and snatched it up. “LOL,” she read flatly. She tossed the thing back on the couch hard enough to make me wince.
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
She whirled toward me, eyes flashing, robe straining to stay closed. I really wished it wouldn’t try so hard.
“I don’t know for sure,” she said. “But I know that you need to be far away from the backlash.”
I hated it. I didn’t want to leave her alone to deal with this. I didn’t like that she saw me as someone to be protected—though it warmed a cold, lonely corner of my heart.
I took a deep breath, bracing myself to argue with her, and took a few steps toward her. Her eyes were hard and fiery, her stance was strong. She wasn’t going to concede the point. If I pushed it anymore, I might just undermine her confidence—which could get her killed.
“Okay,” I said quietly. “But…” I slipped my hand beneath her robe, climbing them higher until I touched, warm, slick, flesh. “You’re fucking irresistible like this.”
“What exactly are you trying to say, Rudy?” The mischief in her voice was hard to miss.
“Bend over.” Clear. To the point.
Her body arched against mine as I touched her and her mouth found mine, hot and angry and just a little desperate. I kissed her back, hard, then pushed her into the position I wanted her in – back facing me, ass in the air.
It wasn’t over between us. Not even close. If she wanted space, I could give it to her knowing that t
he minute these freaks were off her back we’d be tangled up in the sheets together again…and again…and again. Not right now, though.
Tilting her head to the side, she stole a glance at me. I took the opportunity to slide my finger into my mouth, making a show of just how fucking good she tasted and then I was on her…like an animal… like a beast.
I threw her robe over her toned ass, unzipped my pants and forced myself inside her.
Kennedy winced at the pain. “Rudy!”
“Shhh…”
Anything else she wanted to say fell to the side as her body started to rip the pleasure away from the pain. Moan after moan slipped past her lips as I fucked her hard and fast. This time, I didn’t want it to last long. I wanted it quick and satisfying, but dissatisfying at the same time. I wanted her breasts to miss me. I wanted her to skin to tingle at the thought of my tongue searching every inch of its surface. I wanted her pussy filled, but the rest of her depraved.
“Rudy, I’m…” she was standing on her tippy-toes and her leg trembled with the force of an earthquake.
Her pussy clenched even tighter around my cock, squeezing every drop of seed out of it.
I pulled out of her. Shoved my cock back into my pants.
“Whenever you need me,” I reminded her.
Still coming down from the high of her orgasm, her breaths out of rhythm and her knees weak, all Kennedy could manage was a nod.
There was still a lump of dread encased in a furious fire in my gut when I left. I would give her space—but I sure as fuck wasn’t going to let her friends get off easy.
If Kennedy didn’t find the strength to defend herself, then I’d take matters into my own hands.
Whether she wanted me to, or not.
Chapter Ten
KENNEDY
After Rudy left, I got myself dressed in the most mature-looking clothes I could find that weren’t chosen for me by Julianne.
Something Wicked: An Enemies to Lovers Bully Romance (The Seymore Brothers Book 2) Page 5
