Ryder hadn’t said anything about the kiss, or anything that happened in his kitchen for that matter. We were both acting like it didn’t happen. I secretly hoped he’d bring it up though.
The same what if questions spun through my mind. What if Caine didn’t arrive at his doorstep? What if the kiss turned into something else? What if he regretted it?
It was giving me a headache.
And what gave me even more of a headache was the fact that I saw Chris Baker, looking high and mighty as he strutted down the street with a giggling blonde. Cotton Dean. The girl really did live up to her name, considering her brain consisted of mostly fluff. I frowned at them as they walked together, watching as Cotton let out a little girly shriek of laughter as Chris whispered something in her ear.
Seeing Chris with another girl wasn’t a bother. I now knew that he was trouble and was only using me for God knows what, but the fact that he was there annoyed me. I hadn’t really thought about our disastrous date since Ryder had kept me seriously distracted, but now that he was there and heading over to our stall, made me clench my fists.
Although Chris was wearing a pair of shades, I knew that his smirk glittered in his eyes. I was kind of thankful that the dark, reflective lens shadowed his gaze because I would have lost it. Ryder must have sensed my tension and turned towards the couple, face hard.
“How much for a kiss?” Chris asked, leaning over the table so he was closer.
“Don’t make me slap you,” I answered, trying to control my temper as he reached out and brushed a piece of hair away from my face.
Although Chris was at the street party with Cotton, his date didn’t seem to mind that he was mocking me with his teasing flirtations, mainly because Cotton seemed to be doing the same thing. She fluttered her eyelashes at Ryder..
“So, what are these… things?” she asked, flipping her long, blonde hair over her shoulder.
“Melting moments,” Ryder answered distractedly, keeping a close eye on Chris and I.
Cotton leaned closer and adjusted her top. “What other kind of melting moments do you sell? I’d love to taste them all.”
Ryder frowned, returning his gaze to her. “There’s only one kind,” he answered, clearly irritated.
“Are you sure there isn’t any other kind of melting moment you’d like to share with me?” Cotton was determined.
“No.”
“Nora,” Chris whispered, making me turn my attention back to him. “We never got to properly finish our date… I think you owe me a kiss.”
“I don’t owe you anything,” I snarled.
Chris reached over and cupped my chin. It wasn’t in one of those heart stopping ways either. He grabbed my face with a strong grip and forced me closer. I glared at him and tried moving out of his grip, but his other hand had found its way over to my side and he was now digging his fingers into my skin. Fright consumed me, but concealed my horror with a cold, hard glare.
Before I could find out what was going to happen next, a cold voice growled, “Step away from her.”
I had never heard Ryder use that voice before and honestly, it was rather startling. It was deep and commanding… but there was also something different about it. I realised what it was before I looked up.
It was Caine’s voice.
It was nice of him to defend me, but I was more interested in the fact that he was actually doing it. I didn’t exactly know Caine personally but I had witnessed characteristics of his reputation. He didn’t exactly play anyone, but it was true that he was addicted to female attention. With his dark hair and equally dark eyes, it was impossible to not draw focus to.
Caine was slightly taller than Chris and although it shouldn’t have been very intimidating, it looked a hell of a lot scary. That inch or so was daunting. Chris’ eyes flickered to mine then returned to Caine’s. He narrowed his eyes for a second, then backed away. I was surprised to see the same tension between the two that I had seen between Ryder and Chris. That only made me more determined to find out about the wickedly mysterious past Ryder kept shadowed.
“I’ll deal with you later. Both of you,” Chris hissed aggressively, eyes scanning between Ryder and Caine. Then, he turned to Cotton and barked, “Let’s go.”
Cotton looked irritated at Ryder for not acting upon her flirting, but she seemed furious at Chris for using such a harsh and demanding tone on her. She shot him a dirty look and stormed off. Chris, realising he was being ditched, turned and started chasing after her, yelling out pet names and pleas in attempt to calm her down.
