Page 6 of Blood Ties
Riley
S omething isn’t right .
I shook off the unease for a while. Or drank it away, rather. Spin the bottle was a welcome distraction, though it left a new tension in the group. But now I’m sobering up and fighting a constant needling discomfort: something is wrong .
It’s not Knox... or not just Knox. He’s drinking and smoking like he doesn’t have a care in the world.
Completely unlike his brother. Kai looks a lot like Knox, with the same thick, dark hair — his is longer, silky waves down nearly to his shoulders — and intense eyes.
But his energy is so different. Kai is dressed entirely in black, and he’s all lean length and hard edges, with shadows as dark as bruises beneath his eyes.
He always sits with his shoulders slumped and his head lowered, like he’s trying to make himself smaller, though he’s even taller than Knox.
I could dismiss it as shyness, but... something about the entire house is strange.
My mental alarms started going off the second I realized how remote this place is. This farmhouse is almost an hour away from even the poor excuse for civilization that the bar provided. A sprawling, rural property just past a scrapyard. There’s not a single neighbor within shouting distance.
The farmhouse itself is big but old, two stories of peeling white paint and gray gable roofs.
Its windows, big and grimy, watch the dirt driveway like wary eyes, including a tiny one up top that indicates an attic.
The wraparound front porch sags like it’s ready to give out at any moment.
Inside it’s clean enough, but has a similar air of neglect and age.
It creaks and sighs around us, audible even through the music.
Maybe I’m just not used to old houses, but it gives me the creeps.
It also makes me curious about what secrets this old building must hold.
Aside from the living room with its faded furniture, I caught only a glimpse of the dining room and kitchen — which looked straight out of the 60s, with its knotty pine cabinets, tile counters, and lack of modern utilities — and the similarly old-fashioned bathroom.
My gaze keeps pulling toward the wooden staircase that must lead to the second story, and the white door beside it, which locks from the outside.
A basement, maybe? I’m dying to open it, to sate the steady itch of my curiosity, but I have no good reason to explore.
Nor do I have any good reason to want to leave.
Knox drove an hour each way to rescue us, and offered his house for the night.
It’s generous. He’s been nothing but kind.
I can’t just insist we leave now, especially after I kissed him and his brother.
My lips are still prickling from the memory of each one.
Kai so soft yet hungry in his eagerness, Knox rough and domineering, both leaving me breathless.
So I stay, and drink more to take the edge off of my nerves.
Everyone else seems to be having a good time. Felix is swapping stories with Knox about growing up in a similarly tiny town, while Caleb and May share a joint and several loaded glances. I wonder if he’s finally going to make a move after that game brought their sexual tension to the surface.
Speaking of sexual tension... I turn my attention to Kai across the room.
He stands against the wall, keeping his distance from where the rest of us sprawl across the furniture.
One of his long legs bounces, black combat boot tapping on the carpet.
His eyes are still on the spot where Caleb spilled a beer.
When he leaves, I follow. I don’t know what keeps pulling me in his wake, but he’s a mystery I want to figure out. Maybe it’s that part of me that’s always searching for something broken to fix.
I find him out on the sagging front porch, lighting a cigarette and leaning against one rickety pillar. When he notices me, he silently holds out the pack in offering, and I take one.
He lights the cigarette between my lips, and our eyes lock as I inhale.
Kai doesn’t give me the same shivery feeling as his brother, but there’s something dark in those depths.
Something haunted. It pulls me in like a moth to a flame.
The way he kissed me... I haven’t felt that way before.
Such a deceptively gentle hunger in the way he touched me.
It made me want to be consumed.
I drop my gaze to his black t-shirt; it hangs loosely on his lean frame, and the image is so faded I couldn’t read it until I got this close.
“Radiohead? Cool.”
His eyebrows lift. “You like them,” he says, the inflection making it not quite a question.
“I’m the one who should be surprised. I didn’t know small town boys listened to Radiohead.”
He laughs — a low sound with a self-deprecating edge. “Small town boy, huh?” He shakes his head and mutters, “You have no idea.”
