My Delicate Destruction: Book One of the Wolfegang Series (3 page)

“Come sit with me?” he asked, offering me his hand.

I debated for a second if that was a good idea, then I looked into his eyes and my doubts disappeared. I could never resist those eyes.

“Sure,” I answered.

He took me outside to the front porch and we sat on the swing. It was a familiar place to me. I had spent many afternoons and summers here with him.

The air was cool on my skin. I enjoyed it after the long, hot summer months that finally seemed to be ending.

I sat back and tried to relax, but the memories were starting to make me nervous. If it didn’t work back then, why would it now? I kept my eyes down, contemplating the contents of my beer. One of my hands fiddled with the ends of my hair.

“You look nervous,” he noted. He didn’t touch me, but he was close enough that I could feel him on my skin.

“A little,” I admitted.

“You always play with your hair when you’re nervous,” he said, a small smile on his lips. He tugged a lock of my hair playfully.

I let my hand fall to my lap. I took a deep breath and asked the question that had been nagging at me since he had first spoken to me that day. “What made you decide to change your mind?”

He looked at me, tracing my face with his gaze, and told me. “Every relationship felt so empty, it didn’t really have any meaning. When I saw you today I realized why. None of them were you.” He smiled softly and touched my face.

I didn’t know what to say. I wanted to believe him, I really did, but it sounded so cliché.

“I want to have more in a relationship than just the physical, and you gave me everything you had with no doubt, completely trusting. I realized how hard that is to find. I was stupid and young; I could have ruined the best thing I ever had. I just hope you will forgive me.”

Well, when he put it that way, it was a lot more convincing. I couldn’t help but to give him another chance.

“Of course I forgive you,” I said, putting my hand on his leg to add reassurance. “I’m just glad you changed your mind.”

Almost two years before, when both of us were still in high school, we had an argument. Not unusual for a couple of three years, but for us it festered. It dug deeper in our minds and wouldn’t let go. He wanted me to be someone I wasn’t. He wanted me to quit putting myself in danger by racing, said he cared too much. I wouldn’t quit, and I hit rock bottom, finding new and challenging ways to race, the more dangerous the better. Kris was dying, and I needed to feel like I was living, enough for the both of us. Kevin walked away from me, saying he couldn’t stand by and watch me destroy myself.

After we broke up I was devastated and felt betrayed. I never wanted to see him again. But the underground racing world was more like a family than I could imagine. He was everywhere I went, all the time. It took me a few months to stop losing and learn how to regain my concentration, because he just made me so goddamn nervous.

Then that wreck happened. We had raced against each other, just the two of us, and I lost it. I lost my control and my mind. I slammed into a wall so fast I didn’t wake up for days.

He never came and saw me, and that’s when Trent informed me of the new addition to his love life: Crystal.

Time did weird things. It confused me, yet it helped me. But the wound in my heart never left. It was just a familiar ache I learned to live with. I learned to forgive and move on. It took me forever, but I began to understand where he was coming from. I slowed down, and learned safety and skill.

And now, that fabled second chance was presenting itself to us, and I wondered if we would take it.

Then he brought me closer and kissed me softly, his arms wrapping around me so I was as close as possible. My fingers tightened on his neck. He kissed me harder; demanding. I pressed my body into his. It seemed to last forever and I never wanted it to stop. I lost myself in his kiss.

He pulled away with a low growl. “Damn it. I forgot how good you taste,” he said. “You’re still the only one who can make me lose control.”

I didn’t seem able to speak yet so I touched his cheek and smiled.

“Dance with me,” he demanded.

“What -” he interrupted whatever I was going to ask and pulled me up and back into the house.

The music was throbbing and twisting slowly. It seemed to sneak its way into my body until I swayed with the rhythm. Kevin was a fantastic dancer. His hands were on my hips, directing me while his fingers trailed along my bare skin. I let myself go; let all my worries and stress go, until all that was in my mind was the music and the feel of his touch. I leaned against him, resting my face in his neck and wound my arms around his neck as we twisted, spun, and moved. He slid his hands up and down my back, holding me.

Before I knew it, he was kissing me again and all I could do was kiss him back, trusting him to keep our bodies moving.

I was wrenched away and slapped so hard my face whipped to the side.

I touched my cheek in shock and looked up. I saw Crystal, livid with rage.

My answering anger was so hot it coursed through me and I lost control. I punched her hard, her nose broke under my fist, and she dropped. All I saw was red.

“Sorry about the nose job,” I spat.

Blood gushed from her face and I noticed V at my side.

“I would suggest you leave before I turn this into a real catfight, bitch. I promise, that’s not something you want to experience,” Victoria said.

Crystal glared at us. If only looks could kill.

She got up and ran out the door. The room which had been abnormally quiet during our scuffle went back to the conversations, flirting, and drinking.

I took a deep breath and Victoria was smiling again. Two scuffles in one night weren’t even close to our record.

