The Unfortunates (Unfortunate #1) (30 page)

“Suit yourself
,” Vince said with a shrug as he stuffed one of his hands into the pocket of his black slacks. “You know, you should try being less intense. You’d have more friends.”

Kade sighed. “You finished?”

“No, not really. I can go on and on, if you want.”

Despite the slow morning he knew he had
, he wasn’t about to waste time listening to Vince give him tips on how to be ‘warmer.’ “Nope, get out.”

His lips curled into a wicked grin as he took a step back. “See you ‘round, brother.”

He whirled on his heel and strolled casually from the room—as if he owned it. It wasn’t surprising. Vince had spent his whole life walking around the manor like he owned it. Kade let him be. It didn’t bother him as long as Vince stayed out of his room and away from his things. It was hard being raised by Fortunates who weren’t his parents. Most of the time, the heads of the household lived in Freeport City and only come out to the suburbs when there’s a party or to visit with their children. The city was what kept this world alive. Or so the Fortunates on the outside were told. Those who weren’t directly involved with the city were on a ‘need to know basis.’ No one spoke about it and the schools didn’t teach it. Kade had always wondered what was so secretive about the city. Why couldn’t outsiders go in? Why could you only drive cars inside the city? What were they hiding? The questions circulating around his head had plagued him since he was a little boy. In a way, he was just like Nine, filled with curiosity, only he was smart enough not to voice it.

With Vince gone, Kade could breathe easier. It put him on edge to see
his brother this morning. He couldn’t help but wonder if he knew of their plans to kill Michael tonight. It was impossible for him to know, of course, but seeing Vince so early and so smug set him on high alert. He ran his hand over his face, clearing away leftover sleep. It was slightly chilly this morning—much colder than it had been the past few mornings. As he shut his eyes, he was unable to avoid the onslaught of images in his head.
Her perfect breasts… so perky and firm.
Instantly, he felt his balls tighten and he opened his eyes. He was not about to reflect on the images of last night. He’d never thought about the sex the morning after—hell, he’d never thought about the sex the second he drained himself—and he wasn’t about to start now. No.
It’s a normal, physical response to stress,
Kade thought. When you’re stressed, you fuck. When you fuck, you’re not stressed. That was how it worked. For some odd reason, though, the belief didn’t strengthen in his stomach… because his body didn’t believe it. He could feel it in the way his blood rushed whenever he thought of her, of last night. He was stressed, sure, but he knew deep down he was looking for an excuse to call her back in here.

Kade sat back in his chair with a heavy exhale. He couldn’t stomach seeing Nine, not after he
’d sent her away. She glared at him. Her jaw was taut and her fists clenched… not that he blamed her. He shook his head.
She is an Unfortunate. A slave. A separate class entirely.
He needed to remember that or he was going to fuck everything up. Nine or no Nine, Kade needed to stick to his plan. He needed to make it into the city.

∞

Kade spent the morning lounging around his room, fighting the urge to summon Nine and explain himself. He decided she was better off holding some kind of bitter hatred towards him. Who knows, maybe it’d even come in handy and keep her alive. After lunch, he went to a small meeting in the Miller Manor to discuss produce. They were having trouble with a few of their trucks. Apparently, their haul of apples this season was tremendous and they needed bigger vehicles. Being a lover of apples as well as berries, Kade offered one of his unused hauling trucks. It was much too big and expensive to use on apples, but Kade figured it wouldn’t hurt to piss off his father one last time before he killed him. He almost smiled.

When he got back from the meeting, it
was late—seven maybe. Kade had stayed at the Millers’ as long as he could. He wanted something, anything he could use as an excuse so he didn’t have to come back to his own house. The whole time at the Millers’, Elizabeth ignored him. He found it amusing as he sat across the room from her and watched as she tried (and failed) to stop her eyes from flicking to him. She was still pissed about what happened at the Black House after he killed the Unfortunate. It’d be a very, very long time before she spoke to him again. The last time Elizabeth ignored Kade, it lasted four months.

