Wingless Book Series (book 1) (15 page)

“
How do you like living
here?”

“
I like it. I just didn’t realize
how often Evan would be gone.”

“
Yeah, Tony works them hard
sometimes,” she said. “Well, when things get serious
anyways.”

“
What is serious?”

“
When there’s a lot to be
collected on. He usually has Evan and Kenny go around and collect
whatever it is he needs. Once, Kenny brought Tony a semi. I’m not
sure what was in it, but they all made it a big deal.”

I turned my head to look at Ari;
she was propped up on her elbows ever so chirpy. “How do you stay
so upbeat all the time?” I wasn’t ready to let her know that I seen
Kenny hit her, but I was starting to wonder why she would still
have such good spirits after all that she went through with
him.

“
Oh, I have my ways. Kenny does
one thing well, and that is bringing the best things back for
me.”

I lifted my sunglasses up to look
at her. “What does that mean?”

She tossed me a prescription
bottle with no label but a huge amount of pills in it. I couldn’t
tell what they were- small and white. I had never seen them nor was
I one to take pills besides when I was sick.

“
That’s where I get my good mood
from,” she laughed, laying down, running her hands in the
grass.

“
Oh, seems like it works.” I
didn’t know what else to say.

“
If you want to try one, you can.
Kenny always restocks them for me, like, once a week.”

“
Um, nothing against your choice,
but I’m not really into pill popping.” I wasn’t trying to be rude,
but I didn’t know what it was or if I could handle it.

“
No, that’s fine. I didn’t take
you for one anyways.” She flipped over, fidgeting until she was
comfortable. I wondered what else Kenny did for her. And why the
need to supply her with pills. Was it seriously that bad for her? I
didn’t know. I didn’t know anything about her.

“
So, Ari, tell me what you know
about Evan,” I said with growing interest as the words spilled from
my mouth. I was curious as to what she had seen or
heard.

“
I don’t know. Like
what?”

“
Anything. Has he had other
girlfriends? What’s the craziest thing you seen him do, or had to
do, I guess I should say.”

Ari flipped on her side. “I’ve
never seen any girls here. He went out on a few dates that Kenny
arranged, but he never went on a second with either of them. I’ve
always thought he was picky. I had a crush on Evan first, before
Kenny, and he never paid me the time of day. This was back when we
were younger though.”

I was confused by this because Ari
was a super attractive girl, she was exotic and beautiful. Any girl
would have been glad to be her. I thought so anyway. She was a
little scattered in the brains department but besides that, I
couldn’t see any guy passing her up.

“
That’s interesting,” I said
staring off.

“
The craziest thing I know he did
was with Kenny. Him and Kenny took this guy out far off somewhere,
I don’t know where, and I wouldn’t ask either. But anyways, they
took him there and both of them shot him in his head. Kenny told me
he never seen brains until that day; he was kind of thrilled in a
weird way.”

She was so matter of fact about it.
“How did Evan act?”

“
Kenny said he shot him to get him
quiet. He says Evan is very straight to the point and doesn’t like
to stick around or make it last long. Kenny is more of the, um,
torturer,” she laughed, looking at my expression, then stopped
quickly.

“
I’m sorry, Eve. I don’t know if
you can believe Evan is capable of that. Maybe I should have kept
my mouth shut.” She looked troubled.

“
No, it’s not that I don’t think
he is capable, it’s just hard to think of him in that way. He is so
different to me. I can’t imagine it.”

“
Well, I don’t think you will ever
see that side of him, but believe me, when he wants to be evil and
sinister like the rest of his family, he knows how.” She sat up.
“Evan is more programmed. He feels it’s his duty or something.
Kenny enjoys it. What they both have in common is that they were
raised in the business so, to them, it’s normal. It is normal,
like, maybe someone’s parents going to church every
Sunday.”

That was how Evan explained it
too. Knowing this, it was hard to think ill of someone who grew up
around it. Who was I to judge someone’s family ethics? And it
wasn’t as if I knew anything about the people these bad things were
happening to. I didn’t want to judge him.