“You okay?” Caine gently placed his hand against my arm and scanned me over. His big brother protection was both comforting and strange and I wasn’t sure what to think of it.
Ryder didn’t say anything. He just kind of looked at Caine all confused and calculating as if he didn’t understand something. I guess he was as shocked about the whole helping-me-out thing as I was. I mean, although Caine cherished the opposite sex’s attention, he often targeted the elite. Helping his mate’s ex-best friend was seriously uncharacteristic.
“I’m fine,” I said, then my gaze returned to Ryder’s. “Are you okay? Cotton was ready to poke your eye out with a tampon in her ever-so-subtle attempt to flirt.”
Ryder laughed. “Yeah. I’m fine.” His attention turned back to his friend.
Ryder and Caine did their weird little psychic thing again that consisted of a lot of stares and expressions. Eyebrows rose and knitted together as they silently communicated with each other through eyebrow movements. I just stood there, feeling awkward and excluded from their brotherly bond.
After a moment, Ryder cracked a weak smile and nodded. Then, with that, we proceeded with the rest of the day without saying much at all.
Sixteen
“This is probably the best sausage I’ve ever had,” Caine said as he ate the last of his dinner.
As late afternoon rounded, the street party dimmed and people started packing away stalls and loading up cars. Only a few decided to stay and help with the last bit of cleaning. Most of the community were back home, in front of the fireplace and sheltered away from the cold evening.
But Ryder and I decided to stay, along with a couple of other kids from school, including Caine. We surrounded a little fire we had built on the sand, sausages on sticks as we roasted them. There was no doubt, a bit of alcohol going around because some people looked way too happy being there. And frankly, I didn’t find anything about the harsh wind even the slightest bit cheerful. It just made me feel cold.
Caine had eaten about seven sausages and any normal girl would have been disgusted, but I understood he was a growing teenage guy. I also accepted the fact that he ate seven sausages because I almost beat him by consuming six. Although I hadn’t thought anyone was keeping track, when I reached over to grab another one, Caine looked at me wide-eyed.
“What is that? Your third or something?” he asked, as he jabbed his sausage onto the stick.
“Possibly…” I muttered, feeling embarrassed that I had actually eaten double..
Ryder laughed from next to me and gave me a knowing smile, his expression telling me he knew exactly about my inner fat kid. That just made the colour in my cheeks turn a shade deeper so I kept my eyes on the flickering tongues of fire as they danced exotically into the early night sky.
Once I was pretty sure I’d pop, I placed my hands behind me, letting them sink in the cool, damp sand and sighed in satisfaction. It was starting to get darker, just the faintest bit of light over the hills as the sun made its departure.
A red cup was circling the fire and it was no doubt the reason behind the numerous choruses of giggles. When the cup came around, Ryder shook his head and passed it over to Caine, completely missing me.
“Hey,” I said, frowning. Not that I was going to have a drink anyway.
“You’re not eighteen yet, Nora,” he said, glancing at me briefly.
“That doesn’t stop anyone from drinking,” I pointed out.
r /> Ryder just looked at me and there was a mischievous gleam in his eyes. I groaned inwards. I knew that look anywhere. He was ready to sneer out an insult. But when he parted his lips, I was shocked to hear what he had to say.
“I care about you, Nora,” he said, lifting his lips into a half smile. “Trust me, you don’t want to get involved with alcohol. Besides, I really don’t like being chained to sober Nora, let alone drunk and hungover Nora.”
I stared at him with giant eyes. “What did you say?”
He sighed, irritably. “I don’t want to deal with your complaining and throwing up if you drink that crap.”
I shook my head. “The other part.”
“What other part?” Ryder raised an eyebrow, honestly curious.
“You said you care about me,” I muttered, feeling foolish.
Ryder frowned. “Really?”
His tone wasn’t harsh, just surprised. He looked thoughtful for a moment as his eyebrows drew together in thought. He ran a hand through his hair and bit his lip, something I noticed he did a lot when he was concentrating. After a moment of silence, I spoke, not wanting to feel the awkward tension any longer.