Kade was kind of happy she wasn’t talking to him. The less stress the better and that was the only thing Elizabeth dealt in.

He pulled off his jacket and tossed it onto his bed. He was sore all over from his shoulder blades down to his calves. He didn’t often sit down for long periods of time, but when he did his body really felt it. And it
sucked.
As he loosened his deep navy tie, Portia passed by his door.

“Portia!” Her name flew out of his mouth before his brain had a chance to register it.

“Yes, Master Kade?” She stood in front of his door with her hands held firmly behind her back.
How hard is it for Nine to do that? It’s not rocket science. Keep your mouth shut, hold your hands behind your back, and address me properly.

“Nine, where is she?”

A small, black curl fell onto her forehead. “She’s in her room, sir.”

He inhaled and pulled on his tie. As it slipped off, he tossed it onto the bed. “Send her up.”

It was his cock talking, not his brain, but he did nothing to silence it. It’d been a long day and it wouldn’t hurt to indulge in his gift… of course, he was going to have to seduce said gift into doing anything. Kade knew she wasn’t going to be impressed with him, not in the slightest.

“Yes, Master Kade
,” she said and her white tunic flicked out behind her as she whirled on her heel and hurried off.

To take the edge off, Kade waltzed over to his desk and poured himself a small glass of
whiskey. Instead of sipping at it, Kade flicked it with his wrist and watched as the honey coloured liquid swirled in the glass. As he sipped at it and the cool, smooth liquid rolled down his throat, he closed his eyes. The whiskey tickled his lips and the aroma wafted up his nostrils. Before Nine showed up, the smell of whiskey was his favourite scent. He didn’t even want to admit to himself what it was now. Lowering his glass, Kade sauntered around his desk and dropped into his chair. Barely three minutes later, Nine strolled into his room and shut the door behind her. She’d changed from her blue and white dress. The one she wore now was a light pink and tied up on the shoulder. Kade noticed immediately that she looked different—fiercer, less naïve. He liked it.

She eyed him at his computer, looking suspiciously tense
, and he took note of it. “You all right, Nine?”

Her features narrow.
Beautiful, but stupid.
“I’m Nine again, am I?”

She folded her arms—another forbidden gesture in the presence o
f a Fortunate, another thing she isn’t going to care about when he called her out for it.

“We’re alone,”
he stated obviously. “So, yes, you’re Nine again.”

She
surged forward, hurt glistening in her eyes. “You didn’t have to send me away,” she proclaimed as she stepped around the corner of his desk, stopping once her hips bumped into the wood.

“Vince was here. I most certainly had to.”

She frowned. “You don’t care that you hurt my feelings?”

Kade didn’t like the tone in her voice—the demanding, the authority. Her tiny body jumped as he slammed his palms down on the smooth wood. An itchy burn crepitated over the surface and he pushed himself to his feet. “You forget your place, Unfortunate!”
Nine’s face fell as regret leaked over her features, but it did nothing to deter his anger. “You have no claim on me. I don’t owe you anything.”

He glanced at the clock on the bottom left corner of his screen. His father would be returning to his room to prepare for dinner any minute now. How one man changed his clothes so often in a day was beyond him. He softened his tone. “If we want to kill Michael, we have to act now. If we pull this off…
then
I owe you something, but don’t think for a second that I answer to you.
You
are the one who refers to Fortunates as Master, Ma’am, or Miss, and
you
are the one who was born beneath everyone else.” His tongue kept moving, spitting out words he didn’t want to say, but knew she needed to hear. “What I take from you is what
you
owe
me
. What I give to you in return is a gift.”

Her stare dropped to the table as she absorbed his words. To his surprise, she was being extremely placid. Perhaps he’d hurt her too much for her to want to fight back.

“I can’t save you from this world,” he muttered, dragging the tip of his index finger along the desk. “Even though I offered you freedom, you know it doesn’t exist, right?”