Ari said goodbye and headed out. I
dozed off, getting woken up by cars pulling into the driveway. The
first person I saw was Kenny. He was moving quick, talking quietly
to what appeared to be Evan. The fence obstructed my view, but I
was sure it was him. They lingered by their cars and then
disappeared into the house. I gathered my things, heading in. Kenny
popped out of God knows where, right in front of me with a weird
look on his face.

“
What’s up?” he asked me, acting
strange. He stayed in my way as if he was purposefully trying to
slow me down.

“
Nothing, I was laying out. I’d
like to go get dressed, excuse me.” I told him, moving the opposite
way. He moved again.

“
He’s in the bedroom trying to
clean up; he didn’t want you to see him.”

“
What? Why do I care?” I said,
annoyed with his weird antics.

“
Never mind. You’re probably the
best person to see him anyways.” He headed into the kitchen; I
hurried to the bedroom pushing open the door. Evan was in the
bathroom at the sink, water running.

“
Are you okay?” I asked. He looked
up. I looked at his face in the mirror and gasped. His eye was
swollen and his lip cut and he had a few scrapes on his cheek. “Oh,
my God!” I yelled, immediately coming over to him and pulling him
to me so I could take a better look.

“
I’m fine. Seriously, I’m fine.”
He squeezed out the rag, touching it to his cheek, wincing as he
cleaned the scrapes.

“
You need antiseptic not water.
Let me do it,” I said, pulling a first aid kit from the
closet.

He sat down on the bed. “I’m fine.
This isn’t the first black eye I ever got. Did I tell you I used to
do mixed martial arts?” he laughed as I cleaned his face
up.

“
No, you didn’t. Tell me what
happened,” I demanded.

He looked miserable despite his
cheerful mood. “Well, I would have been fine if Kenny had paid
closer attention. Just got caught off guard.”

“
Your eye looks pretty bad; you
think you should see a doctor or something?”

“
No, I’m good. Now, how are you?”
he asked, putting his hands around me. He pulled me to him hugging
me, his head on my stomach. I smoothed his hair.

“
I laid out with Ari, chatted, did
some cleaning, watched some TV. That’s about it,” I
shrugged.

“
What did the lovely Ari have to
say, because she always says something interesting.”

I sat down next to him. “Nothing
much. Talked a little about you, nothing important.”

“
Sure, I know girls. They tell
secrets and gossip. So, you learn anything that scared you off
yet?” he laughed.

“
I learned things that would scare
the average person off, but not me.” He studied my expression but
didn’t ask for any explanation, and kissed me.

It was the fourth day since I had
moved in. Evan finally had free time. Each day was even greater
than the one before. I was adjusting to Evan’s sporadic absences. I
hadn’t felt the need to call my parents; I still wasn’t in the mood
to entertain my mother’s wrath. I wasn’t willing to give in to her
so that she felt better. I wanted to wait it out, and maybe she
would come around eventually.

Evan rolled over in the bed
kissing my cheek. “Good morning beautiful.” His eyes tired, his
hair messy. He stared at me with a pleased look on his
face.

“
Morning,” I said back, moving
closer. It wasn’t morning, I was sure of that much. I yawned,
pulling the covers tighter to me; it was nice to sleep in without
hearing your mother tell you how you wasted the day.

“
You still tired?” He sat up in
the bed, shirtless. I caressed his stomach, shaking my
head.

“
If you’re awake, I guess I’ll be
too.”

“
Awesome, get
dressed and we will get out of here for a while. You have been
cooped up for days.” He lifted my chin pressing his lips onto mine,
kiss after kiss until he
had my heart
racing. His touch was always so tender, and it was as if he was
trying not to break something so delicate.

