Hellion, a New Adult Romance Novel (The Rebel Series) (18 page)

My dreams of forced neighborly relations are interrupted by the doorbell.

I drop my toothbrush in a panic.
 
My heart is beating way too fast for this event and it pisses me off.
 
I whisper to myself as I gather my purse and shove things into it.
 
“Just relax.
 
It’s Mick, not Obama.”
 
He’s early.
 
He must be as anxious as I am.

A big boom hits my door and I open it to find Jersey standing there.
 
At least this time he didn’t fall.
 
“Who’s there?” I say, looking right at him.

“It’s me, Sister.
 
Can’t you see me?”

“No.”
 
I reach out a hand and start patting him sloppily all over the face and head.
 
“Is that you, Jersey-boy?
 
Take your invisible spell off.
 
I need to give you a kiss goodbye.”

“I’m not using it, silly.
 
See?”
 
He lifts his eyebrows and grins.

I lean over and kiss him on the side of his face.
 
“Some of that invisibility dust must still be on you.
 
Only thing I can see is your fat little cheek.”

He puts his hand in mine and we walk down the stairs together.
 
“Are you leaving?” he asks.

“Only for a few hours.”

“Where are you going?” he asks, looking up at me with sad eyes.

“Just to the movie and dinner.
 
You can wait up for me if you want.”

“Okay.
 
I’ll play with my action figures in your room.”

“Do that.
 
But don’t pull any of their heads off because that’s weird.”

“Only assholes do that,” he says.

I mess up his hair.
 
“Yep.
 
Only assholes behead their dolls.”
 
I lean down and kiss him again.
 
It strikes me that I don’t have to lean so much anymore.
 
My little bro is growing up. Maybe that should make me happy, but it doesn’t.
 
It makes me worry.

“Bye, turd basket,” I say.

“Bye, Sister turd basket.”
 
Jersey leaves me and runs up the stairs, no doubt to dump his entire box of toys onto my floor.
 
I won’t let it piss me off this time.
 
I feel like he’s slipping out of my life with all this growing up stuff.
 
Maybe seeing Alissa pregnant and alone has me going all soft.
 
Jersey won’t mind.
 
He loves the attention.
 
It makes me smile to imagine the look on his face when I get down on my butt to do a Han Solo war.
 
He loves Han Solo wars.

I open the door and stand there with a frown on my face as the man before me smiles.

Does.
 
Not.
 
Compute.

Brain meltdown commencing…

“What are you doing here?” I finally ask.

“Mick asked me to pick you up for him.
 
He got hung up at work.”
 
Colin grins at me like only Colin can.

I cock a hip and stare at him some more.
 
He looks way too happy.
 
If I didn’t know any better, I’d say there’s trouble-making afoot here, but his explanation makes sense and I cannot imagine what kind of prank he’d be pulling by picking me up for his brother, so I walk outside onto the front porch.

“Okay. If you say so.”
 
I shut the door behind me.
 
“Where are we going?”

“Just come with me,” he says, walking down the front walk with his hand at the small of my back.
 
“It’s a surprise.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

COLIN IS DRIVING IN A direction I’m not familiar with.

“So what’s the deal? What was so important at work that Mick couldn’t pick me up?”

“Car has to be delivered tonight.
 
Last minute thing.”
 
Colin seems distracted. He’s focusing really hard on the road which makes me suspicious.
 
He’s usually way more interested in charming pants off, or at least trying to.

I take my phone out of my purse and stare at the screen.
 
No messages.
 
Wouldn’t Mick have texted me if he were going to be late?
 
I look over at his brother.
 
I guess not.
 
Maybe Mick is one of those anti-technology people, so he used old-fashioned personal interaction to send his message.

“When will he be done?” I ask.

“Soon.
 
Probably real soon.”

I remain silent for a few more minutes as Colin navigates the streets.
 
It’s just too weird to be in a car with him driving and me not knowing our destination, so I can’t keep my mouth shut for long.
 
“Where are we going exactly?”

“You’ll see.”

My phone buzzes in my hand and I turn it over to look at the screen.
 
Before I can move my finger to see the whole message, Colin snatches the phone and drops it into the side pocket of his door.

“What the … Colin?!
 
Give it back!” I go from confused to pissed in half a second.

“Just give me two minutes without interruption and it’s all yours.”
 
He pulls up to the curb next to a big building.
 
We’re in a ritzy part of town I don’t generally go to.

“That is seriously fucked up,” I say, both angry and nervous.
 
“Why did you take my phone?”
 
Sweat breaks out under my arms and I start to shake a little.
 
I’m not sure if it’s because I’m mad or scared.
 
This whole situation is just … weird.

He puts the car in park and shuts off the engine.
 
“I just need your undivided attention for five minutes.
 
That’s it.
 
I promise, you’re safe.”
 
He takes my phone out and puts it in his front pocket.

I back my chin up to my neck.
 
“Safe?
 
What the hell does that mean?”
 
Okay, now I’m shaking from fear.
 
This is wrong.
 
I can feel it.
 
It was stupid for me to just get in his car.
 
He’s a felon for shit’s sake!
 
I don’t know him at all!

Colin stares at me and the hard lines of his face along with the tip of a tattoo I can see coming up to his neck from his chest over the top of his shirt are adding up into something I never fully appreciated before.
 
Trouble
.
 
There’s a reason he’s known as Trouble around town, and it’s definitely not because he’s a choirboy.
Gah! I am such a stupid asshole!