She nodded and
a strand of her long, auburn hair fell into her face.

“I’m skating on thin ice,” he continued. “Just like you. Beyond Fortunate and Unfortunate we can never be anything else.”

“But do you want to be?” she asked, her voice small and hesitant.

“What?”

“Not being allowed to do something means nothing to me. Rules and regulations, that’s not what I want to hear.” She cleared her throat nervously, her cheeks flushing a light pink. “Last night was beyond being a Fortunate and Unfortunate. You cared…you held me and made sure I was comfortable. If we could, would you want to be more than what we are?”

Kade huffed. He tried to let her down easy, he did, but she was basically begging for him to tear her heart right out of her chest. He was aware how much he mea
nt to her… over the past few weeks, since he saved her, he saw the way she regarded him and how it had changed from scared and curious to excited and adoring. In her eyes, he was her protector—her saviour. No longer had he held the title of her tormentor. That changed the second she ground her hips into his and made him come in his pants. Her attitude was so like a Fortunate that every sliver of power he gave her, she absorbed like water to a sponge and wanted more.

Stuck, he didn’t know how to answer her question. He was clearly her hope… she relied on him now and he was certain he’d become the centre of her universe… but what happened when the sun dies out? Slowly, the Earth would die. If he destroyed Nine’s hope… would she wither away and die? He didn’t want that.

“It’s not fair to ask me such a question. Why would I admit something that might never be possible? Misleading you wouldn’t be fair.”

Yet another statement
that didn’t make sense.

“I just want to know, Kade. I want to know if I’m the only one who is affected by all of this.”

She wasn’t. “I can keep you forever, Nine, but I can’t feel anything for you. In life, I value power and control, not love and companionship,”

“And once you kill your father and we move into the city, then what?”

That was a question he hadn’t pondered. Once he murdered his father, then what?

“Our window is shrinking.”
He was done with the conversation. He didn’t need Nine in his head right before he took his father’s life. With a swift nod, Nine wiped the palms of her hands down the front of her dress. “So I distract your father and you kill him?”

“As simple as that.”

Abruptly, she turned on her heel and headed for the door. There was a slump in her shoulders and it made him feel like shit. He knew he shouldn’t drag her into his problems… but she was the only person he trusted. She was the only person he wanted to share his problems with.

“Nine…” Shit. He swallowed air as her name fell from his lips
and she stopped as he bit his tongue.

He wanted to tell her to sit this one out and wait for him to come back. After all, she was an innocent that he was using to make his job that little
bit easier. Glancing over her shoulder, her violet eyes looked hopeful. She wanted out and he didn’t blame her. However, if he showed her compassion and let her out now, it would go against everything he’d just said.

“Remember, keep your touches light and move on the tips of your toes.”

Her hopeful stare fell, the pretty violet shade seemingly more cloudy than clear.
Fuck.
That wasn’t what he wanted to say at all.

“And no ki
ssing,” she added. “Got it.”

She left then, and he would follow shortly. The no kissing rule was a rash decision he made when the thought of her supple, moist lips pressing against his fathe
r’s entered his mind. Kade didn’t want his father to experience something so heavenly before his death. He knew his rule made it harder on Nine. To seduce someone into incoherence without touching them was a skill not many had and not many could master. This night, he knew his plan would either work… Or fail. And god help them if it failed.

∞ Nine ∞

Who does he think he is?
Asshole
. I make my way down the stairs and I see him move along the hallway out of the corner of my eye. From my own observation, I know Michael sleeps in a room on the lower level by one of the main sitting rooms. I don’t know why he chooses to sleep on the lower floor, but it seems he wants to be as close to the front exit as he possibly can. Movement in this end of the manor is low at this time of night. Most guests are either outside and waiting for dinner or in their rooms dressing. According to Kade, Michael will be in his room any minute now for a wardrobe change. I approach his room, my hands shaking as I reach for the door handle. I slip inside.