I traced my fingers down his
chest, breathing faster, my head buzzed from the rush of
butterflies. I couldn’t lie; every time we kissed I wanted more
from him. It was a natural response, I told myself. I tried my best
to not attack him; I did not want him to think I couldn’t control
myself as well as he could. Evan kissed my cheek getting off the
bed, stopping the moment; he awkwardly hurried off to the bathroom.
It dawned on me why he was so quick to get out of view. I laughed
to myself, sliding down to the edge of the bed.

“
Do you want me to make
breakfast?”

“
Um, we can go out and eat
somewhere, you don’t have to do that,” he said, coming back out
dressed.

“
I don’t mind.”

I was never the best cook, but I
tried my best to make eggs and toast. Although my mother loved to
cook, she never invited my sister and I into the kitchen to learn
any of it from her. So it was a trial and error. Hannah, on the
other hand, paid money for cooking lessons to become even more the
perfect wife.

I pushed the oil around in
the pan. It popped and sizzled, almost smoking. Evan came up behind
me, wrapping his arms around me. Taking the spatula out of my hand,
he turned me around, his mouth meeting mine for another stint at
this twisted tease of a game we seem to be playing. I backed up
keeping up with his movement; this time I bit his lip pulling him
closer. We ran into the countertop. I started to undo his belt
buckle and
he didn’t seem to fight me this
time. I stayed still as he worked his way down my neck, pulling
down the strap to my tank top. He kissed my shoulder and ran his
hand up my neck stopping and grasping my throat. My pajama bottoms
falling to my ankles, I kicked them off my feet.

“
Those are nice,” he joked about
my red lacy underwear with a pink bow.

“
Thanks.” I barely spoke, going
back to kissing him. Evan pulled me up on the countertop. We
continued with the almost frantic pawing, it was as if we both knew
it was getting harder and harder to resist and we both were afraid
it would end too soon.

He pulled his shirt over his head,
tossing it on the floor. I ran my hands down his stomach enjoying
every muscle that I felt. Pulling my shirt off, I was in nothing
but my bra and underwear now. I felt strangely comfortable and
right in that moment. Evan trailed his fingers down my stomach
watching every movement he made. There was no apprehension about
anything; he didn’t make me feel uncomfortable. I truly believe he
appreciated everything about me. He brought my hands up, putting
them on his shoulders, kissing me more. His kisses became stronger
and more aggressive, his hands moving to my legs.

By this time, nothing existed but
him. He leaned me over the counter until much of my body was laying
on it, only my feet dangling. I ran my hands through his hair and
then suddenly, Evan jumped off me. Startled, I sat up.

“
Kenny, what are you doing here?!”
he yelled, tossing me my clothes. He was not worried about himself;
he was only worried about me being exposed. I hopped down, not sure
if I should run to the bedroom or dress there quickly. I decided it
was best to just throw my clothes on and not risk the huge
embarrassment. Kenny didn’t seem to care and the look on his face
was not amusement, it was more upset.

Evan gathered up his clothes
throwing them on. “What’s the deal Kenny? I thought you were out
with Pratt.”

Kenny shook his head, not saying
anything. He was fidgeting and acting rather peculiar. I headed to
the bedroom thinking privacy would let him open up to Evan. I sat
down on the bed listening for someone to speak. It was quiet.
Finally, Evan spoke.

“
Look, there is obviously
something on your mind or you wouldn’t be here in the middle of the
day. What’s the deal?” There was only silence once more.

I studied myself in the mirror,
messing with my hair, trying to pass the time. I didn’t want to be
in Kenny’s business if I didn’t have to be. But it seemed like
something was wrong. I couldn’t tell what in particular, but
something wasn’t right. And judging by Evan, he shouldn’t have been
home right now.

Something crashed, jolting me off
the bed; I paused in the doorway before coming out.

“
I want to know what is going on,
so tell me now!!” Evan yelled, his fist clenched. He was nose to
nose with Kenny who wasn’t too willing to speak. Kenny eyed him for
a long moment, and I stood in the kitchen trying to be
discreet.