Rocking Kin (The Lucy & Harris Novella Series Book 3) (12 page)

Something I’d gotten, but it had been at the expense of not only Kin’s feelings but nearly my life after what had followed.

The show had left me more pumped up than usual. Adrenaline was rushing through my blood making me high from the way the entire club had been chanting the band’s name. Maybe it was because Kin had been standing front and center with Lucy and I’d felt her eyes on me during the entire show. Maybe it was because I was so excited for Kassa to get to town and spend some time with her after not seeing her for so many months.

Either way, I was hyped up more than usual after the show. Gray, Kale, Sin, and Cash bailed not long after the last song. I figured they were going to go hang at my apartment with Gray or find a hookup for the night. What I was feeling had been contagious for the other four Tainted Knight guys and they had been practically humming with the energy pouring off of them.

I’d found Kin and Lucy already up on the VIP floor, already laughing with Harris who was sitting so close to Lucy she might was well have been on his lap. As soon as I sat down on the arm of the leather couch beside Kin, however, she lost her grin and her laughter had faded into a cool glare.

She was still pissed at me. I wasn’t blind to the fact that she was holding on to her anger at me like a shield. I had no clue what was going on in her life outside of what I saw when she came to First Bass, but from the emptiness in her big blue eyes I could guess things weren’t good at home for her. I wanted to pull her into my arms, hold her close like I used to do when life seemed to be throwing curve balls at her.

Knowing that doing that would probably get me a knee to the balls, or one of her deadly right hooks to the jaw, I didn’t reach for her. I was trying to be patient, but, fuck, a guy could only take so much before the coldness thrown his way started causing frostbite. So, instead of sending the groupie who had approached me not even five minutes after I’d sat down on her way, I wrapped an arm around her waist and waited to see if Kin still cared even a fraction of the way she once had.

As soon as the groupie had leaned in to whisper in my ear—what, I couldn’t say because I wasn’t even paying attention to the chick—I’d felt Kin tense beside me. I’d shot her a quick glance over my shoulder to see the expression on her face, but she wasn’t even looking at me right then.

Clenching my jaw, I’d turned back to the chick in my arms and let my lips skim over hers. The kiss had been short, but the chick had been instantly affected. I’d heard her indrawn breath, felt the way she’d pressed her chest harder against my own. Her manicured nails had thrust into my hair, holding me against her longer than I had originally planned. I hadn’t stopped her, though. I’d let her lead the kiss, giving her everything she was silently pleading for, but my mind wasn’t on the kiss.

It was on Kin. I hoped her heart was stinging right then. I hoped she got so jealous she ripped the chick’s hair out as she pulled her away from me. Fuck, I hoped she punched me in the face and told me to go to hell. I wanted all of those reaction and more. If she did that then I knew she wasn’t immune to me like she continued to tell me she was.

None of those things happened.

An ice cold drink was poured over my head, at least half of it hitting the chick I was kissing. Jerking up, I took in what was happening within a few seconds. Lucy had emptied her glass of ginger ale over me and the chick…

And Kin was gone.

Harris groaned loudly and snatched the cup from Lucy’s hands as she glared down at me like she was about to rip me a new one. That Kin was gone cut like a knife and I wanted to scream in frustration. Had she bailed? Was she bored with what I was doing…

Or had she left because she couldn’t stand to see me kissing someone else?

I didn’t know, and that just pissed me off. I jumped to my feet. “Fucking hell, Lucy. What is your problem?” I took a step closer to her, but before I could get so much as an inch closer to the girl, Harris was suddenly standing between us.

The look in my friend’s eyes was something I had never seen before. Rage was rolling off him in waves, his fists balled at his sides as his wild eyes met mine. “You don’t talk to her like that. Ever.” Harris’s voice had been low, but no less full of fury. He was practically shaking with reaction. “I will fuck you up fast if you touch her.”

Some of my own anger faded as I wiped ginger ale out of my face. “Whoa, bro,” I said, trying to calm him down. “I wasn’t going to touch her. I don’t hit chicks.”

