Sweet Peril (26 page)

B
lake parked in his garage and wrenched my stiff arms from around his waist.

“A gang?” he asked.

“Yeah.” My voice was as shaky as my limbs as I climbed off the bike after him.

He tweaked my chin, but his voice was tight. “No worries, girl. It’s all good now.”

I followed as Blake jogged to the back deck to watch for Kai. We stood along the railing. The sick knot in my stomach would not settle, along with the too-fast beats of my heart. I was too shaken to concentrate on pushing out my sight.

“Do you see him?” I asked.

“Yeah, he’s fine. He’ll be here soon.”

I exhaled. “Are they following him?”

“Doesn’t look like it.”

During those few minutes heavy thoughts battered my mind. I would never again pressure Kai to be with me or tell me how he felt. His actions showed he cared, and that would have to be enough. I don’t think I’d fully understood what a danger we were to each other until today. We’d been careless, and that must never happen again.

Reality was harsh. I could not stay here with them. I felt like I’d been slapped and my senses were finally clear.

I would leave Kaidan and Blake today as allies, adding the moment on the Ferris wheel to the few other precious memories I had of Kai. But it would be the last addition to my Kaidan collection. My heart seized and faltered in my chest as the dream I’d held on to for two years crumbled.

I hugged myself around the ribs as I paced. Adrenaline still lingered in my system.

I thought about Dad. He’d need to know what happened. I texted him
A411
, our code that I had information. He responded right away with
Later. Busy
. I dropped the phone into a chair and thought about what happened at the carnival.

“One of the angels intervened today,” I told Blake. “He made the gun backfire when the guy tried to shoot us. I didn’t think they were allowed to do that.”

He kept his face toward the beach, twisting his eyebrow bar when he answered. “They only intervene when they’re told to. The angel must’ve got a message.”

The light. Someone above had been communicating. We’d been saved. Again. I shivered in the warm breeze and gripped myself tighter.

“Here he comes,” Blake said.

When Kaidan climbed the steps to the deck he came straight for me, his hair slicked back with sweat from running. He took my face in his hands, breathing hard, lips tight, eyes like blue blazes.

“Don’t
ever
do that again,” he ground out.

It took a second to process his words and remember what exactly I wasn’t supposed to do again. Then I recalled interfering.

“I know it was dangerous,” I admitted, “but there were five of them—”

“I can bloody well handle myself, Anna!” His hands flung away from my face.

“Maybe if there were only a couple, but there were
five
pissed-off psychos with weapons! I couldn’t just stand there and watch!”

Kaidan, exasperated, pivoted like he was going to walk away, raked his fingers through his hair, and turned to me again.

“What did you think you could do?” he asked. “You got in a lucky shot when you racked him, but what if it hadn’t worked? As you saw today your mind powers don’t always work!”

Ah. He had no idea what I was capable of now. I held a hand out. “Give me your knife.”

His eyebrows went together. “What?”

“Just give it to me.” I stepped closer, feeling edgy.

“No, Anna, I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but this is ridic—”

My movements were fast as I went for him full force, using
all my body weight and strength to hook a foot behind his knee and slam my palm into his shoulder. He landed on his back with a surprised
oof
and I crouched over him.

“Give me your knife,” I said again.

“Holy . . .” Blake let out a long whistle from where he watched at the rail.

Kaidan lay there with a whimsical sort of look and said, “God, that was hot.”

I held out my hand. This time he fished the knife from his waistband and placed the onyx handle in my palm. From my crouched position I momentarily eyed a wooden bird statue perched at the top of the deck rail twenty feet away, then let the cool metal fly from my fingers. It spun through the air with a sound like rapid wing beats, then a
whump
as it stuck into the side of the bird’s head.

“Dude!” Blake yelled.

Beneath me, where Kaidan lay, burst a vivid cloud of red so brief I wondered if I’d imagined it. I stared down at him in shock.