Taking a long drag, I look him up and down — his long hair and his cigarette, his baggy black clothes and combat boots. “Yeah, I get the impression you don’t really fit in here. So why not go somewhere else?”
His lips twitch, but he takes a long drag of his cigarette before an actual smile can develop. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve seen him smile once. “You say that like it’s easy.”
“Easy? No. But it’s possible.”
His eyes flicker, the mirth gone now. “You wouldn’t get it.” He turns away, flicking ashes onto a patch of weeds sprouting below the porch steps.
I study his side profile. His features are sharper than his brother’s, maybe not as classically handsome, but more magnetizing in their own way.
There’s something about his deep-set, dark eyes, and the shadows carved beneath them.
I barely know him, but I know the look. He gives off the kind of sadness that I ache to soothe, even though trying always leaves me with a broken heart.
“If you like music...” He turns back to me as I speak, and I hesitate.
Is this crazy? “Well, me and my friends are heading to this music festival in L.A. We, um... have an extra ticket.” I suck my bottom lip between my teeth, looking up at him.
“You could come with us? We could drop you off on our way back.”
He stares at me. His lips curve into a small, crooked smile, and warmth spreads through my chest. “That’s really nice,” he says. “You’re... really nice.” But he looks away, the smile fading. “I can’t, though. My family needs me here. Sorry.”
“That’s okay.” My face is hot. Why did I even offer that?
Of course he doesn’t want to travel with a bunch of strangers, especially after we invaded his home and ruined his night.
I drop the rest of my cigarette and stamp it out; it was mostly an excuse to linger, anyway.
quickly finish “Uh, anyway. I’ll...” I jerk my chin at the door.
He watches silently as I head back inside, his cigarette burning down to a forgotten stub between his fingers.
*
I STARTLE AWAKE AS the front door shuts.
I hadn’t even realized I dozed off, but here I am, slouched on the couch on Felix’s shoulder.
He’s asleep too, head leaning back against the couch and mouth hanging open.
I disentangle myself from him and tiptoe toward the door, peering out through the mudroom windows.
Caleb and May are outside, heading to the broken-down car where it waits attached to Knox’s tow truck.
They look like they’re arguing, but as I squint to determine if I should intervene, she presses him against the car and kisses him.
I slap a hand across my mouth to stifle a surprised gasp.
When I lower it, I’m grinning. Good for them .
I turn away before I see something I can’t unsee.
Smiling to mys elf, I head into the nearby kitchen, seeking something to cure the terrible cotton-y feeling in my mouth.
A glass sitting on the tile counter looks clean, or close enough, so I grab it and fill it with tap water.
I think again about the kiss I witnessed as I sip it, and feel a shameful stir of heat.
Not that I’m attracted to either of them, but.
.. I’m still a little drunk, and I haven’t been laid in a while.
Touching my lips, I think of the game we played.
I remember kissing Kai, kissing Knox. Felix’s eyes searing into me from across the circle.
I imagine walking back into the living room and straddling Felix to wake him up.
May would probably be happy, especially if she and Caleb are starting something up.
But I know it won’t work long-term; Felix just isn’t my type.
Kai, though... I think of the sadness in his gaze, that rare flicker of a smile I earned on the porch. His lips closing around a cigarette, the veins standing out in his lean arms. I bite my lip as I lower the glass of water, and wonder...
Someone grips my hip from behind, and I nearly scream. I whirl around and find Knox towering over me.
He takes the glass of water from my hand and sets it aside. I barely have time for a breath before he kisses me.
It takes my still-drunk brain a moment to catch up.
By then he’s leaning into me, his free hand sliding into my hair, yanking at the roots hard enough to hurt.
I gasp into his mouth, and he devours the sound, pressing me hard into the counter.
The edge digs into my spine. It’s uncomfortable, but — I’m not averse to a bit of pain with my pleasure, and before I can think about it, I’m kissing him back.
Knox’s grip on me is commanding, his mouth rough and whiskey-sweet. I’m so focused on his tongue against mine, his teeth on my lip, the rough rub of his stubble against my cheek, that I barely notice his hands moving until the button of my shorts comes undone. He shoves them down around my knees.