I’d never raised my hand to a female in my life. Not only because I knew Alicia would have kicked my ass and then dropped me into the best military school in the country, but also because of Kassa. I would never show her what kind of evil pricks there were in the world. Our old man had liked to hit our mother and even me when I wasn’t fast enough to find a good hiding place. I’d made sure Kassa was never hit, though. Even as a kid I probably would have killed the sonofabitch if he had tried to touch my baby sister in any way.

Lucy calmed down instantly at the sight of Harris’s rage. She reached for his hand, trying to turn him to face her. “Harris, relax.”

His eyes locked on mine, which led to an intense stare down. Fuck. Harris knew I would never raise a hand toward any chick, especially not his Lucy. The stare down went on and on and I was starting to realize that I was probably about to have an actual brawl with the guy who was one of my closest friends. Hell, my
only
friend. I didn’t want to fight him, but if I had to, I wouldn’t back down.

Lucy, having no luck grabbing Harris’s attention, suddenly pushed her way between the two of us. It was weird seeing the girl who was barely five foot five standing in front of the beast that was Harris Cutter. Harris stood at least a foot taller than her, with the top of her head barely reaching his shoulders. She looked so small standing there in front of him, the lamb trying to calm the lion.

She cupped his face in her hands and stood on tiptoes to attempt to bring them to the same eye level. There were still a handful of inches keeping that from happening though. “Hey, hey,” she said, keeping her voice soft and calm, but loud enough to be heard over the music and the crowd that was upstairs with us. “Harris? Hey, come on. Look at me.”

Harris only tensed even more at her touch and all thoughts of worrying if I was going to have to fight my friend flew out the window at the thought that with him that pissed he could hurt Lucy by mistake. “Lucy,” I said, touching her arm, “maybe you shouldn’t stand so close to him like this. He’s shaking he’s so pissed.”

Harris moved so quick I didn’t immediately react. He reached past Lucy, pushing me back with one arm while the other wrapped around Lucy’s waist and pulled her against him like he was never going to let her go. “Don’t fucking touch her,” he roared.

“Dude, what the fuck?” I growled when I’d righted myself. “I was just trying to get her out of the way in case you turned into the Incredible Hulk on her. Chill out. I was just looking out for her.” I stabbed my fingers through my hair, noticing that it was still soaked with the soda, and already sticky as hell. Fed up, I shook my head at him. “Fuck this shit. I’m going home, man. Call me when your brain starts working again.”

I left—without the groupie who had been all over me earlier—and went straight home. After a long shower where I had to wash my hair twice just to get all the stickiness out, I fell into bed with my phone already out. Like the fucker who was such a glutton for punishment, I pulled up Kin’s contact info and tried to call her.

It went straight to voice mail after only one ring. Gritting my teeth, I dropped my hand and glared at the ceiling. At least she hadn’t blocked my number. Something I had expected her to do weeks ago with the way I called her so often. If she really wanted nothing to do with me, wouldn’t she have blocked me a long time ago?

That thought put a small grin on my face and it was still there when I rolled over onto my stomach and fell asleep.

That had been four weeks ago. She hadn’t returned any of my calls during that time, and I’d barely seen her but she still hadn’t blocked my number. And it was taking her longer and longer to send me to her voice mail lately. A rational guy would have given up by now, I was sure, but I couldn’t let her go. The more she avoided me the more I realized what an ass I’d been and I was desperate to get that girl back.

It was Wednesday and I figured it was the only chance I would have that week to see her, so I got my ass out of bed and into the shower. I wasn’t going to waste a chance to spend a few hours with Kin, even if all she did was ignore me like she normally did.

I was grabbing my keys when my phone started going off and I quickly pulled the phone out of my jeans pocket. “Kassa?”

“Hey,” she greeted, but there was something in her voice that told me my sister wasn’t her normal self. That had me pausing with my hand on the door.

“What’s wrong?” I demanded, fear lacing my voice. Alicia was supposed to have her scan the week before and I knew that she was waiting on the results. Had they come back?