“You gonna eat that?” I asked pathetically, poking the sausage that was speared into the end of his stick.
I was honestly stuffed, but I needed to put something in my mouth to avoid any more verbal diarrhoea. And since Ryder wasn’t making any move to eat...
He handed it to me. I quickly took the biggest bite of my life and pretended to find the sandy floor extremely fascinating. The sausage wasn’t even that good. It was all grainy and salty from the sand on my hands. And it was kind of cold and rubbery now since it had obviously been sitting out in the cold too long. It was no longer plump and flavoursome, but I just sat there and acted as though I hadn’t noticed.
“How cute.Weenies in the sand.”
I knew that voice. I didn’t have to turn to know it was Chris. Shooting him the dirtiest look I could muster, I snapped, “They’re good ones”
Sure, it was a pretty lame response. I was defending what he called weenies. But I was sick of Chris and seeing the smirk on his face didn’t make me any better. I narrowed my eyes at him and curled my fingers tighter around the stick in my hand. I jabbed the air in front of him just to emphasise my sudden passion for defending my food.
Chris had brought a friend with him. I vaguely remembered his name. I only knew he hung out with the gang. Although he was a part of Chris’ assembly, he had a minor role within the friendship group. He never really spoke up or anything, so you couldn’t really remember him. So seeing him here to witness – or perhaps back up - the confrontation was surprising.
“Oh, I wasn’t talking about your dinner,” Chris snarled at the barbecued treat in my hand and nodded towards the boys on either side of me. “I was talking about those weenies.”
Caine stood up at that and stood nose to nose with Chris, letting out a feral sound that stirred in the back of his throat. “Back off, man.”
This time, Chris made no move to back down. His face was determined and mad. “You shouldn’t have gotten into this, Wright.”
Caine narrowed his eyes. “This is my fight just as much as it’s yours. You mess with Nora, you mess with me too.”
Well. That was an unexpected response.
“She’s with us while she’s handcuffed to Ryder,” he continued, voice low and steady, scary and intimidating.
That was more like it.
Then, without warning, Caine struck at Chris’ jaw. Chris stumbled back, startled as he cupped his chin. When he had recovered enough to react, he snapped his attention towards Caine who was making it evident that he was impatient with waiting for him to fight back. Chris lurched at him with a feral look in his eyes like an animal about to capture his prey.
All I saw were Caine’s eyes widen as Chris tackled him to the ground and then, before I knew it, they were a tangle of limbs rolling around on the sand as they struggled to block and punch each other’s hits. Chris had gotten the advantage of surprise so he gripped his opponent’s neck in a headlock as he fought to place them into a position where he could truly hurt Caine.
Caine fought against Chris’ iron grip and let out a grunt as he tightened the hold around his neck. I watched as he tried to knock his head back into Chris’ nose, but the clasp around his neck was too secure for him to move. His fingers tried to pry his rivals arm away but when that was no use, Caine put all the force he could into his other arm, elbowing Chris in the gut.
Chris let out a spluttering cough and his grip faltered. With that, Caine threw a punch right at Chris’ nose. I swear I could hear the bone crunch beneath his knuckles when his fist came in contact with his face. I cringed, watching as Chris stumbled back, gripping his nose as he tried to reduce the amount of blood gushing out.
“Stay away from her,” Caine growled.
But apparently a broken nose wasn’t going to make Chris back off. He lunged at Caine and again, they started fighting. I felt sick seeing them. I mean, was it even necessary? Chris was a jerk with the way he treated me on our date, but was that really worth the conflict? Especially from someone who hardly knew me.
“You’d think you would have learned your lesson about throwing yourself into places where you’re not needed, huh?” Chris’ friend was heading towards us, casually strolling by like he wasn’t walking past a huge testosterone-filled fight.
Ryder’s jaw clenched as he glared at Chris’ friend. “You know nothing, Will.”
