Page 36 of Where Angels Fall

They come fast after that, blurring the manicured grounds into a wash of green and stone. I keep my head bowed, shoulders curling inward, the polite posture I’ve had all afternoon, collapsing in on itself.

What happened at lunch wasn’t even bad, compared to the lunches and business meetings and life I’ve endured. But it feels like the dam that has been holding me together is fraying at the seams, overfilled and weak.

My breath turns ragged, chest heaving as I finally let myself cry. Not quiet tears. Not the elegant kind that I’ve seen women do in movies. These are ugly and desperate and loud enough that I have to clamp my hand over my mouth to muffle the sound.

The town car waits for me at the bottom of the steps, but I can’t will myself to move towards it. The mansion stands behind me, silent and unmoving, exactly how it always does, as I fall apart on its steps.

A familiar sound trickles into my awareness as I remain stuck in the same place. A hum of an engine that has me gasping.

But not in fear.

Heavy eyes glance up, and there he is. One of the twins, leaning against his bike with his back ramrod straight as he watches me, the same expressionless face as before. I assume it’s the one I’ve already caught spying on me, but it’s impossible to know. They move, talk, blink, think everything the same, it seems.

Finally, I move, striding up to him for reasons I can’t explain. He’s just outside the gate, hidden slightly by large pillars and neatly trimmed hedges. Usually, I’d panic about the possibility that my father might see him out front, but right now, my brain isn’t thinking clearly.

“Who hurt you?” a soft, deep voice rumbles out of him, raspy from disuse.

My lips part in shock at the sound of his voice, talking to me. His dark, bottomless eyes bore into me, his high cheekbones and sculpted jawline ticking as he waits for an answer. Probably the most expression I’ll ever see on him.

“No... Nobody. Noone,” I stammer, those black irises swallowing me whole.

He looks over my shoulder, assessing the environment, before his gaze searches me from head to toe.

“You are crying,” he says, matter of fact.

When he acknowledges my tears, more begin to pour out. I don’t know why, but they do. Standing on the sidewalk of my childhood house, in front of a gang member, crying. If I could read his stony, concrete expression, I’d bet he is feeling uncomfortable, to say the least, watching me weeping so pathetically.

“Who are you?” I ask through my tears. If I’m going to be crying in front of someone, I at least want it to be someone I know.

I know it’s ironic, seeing as he has already been... inside of me. That very thought makes me feel dizzy. But I need this. A name. A... friend? Not that I’d ever call us friends, but in my shoes, I can’t be picky.

“Kai,” his voice is so soft, so silky, confirming what I already thought.

“Kai,” I repeat in a whisper. “Will you take me to him?”

I don’t specify who him is, he knows who I’m talking about.

Kai watches me before nodding once, just the slightest dip of his chin. Blink and you’d miss it. He turns towards his rumbling bike, gripping the helmet in his hand before silently strapping it to my head. With a firm shake, he ensures its tight enough, but all I can focus on is the rapid beating of my heart caused by the thought of hopping on that bike.

I watch him swing a muscular leg over the seat, the engine roaring to life beneath his grip as he revs it, the sound low and feral. When he reaches back to help me up, my breath stutters. The faint circular scars trailing from the back of his hands up into his jacket catch the light. The same ones I saw when I first caught him watching me.

He notices me staring, his expression growing dark when he realises what I’m staring at. In the blink of an eye, he straightens his face into the vacant mask he had on before.

I take his scarred hand and settle onto the bike behind him, wrapping my arms tight against the muscular plane of his stomach. I feel each ab under my fingers, the cut muscle thick and taught.

I wait for the fear of what I’m about to do to hit me, but it seems my desperation to be anywhere but here has taken away the room for fear. Though my stomach flips as the wind begins to whip through my hair, a squeal falling out of my lips. I’ve never been on the back of a motorbike; the feeling is so different from anything I’ve experienced.

Kai weaves in and out of the traffic, his thick black hair moving with the wind. I can’t help the way my smile stretches over my lips as I watch each car disappear like a blur as we speed past them. It’s like I’m flying.

I giggle into the air, letting the wind tug at me, feeling freer than I ever have before. This must be what birds feel like, soaring in the sky.

“Hold on tight,” Kai demands over the whipping wind.

And I do, wrapping my arms tighter around his firm body, just in time as his wrists flex, revving the accelerator. The front wheel of the bike lifts off the ground. I scream as I feel like we are going to fall backwards, but Kai controls the weight, keeping us sustained in the air.

When the front tire slams back into the road, I throw my head back and the most carefree laugh tumbles out. One I didn’t think I was capable of.

Especially not today.