Criminal: A Bad-Boy Stepbrother Romance (6 page)

He stands upright, pulling off the cap of the beer
bottle with his bare hands, taking a long drink.

It looks like he's already had a few from the way his
face is flushed, and that pisses me off even more.

He looks between me and his 'date' for the night,
shrugging his shoulders.

"Get out," he orders her, casually.

"What?" She looks confused, not sure if
it's a joke, and she laughs. "You know I don't have a ride."

"Call your old man, then," he says, tossing
her his cell phone. "He can pick you up on the way."

Maybe it's the way he's looking at her like she has
no choice, or maybe it's because I'm trembling and looking like I'm
barely able to refrain from punching her, but she starts dialing and
goes out into the porch to finish the call. Kaiden and I stare at
each other in silence before she finally returns.

"He can't get me," she says, and Kaiden is
suddenly enraged, turning on her.

"I said get the fuck out. This isn't my fucking
problem, you cunt," he snarls with a scowl, and I wonder if he
picked her because he saw her laughing at me. If he was doing it to
punish her, or me... I didn't even know. She seems shaken by his
tone, though, and quickly makes for the door.

"You're fuckin' crazy, Kaiden!" she screams
before slamming the door shut. Seconds later, we hear the sound of
keys scraping metal. His bike? Or my car?

Either way, Kaiden doesn't budge.

He stares at me intensely, his breathing hard.

"What is it you want from me, Princess? Huh?"

I stare at him, confused bewildered.

"You come here, you fuck up my life, and you
take over everything. You come into my home, my job, and my friends.
And now you're the one that tells me who I sleep with?"

His voice is this measured calm, this dark, scary
tone I've never heard him use before.

Honestly, it's terrifying, and he looks so intense I
can barely breathe, let alone answer.

"I can't get you out of my head, and then you
start taking over my life too," he growls, and it's like there's
a heavy pit in my stomach. I don't want him to go on, I don't want
him to keep talking, and I take a step back. But he follows.

The kitchen is small enough that it only takes a
couple of steps before he has me pinned to the wall, one hand over my
shoulder, glowering down at me.

At six and a half feet tall, he's built like a truck,
and I feel so tiny.

"What do I have to do to get you out of here,
huh?" he asks, tapping his temple. "I've fucked every broad
that comes into that place, and not one of them can get you out. And
now I have to see you every goddamned day of my life, prancing around
like I'm the scum of the earth, and you're untouchable.”

He pauses, but he doesn’t stop. His words are
slurred and dark, his breath washing over me.

“I got away from you, I got my life back, and
then you come wandering back. Making me
want
you again, and
all the while, you act like you’re too fucking good for this
world. But if you eat with the pigs, Princess, you can't be surprised
when you get a bit dirty."

I can't believe what I'm hearing, and my heart is
pounding so loud that maybe I'm hearing it all wrong.

Is he saying that he feels for me the same way I feel
for him?

I stare up at him, and he leans closer, his mouth
approaching mine. I can smell the whiskey on his breath, and I want,
more than anything, to simply silence all my fears on his lips. To
just succumb to what I want so fucking bad.

His green eyes caress my face, his tongue runs along
his upper lip as he leans in further. He’s only an inch away,
and I want him. My stomach clenches with desire and I need him so
fucking bad.

Instead, I run.

I don't know where I'm going. I just need to get away
from him, from what he said.

From how it made me feel.

The road is so dark, I can barely see anything, even
with my lights on. Not a soul around.

I'm completely and utterly alone, and the sensation
is at once comforting yet so alienating.

Kaiden's words ring through my ears, the way he was
staring at me so intently. With such longing.

‘
Making me want you again...’

I had to have misunderstood. It just couldn't be
real. I didn't understand how it could be.

It's one thing for me to think about my step-brother
like this, but for the feelings to be mutual? That's just me
dreaming, wanting for something that can't ever, ever be.

I have to get out. Out of this town, out of this
state, somewhere as far from him and the bar and Ryder as I can get.

I drive for what feels like such a long time but must
have been only forty-five minutes.

The sky's turning that navy color, sunrise just an
hour or two away, and my eyes are grainy. I can barely keep them
open, all the adrenaline of the day taking its toll on me now.

I have no idea where I am, but when I see a sign for
a motel coming up, it seems my prayers are about to be answered.

Pulling into a parking spot near the road and walking
into the dimly lit lobby, I feel like a zombie, and the front desk
clerk doesn't seem much better. Her face is sour and tight, but all I
want is a bed for the night, to crash. To be alone and try to make
sense of what's happening.

"One night, please," I say, struggling to
smile.

"I'm sorry, we're full," she says in
return, not even bothering to look.

"But the sign says vacancy?" I press, more
angrily than I intend.

I can't believe my luck.

She shrugs. "We're full."

"You've gotta be shitting me!"