“You kidnapped me, didn’t you?”
 
I slap my hands down on the seat.
 
Anger is way better than fear.
 
I’m going to go with that emotion instead. “I cannot
believe
this!
 
Kidnapping is not supposed to happen in the real world!
 
It’s bad enough it happened to Teagan!
 
This is not a club I want to join! It’s not even civilized, Colin!”

He frowns at me like I’m the lunatic.
 
“I didn’t kidnap you, don’t be ridiculous.”
 
He gets out of the car and comes around to get my door.
 
“Just come inside and then I’ll bring you to Mick.”

I glare up at him as he stands in the open doorway.
 
“He didn’t tell you to get me, did he?”

“Could you please come inside with me?”

Part of me is saying I should shut the door and lock myself inside.
 
Another part is telling me to run, run, run for a populated area.
 
But the look on his face is speaking to another part of me; the part that sees a vulnerability there and nothing at all that looks like trouble.

“If I come with you, are you going to rape me?”

“Do you really think I’m capable of something like that?”

“Not before, but right now, I’m not so sure what you’re capable of.
 
This is kidnapping.
 
I wouldn’t have called you a kidnapper before.”

“It’s not kidnapping.
Jesus
.”
 
He runs his fingers through his hair.
 
“I just wanted to show you something without anyone else seeing it.”

“Is it your junk?”

He laughs and growls at the same time.
 
“No, for God’s sake, it’s not my junk.
 
If I wanted to show you the money I would have done it a long time ago.”

“I’ve only known you a few weeks,” I say, almost ready to put my foot outside the door.

“Like I said.
 
I would have shown you a long time ago.”
 
His sexy look is back and it’s not scary at all.

I swing my legs out and hold my hand up.
 
“Help me out of this stupid kidnapping mobile.
 
It’s too low to the ground.”

He takes my hand and acts like a complete gentlemen helping me out and shutting the door behind me.
 
Maybe I should be more nervous about the death march I’m probably about to take, but I’m not.
 
I’m kind of excited about what might be behind the curtain.
 
Or the door, I guess.
 
He’s leading me to the door of a building.
 
For the first time since our arrival, I notice what the place is.

“This is an art gallery,” I say.

“Yes, it is.
 
You’re very observant.”

“Shut up.”
 
I step up over the curb and stop in front of the door.
 
“Are you seriously taking me to look at art?
 
Is there such a thing as a kidnapping date?”

“First of all, it’s not a date.
 
And second of all it’s not a kidnapping.
 
And third of all…”

“Third of all, my ass.
 
I’ve been kidnapped.
 
Don’t try and take that away from me.”
 
I step up to the door and wait for him to open it.

“What, is that like earning some kind of medal?
 
To be kidnapped?”

“Well, I’ll tell you what … when I get back to the real world and I tell them about how you threw me in the car and I fought you off with my bare hands and handed you your ass on a platter, it’s going to be.”

“You’d better not tell anyone that,” he says grinning. “Rebel will kill me.”

“I think it’s Mick you’re going to have to worry about.
 
He’s supposed to be my date tonight.”

Colin pauses with his hand on the door.
 
“I don’t give a shit what that little asshole thinks.”

I frown at him.
 
“What’s the deal with you two?
 
Why all the bro-hate?
 
You guys are blood. What happened to brotherly love and all that stuff?”

“I don’t like what he does or what he stands for, so let’s just leave it at that.”

“Oh, no, no, no, no, sir, we are not going to just leave it at that.”
 
I cross my arms.
 
“Tell me the details.
 
I’m drooling here.”

“After I show you the money,” he says, smiling and opening the door.
 
A blast of air conditioning hits me in the bare arms, making me get goosebumps.

“I knew it.
 
You’re going to show me your junk in here, aren’t you?”
 
I step into the bright interior, trying to keep my eyes on him and not trip in the entrance at the same time.

“Nah.”
 
He lets the door swing shut behind him.
 
Leaning down so he can whisper in my ear, he says, “I’m going to show you my heart and soul.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

“COLIN!” AN OLDER WOMAN SAYS in a very smokey voice.
 
She’s just on the border of sounding like a frog; one thousand more cigarettes and she’ll be there. “So nice of you to come.
 
Please, please, come in and meet our guests.”

My jaw drops open as I take in the scene around me.
 
All I can think is,
Damn, good thing I did the smokey eye look tonight.
 
Every single person in the art gallery is wearing black … every single person except Colin and me, that is.
 
He’s in jeans and a t-shirt and I’m in my red top and bedazzled blue shorts that cost me a chunk of babysitting change.
 
I would fit in perfectly at a date consisting of dinner and a movie with a hot mechanic.
 
Here, I look like the cleaning crew.
 
I sigh, knowing I either need to slink around in the shadows or just own this thing.
 
I decide on the latter and raise my chin just a fraction of an inch.

The cigarette lady smiles at me indulgently.
 
“And who is your friend?”

“This is Quin.
 
She’s my brother’s girl and my biggest fan.”

I’m too shocked to respond.
 
He’s nervous, that much is clear from his voice.
 
And the fact that I’m his biggest fan after only seeing one painting is not only an honor, it also makes me sadder than I can remember being in a long time.

“Quin, this is Barbara.
 
She’s the lady who put on this show for me.
 
I finally answered her calls after you came to my apartment and told me I should.”

I shake her hand kind of numbly.

“So nice to meet Colin’s number one fan. Did he tell you how I found him?”

I shake my head, still unable to speak.