“Nothing,” Kassa started, but I made a disbelieving noise that had her blowing out a sigh. “I’m just lonely, Jace. I miss you and Gray. Alicia seems to be working even more lately even though the doctor told her to take it easy.” I heard a quiver in her voice and my gut twisted. “I hate being alone all the time.”

“Christmas is only a few weeks away, Kas. You could fly out here,” I tried to convince her but knew that wasn’t what she really needed. Kassa had always had me and Gray to comfort her, we had always been there when she needed a pair of arms to hug her if she was having a bad day. We’d always been there to let her snuggle or cuddle. My sister wasn’t a needy chick, but she had never had to be because between me and Gray, we’d always been just a step behind her to offer her the support she needed.

Now, we were on the other side of the country and she was left alone the majority of the time. Phone calls and FaceTime didn’t make up for warm hugs.

“I don’t want to leave Alicia,” Kassa reminded me not for the first time, and I gritted my teeth.

Alicia had been told repeatedly by her doctor in the last few weeks to take time out from work to get better. She’d been having more and more migraines but the more often she was sick the harder she worked, leaving Kassa alone to the point that she was basically the only one living in the house we’d grown up in. Kassa had school and other activities to hold her attention, but there was no one there to talk to once she got home. No one to tell about her day until she called me and Gray.

“Kassa…” I didn’t know what to say to make her feel better. I couldn’t fly home for Christmas because Tainted Knights was expected to play every week, and if she didn’t want to leave Alicia I knew there was no way I could talk her into getting on a plane to come to California. We both knew that Alicia wasn’t going to take the time off work, not even for the approaching holidays.

“I didn’t call you to cry on your shoulder, Jace,” Kassa grumbled. “I just wanted to check in on you. I haven’t talked to you in a day or so.”

“I lost my phone two days ago,” I explained. It had taken me hours to find it at First Bass. It had fallen out of my pocket and gotten stuck between two cushions. The battery had died so I had been unable to call it so I could listen for the damn thing before the club had opened the night before. I’d been about to start slicing leather cushions when I’d finally found the fucking thing.

“I figured,” she said with a small laugh. “Gray said you were fine when I talked to him, but I know how you two are. To him, fine only means that you are still breathing. Anything else is trivial to you guys.”

I ran a hand through my hair, grinning. “Yeah, you’re right.”

“So, how are things with you and Kin? Getting anywhere with her?”

“I’m working on it,” I assured her.

“Good. I like Kin. She busts your balls. Not many chicks can do that.” There was a pause on her end and I realized she was getting an incoming call. “Crap, that’s Gray. I’d better answer it before he has another hissy.”

“Another one?” I couldn’t keep from asking.

“It’s a long story,” Kassa told me with a groan. “I’ll tell you about it later. I have to take this before he loses his shit and I have to spend three hours talking him out of getting on a damn plane.”

My eyes widened at that but I told my sister I loved her before hanging up. Gray wasn’t normally an emotional kind of guy, but then again, where my sister was concerned he was anything but his normal self. Shaking my head, I finally opened the apartment door and left, hoping that Kin would come to open mike so I could see her again.

Chapter 11

Kin

“Are you planning on going out tonight?”

I lifted my head from my history textbook and lifted a brow at my step-monster. What the hell was she doing in my room? I hadn’t even heard her open the door, but there she was, standing over my bed like she had every right to invade my privacy. “I’m going to First Bass with Lucy.”

Jillian nodded. “Good. Georgia is going with you.”

I sat up on my bed quickly. “No, she isn’t.” No way was I going out with Georgia. Not to First Bass, not anywhere. First Bass, like Lucy’s house, was becoming my safe haven and I wasn’t about to let Georgia spoil that for me. And I sure as hell didn’t want her there to listen to one of my new songs I’d written in the last few weeks.

Jillian crossed her arms over her very fake chest and lifted both her brows at me. “Yes, she is. Georgia needs more exposure. I want her in the tabloids just as much as you are these days. That means she needs to show up at First Bass with you and that Thornton girl. I want to see her on TMZ tomorrow night, McKinley. Being seen with you and the rocker’s kid will accomplish that.”