Will let out a howl of laughter and gave Ryder a menacing glare. “Were you really that high that night that you can’t remember that I was there the whole time?”
“Just because you saw doesn’t mean you understand,” Ryder replied, his voice level but serious discomfort masked his face.
“You had it bad, man. You were so deep into it.”
God, Ryder had been experimenting with drugs?
Ryder’s gaze flicked to mine for a second and I swear I could see pain in his eyes. But he turned back to Will before I could be sure I had even seen the slightest bit of hurt. He was close now, faint traces of food and alcohol lingering on his stained breath. Will looked from Ryder to me and a slow smirk grew on his lips.
“She doesn’t know, does she?” Amusement laced his tone.
“She doesn’t need to.” Ryder’s voice was low and scary, making me want to step back into the shadows and hide.
“You were addicted. Does she know it’s the reason your friendship-”
He never got to finish the sentence, because Ryder swung back and hit Will right on the eye. I flinched, knowing that he would wake up with a colourful eye in the morning. Will stumbled back and Ryder hit him again. And again. He did it so effortlessly and carelessly, like he was just tenderising a piece of meat. I felt every force of his hits as he tugged me along.
“Stay the hell away from her!” Ryder shouted, something extremely dark and frightening about his tone.
“Ryder.” My voice was quiet and breathless, the fear evident from the way I whispered his voice in panic. I placed a hand on his arm to try and calm him down but the way he jerked once I came in contact with him made me draw back.
He spun and looked at me, a wildfire burning in his eyes. It was terrifying to see blatant horror in such innocent coloured irises. Ryder studied me for a moment, confused about what was going on. I tried to picture what I looked like to him: small, puzzled, and frightened. His eyebrows furrowed in concentration and although it took more than a second, he finally started to relax until he was at this stage of complete vulnerability. Ryder looked so young, his eyes finally didn’t look like a raging river, but more of a calm ocean, glazed with a wavering layer of fear.
I don’t know what came over me after that. I guess, seeing someone so strong completely lose it to a point of helplessness made something in my heart ache. But before I knew it, my free arm was wrapped around him in the tightest embrace I could muster. Ryder was stunned at first, bu
t after a moment, his free arm wrapped around my waist and he gripped me to him just as tightly as I was.
From next to us, Will rolled around in the sand, moaning in pain. But when he caught my eye, he winked and burst out in the most dramatic struggle I had ever seen. I didn’t understand why he was making such a sudden big deal from all this, but when I finally listened hard enough, I knew exactly why.
Police sirens.
Ryder heard them at the same time I did. His grip tightened, forcing me to press closer. His body was tense against mine and his breathing had suddenly gotten rigid. Quickly scanning the beach, he looked for Caine. When he spotted his friend, clothes dirty, he shouted.
“Caine!”
Caine whipped around and looked over towards the road where the police were racing closer towards the sand. He swore, kicked Chris behind the knees so he went stumbling into the sand and quickly raced after us. Ryder grabbed my hand and curled his fingers around mine as we made a run for it. The adrenaline was overwhelming, my heart was pounding, head spinning, breathing raspy as we ran to escape. But we never got far.
“Mind explaining what’s going on here?”
Busted.
~♥♥♥~
Surprising how it was my first time to ride in a police car, but not my first time being handcuffed. All three of us were chained together in the back of a police vehicle. The police officer was no one I was familiar with. She was mean looking and tough, like she could effortlessly beat up any full grown man twice her height and weight.
However, the police rookie accompanying her I recognised as the guy who was there at school the day Ryder and I got handcuffed. I think his name was Drew. I scowled at him. It must have been a pretty menacing glare because he gave me a sheepish half-smile and turned around in his seat, directing his gaze away from me.
The ride was tense. Neither of us spoke. Ryder looked out the window, hands clenched, body tense. Caine sat on the other side of me, staring straight ahead. Although it was dark inside the car I could see his battered face. His lip was swollen and bloody, grains of sand sprinkled through his brown hair.