“You showed your colors!” I said.

“Did not.” He pushed himself up and we both stood.

“You totally let ’em out, brah,” Blake told him with a grin.

“Shut up.”

When he peered down at me I said, “I’ve been training. I’m not completely helpless anymore.”

“I can see that,” he murmured.

We stood there, facing each other. Too much was between us, pulling us together at the same time as it pushed us apart. Our need for each other would always be in constant battle
with our need to keep the other safe.

“I get it now, okay? Everything you’ve always tried to warn me about, I get. Today was . . .” I cleared my throat. “I came here and said what I needed to say. Now I have to go. I mean it this time.”

He dropped his hands and nodded, working his jaw side to side. He appeared resigned, like me, that this was how it had to be. Blake stepped over.

“What are you gonna do the rest of today and tomorrow?” he asked me.

“I’ll switch to an earlier flight.”

Blake frowned. “Just ’cause of some punks at a carnival? You’re safe now.”

“It wasn’t just those sods,” Kai told him. “You must not have heard the part prior to that when we had the pleasure of a whisperer’s company on the Ferris wheel.”

“For real?” His eyes widened and he paled. “I just heard the tail end with the Spanish brahs so I headed over. What happened?”

Kaidan kept his eyes away from me when he answered. “He found it suspicious that we were . . . together. We handled it, but it’s still best if she goes.” He looked at me, and I nodded my painful agreement. Blake made a ticked-off sound of disappointment.

I couldn’t waste any more time pondering. I used to think of our time together as stolen freedom, but now, every minute near the guys was another minute we could all be caught. I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to them because of me.

Inside the bungalow I found my bag, taking out my itinerary and calling the airlines. They had seats available on the next flight out of Santa Barbara Municipal. Agreeing to the service charges, I changed the flight. A wall of protection stacked itself around my heart. I could no longer afford to cling to the past. My job was to focus on getting rid of the demons. Any hopes for happiness would have to be sacrificed. It would all be worth it someday. I had to believe that or I’d go crazy.

Time to go.

Feeling stronger than I would have thought possible, I walked to the front of the house with the guys behind me. I hugged Blake and then looked at Kai. His hands rested on his hips. He didn’t appear happy or approachable, but I knew if I didn’t hug him, I’d regret it forever. With a final scan of the clear skies I stepped to him and slowly slid my arms around his waist.

Being against Kai was nothing like being against Blake. His muscles under my hands, my temple against his collarbone, the explosion of emotion when his arms encircled me—this was not friendship. I loved this boy. I loved him enough to pull away and leave him, which is exactly what I did, our fingers lingering together one final moment before parting. I met his eyes one last time, but it was too much. I could’ve sworn those blue depths were begging me to stay, so I backed away and forced myself to climb into the stifling hot rental car.

They stood on the edge of the pavement and watched as I drove away. I did not allow myself to wallow or yearn. I sped away from the mansion, along the cliffs above the sea, without looking back.

So, that wall I’d built around my heart? As I sat in the airport, awaiting the boarding announcement, something inside me cracked, gouging a deep crevice in my soul that filled with a roaring pain. The hurt was so palpable I could hardly breathe. I must have looked like a mess, because people gave me worried glances.

I wanted Patti. I wanted Dad. Most of all I wanted Kaidan.

I’d called Patti when I got to the airport to let her know I was coming home early. She didn’t ask any questions, but I could hear the sadness and disappointment in her voice when she realized things hadn’t gone well.

I knew I should get up and find the restroom so I wouldn’t make a public scene, but my body did not want to cooperate. For more than a year I hadn’t been able to cry. Now I could feel tears building like my own personal tsunami. Maybe it was the small comfort of knowing the Dukes and whisperers were all at the summit. But to my shock and embarrassment, tears sprung free, gushing down my face. I couldn’t hold them back. And the sounds of mourning that unwillingly dragged themselves up from my throat? Humiliating.