The glare she gives me says it all, and I'm too tired
to fight, too tired to even cry. A tremble goes through me, and I
suck in some breath before simply turning and making my way back to
my car.

I can't go on. I crawl into the back seat, pull the
itchy spare blanket over my shoulders, and just try to find some
peace.

It reminds me of those dark days after losing our
home, back when I still had too much pride to talk to Kaiden about
it, and I shiver despite the warmth of the night. I just need some
sleep, and then I can figure it all out tomorrow.

***

I wake up startled to a knocking on the window. At
first I'm not entirely sure where I am. It comes back to me, slowly.

I slept in the car again.

For a second, I picture Kaiden coming to find me, an
extra blanket and a warm coffee in hand, and I smile.

Until I see the early morning light spilling over the
cop at my window, lights flashing on his car parked not far away.

"Fuck," I curse to myself, bolting up. My
legs are cramped, and I have a kink in my neck, but I roll down the
window.

"Is there something wrong, officer?" I ask
before I see the desk clerk standing not far away, a smug look on her
rancid little face.

"I'm going to need you to step outside the
vehicle, miss."

***

"Kaiden... I know you're probably mad at me, but
if you get this, I really need your help. I'm at a police station in
Ramona, and if you don't pick me up, if someone doesn't pick me up,
I'm going to be transferred somewhere else. I don't really know
where. They impounded my car..."

I try not to sob as I'm leaving him the message, but
I've
never
been in trouble before. Never even been sent to the
principal’s office. But now I'm in jail, being threatened with
some half-baked vagrancy charge. I’d tried to explain over and
over that the motel was full and I just needed to sleep, that it
wasn't safe for me to drive, but they just kept telling me to tell it
to the judge.

I hang up the phone and get escorted back to my cell.
It's a gross grey-green color, not really like what I've seen on TV.
I guess because it's just lockup and not jail-jail. I go to the table
and sit at one of the chairs, listening to the sound of the person in
the bed retching something awful.

And all I can do is push my palms to my eyes and sob.

"Please, Kaiden," I whimper under my
breath. "Please come."

“Who’s Kaiden?”

I startle, wiping my eyes of their tears and try to
look... what? Hard? I’m an eighteen-year-old girl that looks
more like a high school cheerleader, not a thug.

I look into the face of a woman double my age at
least, who’s leaning on her knee in the dark corner of the top
bunk. I hadn’t realized that there were three of us in here.

“My brother,” I say too quickly, opening
up too fast. I’ve seen the TV shows, I know these people aren’t
on my side. But I’m so scared, and I want so badly for someone
to tell me it’ll be okay, and she looks like she’s been
here before.

“I’m sorry for, uh, waking you,” I
say as I wipe the rest of my eyes.

“Don’t worry about it, kid. Missy-moo
beneath me here is what’s keeping me up. Ever since they got
rid of the drunk tank, this place has gone downhill.” She gives
me a wry sort of smile, half-cunning, half-genuineness. She reminds
me of one of the customers at the bar. Someone that time and life
hasn’t been kind to.

But I guess we’re both in lockup, so maybe life
hasn’t been kind to either of us.

“Oh, yeah,” I reply, as if I know, but
she must be able to see me better than I can see her.

“Your hands are shaking. First time here?”

I look down at my hands before pressing my palms to
the table. “Yeah,” I murmur, honesty spilling from my
lips once more.

She hops down from the bed, away from the puddle
beneath our roommate’s face, and joins me at the table.

“What’re you in for?”

“Vagrancy,” I reply with a sneer, another
sob striking my chest. “I just... I ran away, and the motel was
full, so I was just sleeping in my car in the parking lot. I didn’t
know there was anything wrong with it!”

Her mouth goes into a line, the remnants of her lip
liner still visible. Watery blue eyes and light colored lashes peer
at me. “That’s a tough break, kid.”

“Why, what are you here for?”

She shrugs as if it’s nothing. “Solicitation.”
She pauses, then continues without needing to, “Prostitution, I
mean.”

I look away. “Oh.” My nose crinkles
before I force my eyes back to hers. “Is this... is it your
first time for that?”

She shakes her head and looks, for a second, so sad.

“Third time’s a charm, right sweetheart?”
she says, and my heart breaks for her. I don’t know the charges
or the sentence she’s facing, but I can’t imagine it’s
going to be lenient.

“I’m sorry,” I murmur gently.

She shakes her head and gives me a flimsy smile. “It
happens. But when you’re desperate, you take risks you wouldn’t
otherwise,” she says as she raises her chin towards me. “So
what has you on the run?”

“My brother...”

“The same one that you’re begging to come
get you?”

I laugh, the sound pathetic and soft. “Yup.”

Her face is instantly hard, and she leans in, talking
more quietly. “Has he hurt you? Laid hands on you?”