Kevin put his arm around me possessively, staring Victoria down.

“Oh come on, stud muffin,” she teased. “Let her dance with her friend. Just don’t forget I had her first.” She led me away with a wicked grin on her face. I tried not to be so obviously embarrassed.

A new song came on. It had an exotic beat. It was darker, sexier, and slower. We twisted and turned, our hips shaking in sync with each other. I laughed as I saw Kevin’s eyes watching us, dark and unreadable. The corner of his mouth lifted a little, almost a smile. We seemed to be gathering an audience. I noticed Trent. His eyes were unrelenting as he watched V.

When the song ended there was cheering and we were handed more beers. V went over to Trent and whispered something in his ear, his face turning bright red.

I turned to Kevin. He grinned and started to cross the room. I went to move forward but the floor slid out from underneath me, I felt the blood drain from my face. My eyes went wide, and I felt terrified and had no idea why. I tried to catch myself, but I couldn’t seem to be able to grasp anything, and the ringing in my ears drowning everything else out. My vision was shrouded by a grey cloud and everything tingled with an oddly numb sensation. Vaguely I heard someone yelling my name. It sounded like it was through water: indistinct.

My body was caught before I hit the floor. I tried to hold onto the last shred of consciousness. There was yelling and muttered words. It was weird how nothing hurt but everything ached and twisted. I felt lost as the grey slipped into black, and I wondered if I would wake up this time.

She wasn’t moving. Kris wasn’t sure what to think. Ever since he got the call from their panicked mother he wondered how far she’d gone. Did she finally lose herself in that dangerous world of hers? He didn’t want to think about it. Kat wouldn’t betray his trust like that.

Kris sat in one of the visitor’s chairs in her hospital room while they waited for her to wake up. He watched the IV slowly drip fluid, and tried to drown out the sound of his mother crying and their father failing to comfort her. He was never very good at it and even worse after the divorce. Kris was just glad he hadn’t brought his stepmother. That woman irritated him. Her voice was like nails on a chalkboard.

His foot jiggled and his eyes never left his twin’s face. She was deathly pale, and if he hadn’t been paying such close attention he would have thought she wasn’t breathing.

Kris tried to forget the look on Kevin’s face when he brought her in. He hated him for hurting Kat when he broke her heart years before. Now Kevin stood by helplessly, looking scared as he watched the nurses and doctors hook Kris’ twin up to machines and IVs. Seeing a huge guy like that afraid was disconcerting. Kevin was probably somehow blaming himself.

Kris knew that look. People looked at him like that, ever since he was diagnosed with cancer. They looked at him like they just knew there was nothing they could do and that he wasn’t going to make it. Kat never looked at him like that.

Kris was afraid, but he would never let her see it. She was the one who was supposed to live. He knew he was going to die one day soon, but he could not handle knowing his sister might share his fate.

His leg jiggled faster.

He would take care of her and she would get better. She would live and he would live through her until it was his time. He knew his thoughts were morbid, but when you had doctors telling you that you weren’t going to make it for five years, you get used to the idea of death.

But not her. Never her.

Kat was his best friend, his sister, his twin, his other half. Some people think that twins have a bond that’s like no other. They were fraternal twins; but their DNA coding was only a chromosome or two off from being identical, and they looked as similar as a set of one boy and one girl could look.

She was a few inches shorter, but not by much, her hair was a touch darker than his and long. She was strong, not one of those stick-thin girls, but her bone structure was almost delicate. He saw his face in hers, though her lips were fuller. They had identical eyes, a rare grey that changed in intensity. Some days they were clear like a calm overcast day, and some days they were dark and nasty storm clouds. There were times when they could speak without talking.

He would never let her die if he had something to say about it.

His gaze fell on their mother and father. Kris was furious at their parents, if only they had paid more attention. Grandfather was the only one who saw both of them sliding away, trying to lose reality, anything to hide from the constant yelling and fighting. He was always there when they needed to talk.

If only Grandfather was here now. He would make this all right. But he wasn’t. So Kris would do it himself. He would make sure that Kat was taken care of.

“Stop that,” his father snapped.

Kris stilled his leg. He hated his father. He hated how he had cheated and broken their family apart. He hated that he was the reason Kris lost his belief in love and marriage.

His eyes fastened on the IV again, and he watched the fluid slowly drip from the bag into the tube. She would wake up. He knew she would. He would wait here forever if he had to. In his heart he knew they were still children holding onto the belief of magic…if she lived so would he, she told him, because they were twins. Now it was his turn to be the one to pull her back from the edge, as she had for him so many times.

There was a beeping noise that sounded far away. I felt so confused; I couldn’t remember what had happened, and I didn’t know where I was. My throat felt raw, as if I had been screaming for hours.

I cracked an eye open. The light was way too bright; I shut my eye against the burning glare and lifted my hand up to move the hair out of my face. Something pulled back as I moved; I looked and saw a tube sticking out of my hand.