“I’m okay,” I choked out to the old woman next to me who put a hand on my arm. All around me concerned faces witnessed my breakdown. I curled forward, burying my face in my arms and legs, wishing I could disappear.

“Maybe someone died,” I heard a man whisper.

“Is it a young man?” the woman next to me asked in a low voice. I managed to nod and she patted my back. “It always is,” she murmured.

A man across from me touched my shoulder and handed me a crisp handkerchief, telling me in a gentle tone that I could keep it. Their kindness only made me cry harder. I forced myself to sit up and use the hanky to wipe my face and dab my nose. A hush fell when a preboarding announcement was made.

“Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. In a few minutes we’ll begin boarding flight four twenty-eight. . . .”

A murmur of voices and noises filled the air as everyone collected their belongings and checked for their boarding passes. I hiccuped, then sniffed and pulled my boarding pass from my backpack. Through the shuffle of noise I heard a voice that made my ears perk up.

“Anna!”

I hiccuped again, and froze at the sound of that English accent. My head whipped around.

My body clenched—if he was really here something had to be wrong.

The hanky fell to my lap at the sight of Kaidan jogging up the middle of the terminal, stopping at the end of our row of chairs. Holy crap . . . my legs went numb. People halted their shuffling at the presence of this disheveled young man with wild blue eyes. He stood there, hair falling in his face, staring at me with a bizarre expression of euphoria. All eyes went from him to me and back again. A wide path was cleared down the aisle.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. I knew I should stand but it was like my body had gone into shock.

“I—Nothing.” He peered around the area, harried, as if
scouting for possible danger.

“How did you get through security?” I asked.

“I bought a ticket.” He looked out of his element and more handsome than ever in his board shorts, dirty T-shirt, and flip-flops. Just as I’d left him.

“You . . . you’re going on this flight?” I was so confused.

“No,” he said, “but those buggers wouldn’t page you. And your phone is off.”

I became acutely aware of our audience as whispers and
aww
s filled the air.

Finally feeling stable, I stood and moved toward him down the path my fellow passengers had made, afraid to let myself hope for what this might mean. I didn’t stop until we were face-to-face.

“I . . .” he began, then lowered his voice so only I could hear. “I just . . .” He kept starting and stopping, moving his hands, then hooking his thumbs in his pockets. And then he exhaled a great huffing breath.

“Anna . . . the night of the summit, when you were saved, it was the only time in my life I’ve thanked God for anything.”

Those words. They would melt me over and over for all time.

I stared. He stared.

My hands went to his face, feeling his cheekbones and strong jaw. And then I gave him my heart.

“I love you, Kai.”

He closed his eyes and shivered as if a feather had been drawn down his back. My own eyes burned all over again. He didn’t say it back, but that was okay. I understood. He’d never
said those words to anyone in his life, I was certain. The fact that he was here, that he’d come after me—this moment—his actions. That’s all that mattered to me.

He caught my face in his hands and whispered, “Spend the night with me.”

A warm tremor rippled down my body. All my resolve from two hours ago wavered. He waited for my response.

“Kai . . . we shouldn’t.” Even as I said it, my mind devised arguments otherwise. The Dukes and whisperers would all be at their summit meeting tonight, and terrorizing Vegas for the next day. But when it came to Kaidan and me alone together, there were other things to worry about besides demons.

“I’m tired of living like I’m not alive.” He dropped his hands from my face to grip my shoulders. “I’m bloody sick to death of it. I want one night to be alive. With you.” He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead on mine. “Please, Anna. One last night and we’ll go back to being safe again. I need this. I need you.”

God above. Was this really happening?

He lifted his head from mine.

“I’ll be good,” he promised. “I won’t let anything happen.”

Never looking away, I reached down and took his hand, entwining my fingers with his. Maybe it was stupid. It was definitely dangerous. But wild demons couldn’t have kept me from accepting. One last night.

Together.

“Let’s go,” I told him.